British Prime Minister Mrs Theresa May has honoured Zimbabwean entrepreneurs and philanthropists Strive Masiyiwa and his wife Tsitsi for their philanthropic works. Tsitsi and Strive Masiyiwa were conferred with the Points of Light award, which recognises outstanding individual volunteers, people who are making a change in their community and inspiring others. Tsitsi and Strive are the 925th and 926th winner of the Points of Light award, which has been developed in partnership with the hugely successful Points of Light programme in the USA. Over 6,000 Points of Light have been awarded in the USA, and former Presidents have publicly supported the partnership with Points of Light UK.
In a personal letter to Tsitsi and Strive, Prime Minister Theresa May said:
By founding the ‘Higherlife Foundation’ you have demonstrated your shared commitment to improving the learning opportunities of children across Africa. You should be enormously proud of your tireless work supporting hundreds of thousands of children to improve their life chances by accessing quality education and training.
In response, Tsitsi and Strive said:
(We) are greatly honoured to receive the daily Points of Light award from the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mrs Theresa May. It is with great humility that we receive this award on behalf of our children, our group of companies and Higherlife Foundation. We are just the face of the incredible work done by the Higherlife Foundation team and all our partners, whom we consider the true heroes in spearheading this work.
Helping the orphans and the socially and economically distressed in our communities is anchored in our faith which reminds us that it is a blessing to give and that to whom much is given much is required. Through Higherlife Foundation we have managed to, directly and indirectly, impact over 250 000 children in Africa we plan to do much more. We envision an Africa in which young people find their vocation and are positioned to develop their communities for global impact and we believe this can be achieved in our lifetime.