Jairos Jiri

Jairos Jiri MBE (26 June 1921 – 12 November 1982) was born in the district of Bikita, then Southern Rhodesia now Zimbabwe. He was also known respectfully as Baba, which means Father in his Shona culture.

History Baba Jiri was born in 1926. In the early days of his childhood, he had a dream of helping disabled people. These dreams were motivated by his family background. His father, Chief Mutenyami Jiri was an Appointer of Rozvi Chiefs. but later changed to Jairos Jiri Association for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled and the Blind. Initial attempts to register were dismissed by the colonial administrators who thought his ideas were wild. He had to overcome numerous bureaucratic hurdles as a black person registering a first charity organization in colonial Rhodesia. The Jairos Jiri Association was founded in Bulawayo in 1950. The first committee was made up of Stephen Kwenda (Secretary), Fabian Dururu (Treasurer), and members Job Mapfinya and Jacob Mufute. After hard years of setting up a new organisation, in 1950 the first skills training workshop was held with the support of Bulawayo City Council. In 1959, he opened a training center in Nguboyenja. This was followed by a tour of rehabilitation facilities in the United States and Europe supported by donors. He expanded his work to Harare (then Salisbury) after getting land from Salisbury City Council.

The art center outlet for the association quickly achieved prominence and by the 1960s was a prime source of curios for tourists. These items were made by disabled people and included tiles and tiled tables and wall plaques, carvings, pottery, painted artworks, and sculptures. His rehabilitation center in Bulawayo also fostered music and dance resulting in bands like the Jairos Jiri band popularised by Paul Matavire who was blind. By 1974 the centers had expanded and diversified to include homes for the disabled, and legal representation was gained locally and in the United Kingdom. Jairos Jiri centers and his philosophy are still a major resource for community action and charity in Zimbabwe.

Baba Jairos Jiri's Charity Model Mr Jiri's work charity model was replicated by several organizations in Zimbabwe. His model can be described by the acronym HOPESS as follows: Have values of hunhu (hunhu means ubuntu). Observe the environment for opportunities to helping. Provide help using your own physical, financial and other resources. Encourage and treat people you want to help as your friends and family. Seek outside help. Start and sustain a charity organization.

Baba Jairos Jiri's Disability and Rehabilitation Model Baba Jiri's rehabilitation work can be described as follows:

Encourage and treat people you want to help as friends or family, that is, be their parent. Use existing facilities and resources, for example, work together with friends, family, community, and use local resources at hospitals and clinics. Provide resources, e.g. take people to facilities because they may not be able to go on their own. Provide ideas about how rehabilitation could be done, that is, be an active carer. Provide accommodation (institutionalization) to reduce stigma and cost of care. Provide training and income opportunities like enterprises.

This model has been referred to by the acronym TO-PARENT International Symposium on Rehabilitation awarded in Kampala, Uganda in 1975. Audience with Pope Paul VI, where he received a blessing for his great work and was presented with a medal marking a Holy year in 1975. Lions International Service Award in 1977. Humanitarian Award from the then Salisbury Union of Jewish Women in 1977. Freedom of the City of Los Angeles in 1981. Goodwill Industries International Award for Humanitarian and Rehabilitation Work in 1981. Rotary International presented him with their International Year of Disabled Person Award for Africa which carries the citation “Greatest Contribution to Rehabilitation in Africa - IYDP 1981”.

Birth of the Zimbabwe disability movement The Zimbabwean disability movement for equality was born in institutions run by Jairos Jiri in 1975 but he did not support it. Like many people at that time, he saw the call for involvement, participation, and increased opportunities as a threat to his charity model. The movement emanated from people like Joshua Malinga who went on to become a politician against while rule and Mayor of Bulawayo from 1993-1995. The activists formed and registered the National Council of Disabled Persons Zimbabwe which started as Kubatsirana Welfare Society later National Council for the Welfare of Disabled while still in the institutions. In 1980, Malinga attended an international disability congress, Disabled Peoples' International’s Winnipeg World Congress in Canada. This marked internationalization of disability work in Zimbabwe.

Legacy At the time of his death, the Association, which Mr. Jiri founded, had grown from 1 center in 1950 to 16 centers including schools, special schools for the deaf and blind, hostels and homes, vocational training center, agriculture skills training center, clinics, orthopedic workshops and satellite units, Community-based Rehabilitation Programme, craft shops and gender empowerment programs.

Family Jairos Jiri had 18 children in total and was divorced three times. He lived with his last wife Ethel Jiri, their seven daughters: Patricia, Patience, Precious, Primrose, Priscilla, Penelope Pamela who was 11 days old when he died in 1982. One of his sons, Last was involved in the Jairos Jiri Family Trust. Ethel Jiri died from throat cancer and was buried alongside her husband in Bikita – Mutenyami village. Jairos Jiri was supposed to be buried at the recently established National Heroes Acre in Harare but his brother Ziwumbwa opted to have him buried in the village alongside his people, a key ubuntu value. Jairos was buried in the Mutenyami Village in Bikita and the burial was attended by prominent people including the then Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Robert Gabriel Mugabe and by the then Deputy Prime Minister the late Comrade Simon Muzenda

Foundational Contribution and Legacy of Betty Jiri Betty Jiri nee Mtsuka Dlamini Ndlela (born c. 1932, born Beti Mandiera) was the sole co-founding wife of the Jairos Jiri Association, establishing a separate, distinct historical legacy as a pioneer of disability rights and social development in Zimbabwe. Characterized as a spiritual journey rooted in divine obedience rather than financial gain, her work began from a position of minimal resources before the formal establishment of institutional facilities. The humanitarian mission initially began within their domestic space only after Jairos Jiri formally sought her consent and approval to accommodate individuals with disabilities in their home. Throughout their marriage, he continuously sought her executive consent for major decisions and supported her leadership until his death in 1982. Beginning in 1953 from a single room at Mzilikazi Q Square in Bulawayo, she served as the association's first female carer, managing the primary domestic care, cooking, cleaning, and sanitization duties for the initial residents while the project operated entirely without institutional funding. This foundational era of joint partnership culminated in major international milestones for the movement, including Jairos Jiri receiving the Queen Elizabeth MBE award for services to the disabled.

During an era when prevailing legal and institutional frameworks systematically restricted Black women from registering assets, property, or corporate status in their own individual names, the Jairos Jiri Association actively advanced principles of gender equality and democratic governance by formally recognizing her as an executive equal. Long before Jairos Jiri's death in 1982, the association's leadership structure formally valued her foundational labor by designating her as a founding trustee and Vice-President, granting her full executive voting rights on the council to manage the expanding network of centers. To protect, preserve, and represent the specific legacy of the national centres they co-established together—including branches in Victoria Falls, Nguboyenja, Silobela, Southerton (Harare), Mukwapasi (Rusape), Gweru, and Kadoma—the Holy Betty Foundation was established. followed by an honor at the Zimbabwe Achievers Awards in September 2025 celebrating her life advocacy for people with disabilities.