THE Pride of Gwent Awards recognise work done within our communities on a daily basis, but it also recognises the work of people living in the region who do good work further afield.

One such person is Gwyn Ashill from Newbridge who was nominated for the Lifetime Achievement Award by his daughter Tania Ashell. The retired builder of Newbridge has spent the past 26 years travelling to Zimbabwe to work with disabled children, orphans and abandoned babies.

He says he began his relationship with the country after talking to a baptist minister during a event in Abertillery where he was playing with his Christian rock group band.

He said: “He told me that he went out to Zimbabwe and the work he did and he said ‘come with me’. He took my name and address and sent me letters and Christmas cards.

“He kept saying that I should come with him. One year later I met him over there and then went with him for a few years. He later moved on and I carried on visiting myself.”

Bulawayo is the second-largest city in Zimbabwe and Mr Ashill works with the King George VI Centre for children with disabilities in Zimbabwe and The Sandra Jones Centre home for children.

“We help with everything from paying for school fees, buying food and in the past few years we have been working with young girls in crisis.”

While people have welcomed Mr Ashill things haven’t all been easy, especially given the country’s political turmoil. “We get stopped at police road blocks every day and we have seen a few scary incidents including an attempted mugging and kidnapping, but we thankfully got away. We still kept going through difficult years.

“There’s not as much violence now but things for the ordinary people are quite desperate.”

As well as his visits to Bulawayo, Mr Ashill now goes into local schools in Gwent to talk about his work. Some of these schools raise money for the projects in Zimbabwe and raise enough money to pay the school fees for a year for some of the children in Zimbabwe. He then shows them pictures and videos of the children they are directly benefitting.

“I talk to children about what the children in Zimbabwe live with and tell them how important their education is and show them children who don’t have privileges they have.”

There are only a few days left for you to send your nominations for the Pride of Gwent Awards, which contain the following categories:

  • 999 hero Award
  • Charity Champion Award
  • Life Saver Award
  • Special Recognition Award
  • Community Hero Award
  • Courage Award Award
  • Achiever Award
  • Good Samaritan Award
  • Volunteer Award
  • Carer Award
  • Local Hero Award
  • Environment Award
  • Lifetime Achievement Award

To nominate someone for an award fill in the form here. 

The closing date for nominations is January 27. with a judging panel picking winners in February followed by a ceremony in March at the Coldra Court Hotel by Celtic Manor.

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