By Brett Harris
August 01, 2009 DRIVING on a dirt road in the Zimbabwean countryside, hard-as-nails Wallabies openside flanker David Pocock's heart broke as he watched starving children foraging for food.

Pocock had returned to his homeland after last year's tour of Europe to provide humanitarian aid to the village of Nkayi in south-western Zimbabwe.

"It's pretty sad," Pocock said. "It's just despair I guess. People are just trying to hang on. You see a lot of people looking for food.

"It was school holidays and we drove to Victoria Falls. The whole way along the road were little kids looking for berries or stuff that had fallen off trucks.

"It's pretty desperate there at the moment. That was the thing that hit me the hardest. The number of kids that had nothing to do but look for food. They were that hungry.

"It wasn't the easiest trip, but it was really good."

Pocock is a Wallabies humanitarian in the mould of Weary Dunlop and Mark Loane. He started a charity, Twenty-Eighty Vision, with a mate, Luke O'Keefe, and the organisation is providing funds to Nkayi through a local church.

It's only a small operation in one little village, but it is an admirable effort to address the poverty in the strife-torn country.

"Twenty per cent of the world's population own 80 per cent of the resources," Pocock said.

"The need over there is just massive. Everyone is waiting for a new government to legitimise things so aid can get sent over, but our view is that in the meantime stuff has to be happening.

"Until the international community sees significant change, they are not going to allow aid and stuff to go over there.

"We are not getting involved in politics. We just want to help people.
"Really just trying to get the community back to a level where they can sustain themselves and we don't have to help them."

Pocock plans to return to Zimbabwe after the Wallabies' grand slam tour of Britain and Ireland at the end of the year.

"You have to make sure the checks and balances are in place because there are a lot of stories of money going missing," he said.

"And meet the people on the ground. It's all good sending money over there, but you want to meet the people you are helping because a lot of the time you go to developing countries, wanting to help, but at the end of the day you walk away and they have actually helped you in life.

"It gives me perspective on things. At the end of the day there are a lot of things that are more important than rugby and money and all the rest."
If Pocock's aid work in Nkayi is successful, he will try to expand the operation to other villages.

"At the moment our focus is this community," he said. "Just to see the impact we can have on one community. We'll see where it goes from there."

But Pocock was not in a charitable mood when he departed Sydney on Friday morning for Cape Town, where the Wallabies will look to take a Test off the Springboks next Saturday.

A member of the Wallabies' 22-man squad, this will be Pocock's first Test against South Africa, which is the country he would have played for if his family had not migrated to Australia.

Growing up in Zimbabwe, Pocock supported the Springboks and his heroes were A.J. Venter and Bob Skinstad.

"I'm really excited. There are a lot of Zimbabweans who have played for the Springboks. At the moment there are a few playing for them," he said.
"If I stayed, my goal would have been to play for the Springboks, but I moved over here and now I'm looking forward to playing against them."

The Wallabies' back-up openside flanker, Pocock is expecting a fierce contest at the breakdown, which is an area where he believes the South Africans have improved following the inclusion of the ball-scavenging Cheetahs loose forward, Heinrich Brussow.

"He is definitely a key for them," he said.

"With him in the team they have definitely improved at the breakdown. They have a massive forward pack so once they get on the front foot they are really hard to stop."


http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...016959,00.html