Smash hit True story that inspired acclaimed boxing film

Tobias Mupfuti was eight years old when he found himself homeless and living on the streets of Victoria Falls after his father had rejected him and his mother was too poor to be able to feed or clothe him or send him to school.

- Farai Shawn Matiashe

He survived on food handouts from tourists shopping in the resort town.

Four years later, sick of being bullied and threatened, he asked a boxing coach to teach him the sport for self-defence. Decades later, Mupfuti is running the Victoria Falls boxing academy, training underprivileged children and sending them to school in a story that has inspired the first Zimbabwean film to be considered for an Oscar.

The short film, Rise, starring the Zimbabwe-born Hollywood actor Tongayi Chirisa, is inspired by the story of how Mupfuti's life changed after meeting a coach who came to town to introduce boxing.

After learning the sport, he started to train alone in the bush along the road to Victoria Falls airport in his early 20s. Several children started following him and he was offered the chance to use a classroom at Mosi-oa-Tunya high school as a boxing training facility.

He later bought his own land and built a gym to give children a chance. Nearly 5 million children live in poverty in Zimbabwe, with 1.6 million in extreme poverty, according to Unicef.