Empower 16 Zimbabwean Children Through Education

2024 has started well with us welcoming 15 new students who were each awarded a Makomborero A-Level Scholarship. 9 of these students were awarded Residential Scholarships and 6 of them Non-residential Scholarships.

This year, we also welcomed Watershed College as one of our partner schools. They have given full scholarships to two of our Non-Residential students. We are thrilled to be able to work with Watershed and see 2 more students access top class education!  Thank you!  All our A-Level students have done an amazing job at adapting to their new environments. It’s been a term of many achievements both in and out of the classroom. 

A-Level students – Residential and Non-Residential

Residential Lower Sixth students started the year with a few weeks of orientation both at the boarding house and at their schools. Lots of them got involved in sport and staff were up and down ensuring they had the equipment they required. As ever, we are grateful that we were able to send them for medical checks sponsored by a local Zimbabwean doctor.

Both Residential and Non-Residential students would have had eye tests by the beginning of the second term and these too are sponsored by a local Zimbabwean optician.

All students were provided with stationery, backpacks, lunchboxes and water bottles. Non-Residential students were given study lamps which will prove essential as some areas can go for 24hrs without power. They were also given tablets pre-loaded with a study app that was created by a past Makomborero student which will give them access to past exam papers and study materials that include videos.

Group Therapy sessions were held bi-weekly for all A-level students throughout the term. These are life-changing for our students and we are so grateful to donors and sponsors who enable us to continue to provide these. Mrs A continues to hold Life Skills sessions for residential students while Mrs Chikowore co-ordinates Life Skills sessions for Non – Residential students. All students have had a Dental Hygiene talk this term and were given toothbrushes and toothpaste.

Examination Results for 2023

Congratulations to all our students for the incredible results they produced!

Our 10 A-Level Cambridge students had a collective result of:

9A* 8A 16B 2C 1D

Our 9 AS Level Cambridge students had a collective result of:

25A 6B 2C 2D

Our 18 A-Level ZIMSEC students had a collective result of:

51A 7B 2C

 Our 15 Lower Sixth O-Level ZIMSEC students had a collective result of: 147A 24B 2C

Special Mention goes to:

Vitalis, outgoing Upper Sixth student who was at Gateway High School, achieved 3A* 1B at A-Level (Cambridge)

Luckmore, Ruvimbo, Ruvarashe, Jordan and Brandon; outgoing Upper Sixth students achieved 4A at A-Level (ZIMSEC)

Tirivashe, incoming Lower Sixth student from St Faiths High School, achieved 15A 1B at ZIMSEC O-Level

Proud, incoming Lower Sixth student from Marist Boys Nyanga High School, achieved 13A and 2B at ZIMSEC O-Level

Natasha, incoming Lower Sixth student from Goromonzi High School, achieved 13A at ZIMSEC O-Level

Tablet Distribution

Thank you to generous donors for the 6 tablets that we have been able to purchase for our Non-Residential students.  They have been loaded with the Makomborero App – which contains videos, past papers and lots of other learning material pertaining to most of their A-level subjects.  The device does not need internet to utilise this app and we are so grateful for the incredible support this tablet and app are to our students as they continue to study in Government schools that are struggling to provide adequately for their educational needs.  We are so proud that this a homegrown app written by a past Makomborero student. 

Class of 2023 

The class of 2023 made us so proud! It has not been easy for them to study and achieve the results that they did. They faced daily power cuts, water shortages and in some schools, front led teaching was not always available. They are all currently applying for university places both locally and outside of Zimbabwe. We acknowledge the mental stress this waiting time can put on students and we are grateful for the connections we continue to have with them.

For now, some of our students have managed to get gap year internships and other voluntary posts. We are pleased to have 7 of the 2023 students currently volunteering at our Girl Child Mentorship Programme.

University Students

Our local university students had a well-deserved break over Christmas. We currently have 18 students staying at the University Residence. We are expecting more during the August university intake. These students continue to be extremely busy writing exams as regularly as every 2 weeks. 

We are grateful to sponsors and donors who have made it possible to pay their fees and give out stipends this semester.

Other Projects

Mutsidzira – Our two Mutsidzira grant winners from 2023 continue to do well. Noel’s honey selling business has managed to buy stationery for 14 primary school children and Morrison’s biogas project is now up and running despite a rocky start.  His Biogas will feed gas to our University Student Residence.  Saving Makomborero lots of money!

Ndeipi! - Ndeipi! has started off with an encouraging 27 participants. Each participant was given $USD1 to start a business. We can’t wait to catch up with them in the second term to see what innovative ideas they would have come up with.

Girl Child – We have 31 girls as part of the programme this year from 3 schools. They are wonderful, joyful young ladies who are eager to learn and though our journey has been short so far, we have already seen massive amounts of growth!

Mobile Science Lab – The chance to have hands on experience in a well-kitted lab would have been far out of reach for some of these students. As a team we felt we had to go the extra mile and make a donation of school trousers to some of the students as the need was hard to ignore. It was an amazing term for Mobile lab with a fantastic end of term games and lunch.

Round Up

There is a wonderful atmosphere of newness at Makomborero during the first term! Not only have we welcomed new students, we have also welcomed two new Gap Year students, Delight and Leslie who have become a wonderful part of our team. Both were 2023 Non-Residential students.

Amongst all the busyness and ups of the new year, we are sadly facing a drought this year which will affect water supplies at both our properties and will have a further effect on our already suffering economy. We are gearing up for this and hoping to input structures to preserve water on a bigger scale.

 We would like to end by thanking you all – sponsors, donors, Gateway High, Hellenic Academy, St Georges College and Watershed College for partnering with us. Thank you to government school heads and teachers for your tenacity! Thank you our sponsors and donors for all you give!

Thank you all for making it possible for us to begin this year with hope!