Help Feed Hungry Children in Zimbabwe

Dear Supporters,

Our beautiful gate is finally up thanks to The GVI Trust and all of our donors! The old one hung together relatively well for a very long time, until an army truck backed into it some years ago and nearly took it off its hinges. Since then, goats have wandered in and out at will and eaten everyone’s vegetables - so you can imagine how happy the school is to finally be able to lock them out for good. Not only that, once the side pillars are built, the entrance will give the school the start of a much-needed facelift.

In the images attached, an orignally built storeroom, now a classroom for 40 children and their lovely teacher, Alice, have to squeeze in there for their classes. In fact, there are only three proper classrooms for over 300 pupils, the rest have been converted from storerooms, the infirmary and other unsuitable spaces.

But things are happening. Now we have the gate, and the public works department is about to start on the outside kitchen for the day scholar cooks. It’s taken a while for them to get going, because they have been fully occupied in building the nearby Marula secondary school. What is impressive about that is that to date, the community has managed to provide much of the wherewithal for the construction. A great deal of this has been in kind – youngsters working only for a food allowance, farm bricks rather than expensive bricks from town, plus some locally sourced donations.

The plan was for the secondary school to open at the beginning of this year, but this has not been possible.  They have completed one block and partially finished another. Mr. Edgars, one of the builders, is at work on the teacher’s cottage. Roofing material is needed, plus a water storage tank. The toilet behind is of the “Blair” variety – invented in this country – and for those who might be interested: “The vent pipe sucks out air from the pit and fresh air is drawn down through the squat hole. ... Any flies escaping from the toilet are attracted to light coming down the pipe, but these will be trapped in the pipe. All Blair toilets are fitted with a roof and a semi dark inside.”   So, nothing flash, but they work!

Mr. Sibanda is our head cook and thanks to frequent unscheduled load shedding, he often has to cook for 70 or so boarders and teachers over an open fire. There’s always a plan in Zimbabwe – there has to be!

And unfortunately, some very sad news, our Headmistress Dube has just lost her husband of 37 years – a fine man who often helped out at the school, and was always on hand to assist the community.   

We are hoping that Tyrone, GVI Trust representative, will be able to come and visit us in July, so he can see what is happening at both schools. He’s given us constant support and encouragements and we really look forward to meeting him at last and showing him around.

Thank you once again, to all our donors who have shown their commitment and care by continuing to support our school.

As always, you are all hugely appreciated!

With love,

Zimbabwe 

Dear Supporters,

We were very worried when we came back home, after a month overseas visiting our family. We’d been following the news about the riots – the burning, looting, and once again, the shooting of unarmed civilians by the army. To everyone’s concern, Government had shut down all social media and cut off the internet.  

No money, no jobs, no hope - Zimbabweans are the most peaceful of people, loathe to resort to violence and insurrection. But they had had enough.

In the past four months prices have gone up by 200% but wages and income have not. The people had tried peaceful protests and been shot for daring to raise their voices. They had endured the 2% tax on electronic transactions to fund government expenses; they had become used to queuing for hours at the bank to try and get cash (now barely available and then mostly in $2 bond notes), and they had tolerated the near-disappearances of basic supplies like cooking oil and bread, and resigned to sitting in the three or more kilometre long lines waiting for the arrival of fuel at the petrol stations.  

But then Government increased the price of fuel – overnight – by 150%, making it the most expensive in the world, and the lid came off. But not for long.   People were shot, beaten, imprisoned and abducted, and the brutal crackdown hasn’t stopped.

Austerity for Prosperity! Goes the government’s dazzlingly hypocritical mantra.

The day after the fuel price increase, the President hired a luxurious Boeing 787 Dreamliner from a Vietnamese company to fly to Eastern Europe.

He’s been in power for 16 months, and in that time, his travel expenses have cost the taxpayer around US seven million dollars.

So, when we arrived at the airport, we expected worried faces and a very gloomy atmosphere. And what did we find? Smiles, laughter and that irrepressible good humour that is the trademark of this wonderful country.    

The teachers were on strike for a month for higher salaries (to no avail), so the children at Marula School missed out on four weeks of their first term – and their daily lunches. And despite all the plans that were in place – the lack of fuel has prevented the builders from starting on the outside kitchen, and the teachers’ cottage at the secondary school. But… the children are back, having their nutritious lunch every day, and as you can see, still smiling as they always do.

The whole world is hurting, and most of us feel helpless to do anything about it. Right now, there is no positive news from Zimbabwe, but I believe that all we can do is to concentrate on one area, however small, that makes the difference. What you give those children every day is truly invaluable, both to them and their parents, and they appreciate it enormously.

Thank you so very much.