We are incredibly excited and proud to announce that in honor of our board member Adrian Suskin, two generous donors have given us enough money to build Zimkids its own home. Adrian has been in a pitched battle with cancer the last few years. In spite of monthly chemo he tirelessly assists us at Zimkids. Attached you'll find drawings of what the Adrian Suskin Center for Zimkids will look like when we finish building, hopefully by the end of the year. As you know, we've been operating out of a classroom and on the playing fields of a local primary school. Now, we will have our own multipurpose classroom, a future internet café stocked with laptops donated by the Town School for Boys in San Francisco, a clinic, storage facilities, and a performance gazebo. We are using the surrounding land not only for playing fields but for a market garden and chicken coops to move us toward self-sustainability. We are installing a well for irrigation. The center was designed by a local young architect pro bono and features Ndebele/Shona designs and thatched roofs - a updated version of a typical rural kraal.
The children are, of course, wildly excited about the plans, and the Elders are keen to begin building because we have arranged with the builders and other tradesmen for them to work alongside the professionals to gain skills in laying brick, installing plumbing and electricity, and preparing a modern drip irrigated market garden - skills that are actually marketable in Bulawayo.
In the next week or so you'll notice that we have added a new project page on globalgiving to help in buying desks and chairs for the classroom, bookshelves, clinic supplies and the like.
Join us, please, in giving an enormous thanks to Adrian and his wonderful friends!
NOTE: Global is holding a matching funds campaign on Wednesday, March 16. For every dollar donated Zimkids gets $1.30! Also there is a prize of $1000 for the project with the most donors.
All the best! and Thank you again for your support.
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