Build 2 Classrooms for 400 Children in Zimbabwe

The main idea behind the construction of Mapukane Secondary School is to ensure that children, especially the girl child has access to a conducive learning environment which will help in the prevention of risks and is reputed for facilitating better performance in school. However, the dwindling state of the country’s economy has made this technically impossible for the communities to construct the school themselves without outside assistance.

In our last report we indicated that the Community Foundation for the Western Region of Zimbabwe’s main drive in attaining funding is in encouraging this community in adopting the community philanthropy concept. Through this concept, the community will engage on social enterprise projects so as to enable the growth of the existing amount. One of the social enterprise projects that this community had proposed is the microcredit facility which will see the growth of the existing amount by 10% per month. If the communities are granted the go ahead they will be able to raise at least US$300. 00 per month. By the end of a twelve month period they would have raised a total amount of US$3 600.00 through the micro-credit facility.

However, implementation of this has not begun. This is due to that the country’s currency is at this point very unstable. The exchange rate of the RTGS changes with every waking day. The Zimbabwean government also announced that there will be a new Zimbabwean currency before the end of the year. Starting an incoming generating project on the basis of an unstable currency is risky because if one day the local currency ceases to exist then it would be a huge loss to the communities and the project itself.

Drought is also another factor that has contributed to the delays in construction of Mapukane Secondary. Communities rely on selling agricultural produce in order to make a living. Very little rains fell during the planting seasons meaning therefore that people also harvested little. It is a known fact that it is only when the basic human needs have been met that individuals are able to come together as groups or communities and work towards improving the conditions that surround them. At this juncture, this is not possible for the people of this community to contribute much towards the construction of the school because they are already struggling to provide for themselves. 

Conclusively, materials collected so far are not enough to commence building of the school. The communities are at this point not in a position to raise the funds themselves but will need external assistance. We therefore continue to appeal to you on behalf of the communities to share this initiative with your networks and help them fulfill their dream of availing better and closer learning facilities.CFWRZ will also continue to engage other donors to match the funds already received. We believe that education is important and giving up now would mean we are giving up on not only the communities but also on the future generation.

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