BUILDING THE FUTURES OF 100 ZIMBABWEAN GIRLS

THank you for all you have done to make Zimkids a loving, nurturing home for our orphans! For the latest ongoing news check out Zimkids facebook page, search ZImkids Orphan Trust.

Two weeks ago, Lindiwe Mabhena and Charity Museba, who run Zimkids’ new sewing center, learned their first serious business lesson, the hard way: Despite their training in costing, the girls were so anxious to please their first customer that they undercharged for a set of six quilted pillows. The result: $8 profit for five days of labor. NEVER AGAIN, they declared, as they began finding their feet in the new world of financial realities.

The sewing center is teaching our girls dozens of new lessons – and not just about money. As they joined the boys in building the new facility, they mastered the basics of mixing mortar and laying brick. Now they’ve gone on to learn about pattern making and cutting cloth, about maintaining sewing machines, marketing, costing, and planning, skills that will help them build independent futures.

This new initiative was born out of our realization that since no child is permitted to attend school without a uniform, there’s a near-limitless market for such items, which are absurdly expensive in town. Opening a uniform business, then, allowed us to meet two goals: moving us along our path to self-sustainability and providing young people with skills they can eventually use to open their own enterprises.

The demand for uniforms begins in earnest in December, just before the new school year begins in January. So Lindiwe and Charity have been busy training younger girls and boys in sewing and cutting to stockpile for the new year – even as they solicit and accept orders for pillows, aprons, bed covers, and non-school clothes.

They began with three sewing machines and an overlock– and another nine have just arrived in a shipment from the States, so they’re ready to ramp up production. We have to thank our Texas Grandmother, Dee Duhe from Texas who collects and sends us all of our sewing machines. Also thanks to the Shea Family Foundation and the Independent Pilots Association for grants that funded the building of the center.

Meanwhile, Hlonaphile Ndlovu, Thamani Nyathi and Engeline Hlazo are working on the other side of our complex, the dirty side. Trained in welding last year, they’ve just received their first order – for a set of artsy shoe racks – and are busy designing something “out of the ordinary,” what we hope will become Zimkids’ hallmark.

Several other girls are training at our pre-school, which will soon open its doors to paying parents while continuing to charge nothing to orphans. When we began our pre-school program, we never expected to turn it into a training and income-generating project; we were just trying to provide an educational and social opportunity for children ages 3-6. But the Grade 1 teachers in the area were so enthusiastic about our little ones – who could read and write a bit, speak some English and work on computers – that local parents lined up at our gate. We had another terrific opportunity to meet our dual goals, so we jumped at the chance and sent Samantha Jumira and Pauline Mhendo to special classes that would certify them to run a licensed pre-school.

Inside our gates, then, things are flowing beautifully, with our older girls leading and training the younger ones. Outside…that’s another matter. We lost Cynthia Britz on July 5^th to her lifelong battle with illness. She had just finished TB treatment. Weak and exhausted she simply gave up. One of our HIV-positive girls are not doing well, fighting meningitis at the moment. And too many of the extended families with whom they live – not to mention the men in the neighborhood - continue to treat them abusively.

Thanks to your generosity, they all have access to our wonderful private doctor, who has managed to keep the majority of Zimkids relatively healthy. Our staff continues to work with families to catch problems that we can help with. And we’ve recently received an offer from a local ta kwon do expert to work with our girls so that they will become able to defend themselves.

Most importantly, we’re providing them with the ability to build independent futures, which has become all the more critical since the economy, after stabilizing a bit after dollarization, has begun sliding back in the wrong direction.

So far this year, Zimbabwe’s Registrar of Companies has struck more than 176 companies off the register and they expect to deregister another 634 companies over the coming months. More than 70 percent of the country’s exporting companies have shut down. Every day, we hear about another business that has filed for bankruptcy, another shop that simply can’t make it. But our girls – with practical skills, business training, experience, and confidence – are defying the odds. 

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