Give 200 orphans in Zimbabwe access to education

Hi there,

The Zimbabwe Educational Trust and its partner the Trinity Project Trust have been making steady progress in the last three months thanks to your donations, this is a quick update on the progress we have been making in our projects.

Trinity Project Trust has been involved in educational programmes, door to door legal advice clinics, door to door community follow ups and sensitization meetings. In the last three months Trinity has attended more than 120 people in legal advice clinics and awareness programmes, consulted more than 120 people in door-to-door legal advice clinics and consultations, and more than 100 people in door-to-door follow ups.

• In February field officer Nosizo Dube conducted educational and awareness programmes at Njube High School to students without birth certificates.
• Door to door legal advice clinics were also conducted, where Nosizo attended 45 people. Amongst these, 10 needed help to register their parents and relatives’ death certificates, 30 did not have birth certificates, three encountered problems of property grabbing and two needed advices on birth and death registration. These cases are still in progress, so we will give an update as soon as we hear any news.
• Nosizo and his colleague conducted an awareness raising campaign on birth registration at Ingwegwe primary school in Pumula. This was facilitated by the school deputy headmaster Mr Ndlovu, and 67 residents attended. After the meeting individual consultations were made, where 14 children were identified as not possessing birth certificates.

Trinity has encountered some challenges in its work. Culture still plays an important influence on birth registration, some in-laws are refusing to participate in processing birth certificates simply because of unpaid lobola (custom in which the bridegroom’s family makes a payment of cash or cattle to the bride’s family before marriage). Through the use of sensitization programmes we hope to inform people about the problems surrounding lack of birth certificates to push our work forward.

To improve our work in the field we have identified new ways to improve our efficiency and success rate

• There is need for a landline telephone so as to make follow ups on clients as frequenting their houses can be time consuming. Additionally clients are sometimes absent from their homes when field officers visit them.
• The field officer has conducted meetings to discuss income generating projects that will go a long way in accumulating funds for the organisation. Such projects, of which poultry and a garden to farm vegetables have been suggested, will help generate funds to cover certain expenses in the organisation, and so become less dependent on donors.
• Trinity Project Trust will need to continue with its sensitization programmes, as still encounters difficulties where people lack knowledge around inheritance issues.

We’d like to thank for your continuing to support our cause! 

Links:

• Our new website

Hello!

This is another short report to keep you updated about how your donations have been helping children in Zimbabwe gain access to identity and education.

Between November 2012 and January 2013, the work of Trinity Project Trust has resulted in:

• 180 clients being consulted on issues of birth and death registration and inheritance issues
• 18 birth certificates being obtained
• 4 death certificates being obtained
• 8 sensitization meetings being held
• 4 Legal Advice Clinics sessions held (in New Lobengula)
• 3 mitigation task force meetings being attended
• 2 awareness campaigns being run

In addition, there are currently 24 birth certificates from this period still being processed in the registration offices. However, despite these successes, Trinity have run up against a number of obstacles:

• Clients are being frustrated by the Registrar, with repeated requests for written affidavits (which have sometimes had to be produced five times)
• Grandmothers are not being allowed to register their grandchildren, especially if the parents of the children are living abroad
• The views of different cultures in the societies worked in can pose challenges to the success of the project

As an organization, Trinity are therefore seeking to develop new and more effective ways of engaging with the community, raising awareness of the issues surrounding birth and death registration, and challenging the ways in which these cases are dealt with. However, their success depends on our ongoing financial backing.

Therefore, from all at Trinity and ZET, we thank you again for your continued support.