A successful term
We are emerging out of the coldest and longest term of the year and it has been a wonderful time of watching our students grow and settle more into their various schools and activities. Many have been writing exams and we are proud of how they found balance during this demanding time. There were many achievements to be celebrated both academically and outside of the classroom. We are excited to be seeing many of the A-Level Class of 2022 and others who had taken a gap year go off to university in the next couple of months. We are grateful to staff and volunteers who made sure our other projects started and finished well making this term a successful one!
A-Level students – Residential and Non-Residential
All our A-Level students had a great term! They all wrote their mid-year exams and we are proud of them navigating this through power cuts and some harsh winter days. Well done to all of them for being able to strike the balance between study and other activities. We have seen achievements in chess, sport and other extra-curricular activities. Many have started learning how to play the piano at the Boarding House, thanks to a generous donor. Special mention goes to Kimberely for medaling in volleyball, Emmanuel for outstanding achievements in chess and Rufaro who was part of the Zimbabwean team that participated in the Pan-African Mathematics Olympiad in Kigali. Rufaro brought home a huge smile and a bronze medal!
At the boarding house, Life Skills sessions led by Mrs Albertyn continued to be a welcome weekly staple. Mr and Mrs Albertyn and family also managed to share meals with the students a few Sundays this term. Once again, half term provided a welcome break for students and though our dogs, Rocket and Skyla missed them dearly, it was great for them to go home and see their families.
We managed to meet up with non-residential students four times this term as they continued with Group Therapy Sessions. The residential students also continued with Group Therapy sessions throughout the term. We have found these sessions to be invaluable, they are having a marked impact on our students and we are grateful to sponsors to be able to offer them. All A-Level Scholarship students enjoyed the annual camp as the last event of the term. It was a packed weekend where they got involved in a few different activities and spent quality time with each other. They all participated in a robotics session and a games evening with Mr and Mrs A. They also had a morning of blackboard painting at a school on the outskirts of Harare as a way of giving back to the community. Lots of games were played and many wonderful meals shared. Once again, with thanks to a generous donor, we were able to send each and every A-Level student home with a food pack that had all essential ingredients to make a healthy meal as well as a few toiletries. These were greatly appreciated by parents and students alike.
University Students
Our university students continue to do well both in and outside of Zimbabwe. We have been privileged to pass our congratulations to a few graduates at universities outside of Zimbabwe. We are looking forward to a few more local graduates at the end of the year to add to the long list of past Makomborero student graduates.
Local Zimbabwean university students are currently enjoying a much deserved break ahead of the new semester at the beginning of September. They wrote a lot of exams over the last semester and we are encouraged by how they gave it their best. We are expecting the University Residence to finally be at full capacity in September with 25 students taking advantage of this wonderfully convenient facility! We are so grateful to a donor who paid all our local university fees for next semester and enabled us to give stipends to the university students after not being able to do so for a while!
The month of June saw us having our annual university get-together, a wonderful chance for all university students to catch up as well as an opportunity to say goodbye to those who will be going to study abroad. It was a great afternoon!
2022 Leavers
2022 leavers have made us so proud with taking on various activities including gap year internships as they wait to go to university. Some have been accepted on full scholarships at universities abroad while others have been accepted at the University of Zimbabwe. One student will be going to the National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe and two students were awarded the Presidential Scholarship to go and study in Algeria. We are privileged to be able to celebrate them individually across our social media platforms. Well done Class of 2022 - we are excited to see how your journeys unfold!
Other projects
Alumni Initiatives - Thank you to the past Makomborero students who continue to mentor present Makomborero A-Level students. We are also grateful to those who continue to donate items such as food, books and even laundry baskets! Thank you for making time to hold sessions with current students, we know your input is precious to them!
Ndeipi! - Ndeipi! held four sessions this term. As always, participants learnt valuable lessons around entrepreneurship and were this term given their USD$1 to start a project of their choice. Despite the mixed feelings about how small the capital was, we saw some well thought out projects emerge from the group. Most of them involved buying and selling within their communities. Makomborero gave the participants some clothes to re-sell to help boost their businesses.
Mobile Science Lab – What an amazing term for our Mobile Science Lab! We had a 100% attendance from 15 enthusiastic students who are in their first year of O-Level (GCSE). Our team, all made up of past Makomborero students, is doing incredibly well and have found a wonderful balance between teaching and keeping sessions fun and engaging.
Girl Child – We are two thirds into the journey with our 30 mentees for 2023. As we go through the weekly sessions, we continue to witness their tremendous growth, we see their confidence increase and marvel at their bravery as they try to become better people. Once again, the feedback at the end of the term was encouraging and we are grateful to all our mentors who have sacrificed so much over the last 8 months. Sadly, we said goodbye to 4 mentors who will be going abroad to study.
Mutsidzira – We are excited to be in the process of selecting 2023/2024 projects. We received applications that showed amazing innovation and held interviews to hear more from applicants. We will be able to update you in the next report about the chosen projects!
Makomborero team – Our team have been quick to find their rhythm after a few roles within the team changed last term. This term, school events have spilled into the holidays and we are grateful to the team who have worked together to ensure all goes smoothly. It’s always a lovely atmosphere when our team gets together whether that’s at a staff meeting or at camp and we are grateful to have had such opportunities this term.
We said an emotional goodbye to our female Gap Year student, Nyasha who is off to Harvard on a full scholarship. Well done Nyasha for your input while at Makomborero, we will miss your bubbly nature!
We want to say a warm Makomborero welcome to Wisdom who will join us at the beginning of next term to take over from where Nyasha left off.
Thank you
We are incredibly grateful to all who were involved in making this term a successful one. We’ve had a lot to celebrate and we are thankful for the occasions that gathered us together and kept our family connections going strong.
Thank you to Gateway, St Georges and Hellenic for partnering with us through this term. Thank you to all the government schools where our Non-Residential students attend. We appreciate all your efforts and tenacity.
To our donors, sponsors, supporters and all friends of Makomborero, we simply cannot do without your support. Each term that is a success is hugely because of you and this term is no exception. We look forward to continuing this journey with you through the year and beyond.
The first term of every year is always full of excitement as we welcome Lower Sixes to the Makomborero family and this year was no different! We welcomed 15 students - 6 External students and 9 Internal students. We made the difficult decision to take less students than we would normally due to funding. Still, that we are able to take on any students at all fills us with gratitude for all of you who have continued to donate, sponsor and support the work of Makomborero. The students have started well, achieving so much in such a short space of time. Post Covid-19, it continues to be a relief to be able to plan and carry out events and to allow internal students to go home at weekends. We did have slight disruptions to programmes and schooling as we anticipated cyclone Freddy. Thankfully, the cyclone changed direction before it reached Zimbabwe and life quickly got back to normal.
A-Level Students
Our A-Level students started very well this term. Staff hit the ground running with equipping both Internal and External Lower Sixes with all the usual necessities. There were medical checks to be done for the Internal Lower Sixes as well as uniforms to be bought. For all Lower Sixes we were able to provide backpacks, lunchboxes, water bottles and stationery. We were also able to provide solar lamps for the External Lower Six students; these are an invaluable study tool for them. It was a busy term of lessons, sport and other extra-curricular activities. We are so proud of all of our students, particularly all the Lower Sixes who did amazingly at adapting to their new schools. Makomborero founder Mark, Laura and the Albertyn family were able to have a few family dinners with the internal students and these involve games and much laughter as always. Life Skills sessions continue to be a staple at the boarding house and through these we watch students come out of their shells and begin to implement the valuable lessons learnt.
We were once again able to hold Group Therapy sessions for all our A-Level students. This is such an essential part of what we do at Makomborero. Apart from the therapy itself which is achieving phenomenal results, we enjoy having our External students gather at the boarding house every two weeks. It’s a wonderful opportunity for them to catch up and bond with each other.
Examination Results 2022
Congratulations to all our students for the excellent results they produced!
Our 10 A-Level Cambridge students had a collective of: 21A* 15A 4B and 2C
Our 10 AS Level Cambridge students had a collective of: 23A 8B 3C and 1D
Our 16 A- Level ZIMSEC students had a collective of: 38A 7B and 6C
Our 14 Lower Sixth O-Level ZIMSEC results were as follows: 128A 33B 5C
Special mention goes to
Class of 2022
We are extremely proud of our class of 2022. University offers from outside of the country are starting to come in, others are due to start at local universities this August and others have taken a much needed gap year. We will be celebrating them over the next few weeks as their university offers get confirmed.
University students in Zimbabwe
It has been a long and by most accounts tough semester for our local university students but we are proud of them and all the hard work they have put in. They are looking forward to the end of the semester in June for a much deserved break.
We are grateful for a local Zimbabwean company who paid for this semester’s fees for our local university students as we continue to face financial challenges. Sadly we have not been able to give stipends to students and we are really hoping that more donations will come in and we will be able to remedy this soon.
We now have 16 students staying at the University Residence. It really does feel like our students have got into a good rhythm over the past few months and are taking ownership of the house more and more. We are so grateful for this safe haven and those who continue to donate to make sure the house continues to run well.
Other projects
Alumni Mentorship Programme – Past Makomborero students all over the world continue to mentor current Makomborero A-Level students and we are grateful for them giving back in such a wonderful way.
The Girl Child Mentorship Programme – We were able to start all our programmes on time at all three schools. It was a fantastic start to the term! All our 2022 female leavers volunteered to mentor and it has been a real pleasure watching them grow as they do so. We have 30 wonderful mentees who came ready to learn, give and participate right from the start. They have challenged us, made us laugh and taught us so much even so soon into the one year journey. Pictured below is the 2023 team of Girl Child mentors.
Mobile Science Lab – Our Mobile Science Lab also did very well this term. We carried on with the workshop style to continue to cut travel costs. We have enjoyed watching our new teachers blossom and take ownership of their roles. Students gave such wonderful feedback not only regarding how much they have learnt during practical sessions but how much they have enjoyed the family atmosphere provided at the workshops. We are so grateful to teachers Nyasha and Sean and our gap year student Kudakwashe for making this possible!
Ndeipi Small Business Training – It has been a joy to recruit participants from the wider Makomborero family and to see how this is paying off for participants and their families! The two sessions held this term had just under 20 participants per session with 21 in total signed up for the training. We have seen the impact made from the very first session and we are looking forward to seeing more of this as the year progresses.
Welcome aboard
After years of wishing, praying, asking for donations and fundraising, we finally have a mini bus that comfortably seats 30 (main photo)! What an amazing blessing this has been! Our school runs are all the better for this change. We are eternally grateful to our UK donors who made this possible, and to Creative Auto Zimbabwe.
Makomborero team
From 2021 we have been able to have two gap year students added to the team each year and this has had an invaluable impact on how we work! This year, we welcomed Nyasha (female intern) and Kudakwashe (male intern) onto the team. They have had a brilliant start and were quick to find their place both at the office and the boarding house.
Round up
We have had a great start to the year and we are grateful that things feel more and more normal and we are able to plan ahead once again.
At the end of 2022, we reported that we were in financial deficit. In 2023, we continue to put measures in place to cover this deficit. It has been a very busy term for Mark and Laura Albertyn as they had numerous meetings with potential donors and sponsors. We hope that much good news will come out of these efforts. We understand that the whole world is facing rising costs and financial strain and we are ever more grateful to you our sponsors and donors who continue to walk this journey with us. Every single donation changes the lives of our students!
Thank you to the government schools that have continued to believe in us and once again helped us to recruit for the Girl Child Programme and Mobile Science Lab.
Thank you to our partner schools Gateway High, Hellenic Academy and St Georges College. Our dream to give quality education to disadvantaged Zimbawean children would remain just that without you. We are so grateful to be walking this journey with you again in 2023, 10 new students in your capable hands. Thank you to the government schools that beat the odds to educate our External students. You continue to be an inspiration to us, we are humbled by your tenacity.
To you our donors and sponsors, thank you for all you have contributed towards the education of young Zimbabweans. We look forward to all that is to come for the rest of this year as we work towards changing lives
2022 has ended on a high note despite some challenges and the sadness of saying goodbye to our Upper Sixth students. We were able to hold our usual end of year events such as Girl Child Lunch, Testing Process, Graduation and Christmas Party without the re-jigging and the dodging of curve balls that we had become accustomed to for the past two years. It was great to be able to plan our usual events and have them go ahead smoothly. This year has seen our students get involved in annual events that had previously been on hold such as serving in a rural community through black board painting of a senior school and spending time at a local Children’s Home. Financially, it seemed an almost impossible year, especially in this final term where we dealt with massive tuition hikes and rising food and transport costs. We also found that with the disruption of Covid-19 for the past two years, this year we were having to re-teach students the culture and values of Makomborero and re-focus on building relationships. Through all this, we are beyond grateful for a year that felt the most normal of the last three, and we are joyful to be ending the year well!
A-Level Students
Third term is the most demanding for our A-Level students as they all face crucial exams. They did amazingly well under the pressure and we are proud of all of them. Our internal students finished their exams in November and stayed at the boarding house so they could go to their Prom Dances as well as join the various Makomborero end of year events which fell in the first week of December. The students used their time impressively - applying for jobs, organising community projects and even doing some sewing with Mrs Albertyn. Lower Sixes went on leadership camps at their various schools where they learnt some valuable life skills and lessons. Some Upper Sixth students went home for a few days and came back, giving them a welcome change of environment. There were lots of achievements to be celebrated at their various schools during Prize Giving and Speech nights and we are proud of all our students’ achievements.
Our External students also finished their exams in November. We are proud of all their achievements which included winning prizes and being appointed various leadership positions at their schools and school clubs. We had a few occasions where external students went to the boarding house and joined the Internal students. The joint occasions are always a welcome mix of learning, socialising and often eating together. One of the sessions was a CV writing session where they learnt how to apply for jobs with 2023 internships in mind. For community projects, litter picking was the most popular and our students split into groups to cover the areas of Norton, Chitungwiza, Mufakose and Glenview during their clean ups.
We had an intimate and joyful annual Graduation Ceremony to honour both internal and external Upper Sixes and bid them farewell as they leave to spread out to different universities in 2023. It was great to hear directly from them the impact that their A-Level scholarship had had and the evidence was there to see. They made us laugh and cry with their parting words and as per tradition, Mrs Albertyn, Mrs Chikowore and Mrs Tambowoneyi had an opportunity to say goodbye and give them nuggets of wisdom during their speeches. We also had a wonderful annual Christmas Party where internal and external students and staff and their families attended. There was lots of fun, laughter, games and great food!
Testing Process
The testing process for the 2023 A-Level Scholarships is currently under way. We had just over 500 applications this year, calling 206 back to the first round of testing and then 53 to the final round of testing and interviews. In reading the application forms, we not only see the financial and social disadvantages our applicants have, we also see great need for a good education. Every child is deserving of the scholarship and the process of taking only 20 students out of the 500 applicants is truly heartbreaking. This is why each year, it is important to us to make the testing process itself an exercise that instills hope and joy into the applicants and we hope that through testimonials, art therapy and other activities we have achieved that this year.
University students
Our 31 local university students have also had a good semester despite the change in their exam structure and the rise in their university fees. Those living at the Makomborero University Residence are still enjoying the benefits of being a walk away from lectures as well as being able to live in a student friendly environment. We have never been more grateful for the solar system we have at the house as our students currently face power cuts of up to 20 hours a day. Once again, top-ups for university fees were called for this semester and it is sad to see the effect that this has on students. There was a very real possibility that Makomborero would not be able to pay the top-ups that were being required. There was a deadline given, after which if top-ups were not paid, students would not be able to attend lessons. It was a very unsettling time and we tried a few ways to help with the situation including going on a social media campaign to ask for funding. We are so grateful to a local Zimbabwean company who donated funds enough to cover fees for all 31 students.
Other projects
Ndeipi! entrepreneurial business training held the last few sessions for 2022 this term. Congratulations to the Ndeipi! participants who graduated and got presented their certificates at our annual Graduation Ceremony. We are so pleased to hear stories of those who managed to start amazing financially beneficial projects with just one dollar.
Mobile Science Lab did well this term. We had a slight change to our usual format and ran three workshops instead of weekly sessions. An introductory day, a Biology workshop day and a Physics workshop day. This was done to cut down on transport costs and to allow the students attending more free Saturdays so they were able to study for end of year exams. It was a change that worked really well all round and one that we may be keeping for future.
Girl Child Mentorship was a great success this year. The attendance in general was very high although towards the end of the year we had less attendance and we put this down to end of year exams. This term we had our usual end of year lunch which included art therapy and we were able to give gifts of reusable sanitary pants to each student. We are so grateful for the impact that this programme has on both mentees and mentors.
Round Up
We have struggled financially this term. Sadly, donations and sponsorship figures have gone down while external students’ school fees and local university fees have hiked up by up to 700%. It was way beyond what we had budgeted for, even with top-ups in mind. At one point, we found ourselves in arrears for university fees and we have not been able to provide our university students with their termly stipends. It has been a busy term of trying to implement financial cuts without losing what we value and hold important. It has also been a term of trying to find new sources of income. As a result, we will be recruiting less students in 2023 to try and cover the 2022 deficit. All this brings us to say how grateful we are to our regular sponsors and supporters who have stood by us through this term! We are grateful that they always step in at times of crisis and partner with us so loyally as we educate the children of Zimbabwe. Thank you to staff, students and parents at our partner schools, Gateway High, Hellenic Academy and St Georges College. There is just no way we could run our A-Level Scholarship without all they pour into our students, often going beyond expectations. Thank you to staff at the government schools where our external students attend. They inspire us year in and year out as they do all it takes to educate students despite many obstacles. We can never honour them enough!
Despite all the challenges and unforeseen circumstances, we leave 2022 on a high. As you can see, we have so much to be grateful for, so much that went well! We look forward to journeying with you in 2023.
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2023.
To our valued supporters of Makomborero Zimbabwe. We are very grateful for your contribution to Makomborero and we look forward to a continued partnership.This report is an update from our team in Harare on the success of the 2nd term 2022.
Changing seasons
The start of this second term continued to signal a welcome change from strict Covid-19 restrictions to more and more normal life. For this, we are very grateful! It’s been a wonderful term that has seen all our projects run well. Most students’ classes began when they were scheduled to and planned gatherings for our students were well attended. It was a term of exams all round and we are so proud of all our students for all they have achieved this term and for persevering through the harsh winter and numerous electricity power cuts. It was a biting May to July and I’m sure we speak for staff and students alike when we say we warmly welcome the change in season!
A level Students
Our external A-Level students were able to meet up on five occasions this term! They continued keenly with their Group Therapy sessions. These sessions make a huge impact on how students view and react to their world. For some of the meetings, we were able to give our external students donated books and clothes which were very well received. We love these meet-ups and the opportunities they give students to catch up with each other as well as for staff to have face to face check-ins with students! We are proud of our external Lower Sixth students who started back at school this term after their O’Level results came out. Many of them moved to new schools and are doing a great job of getting to grips with their new environments. Many are participating in sports such as volleyball, karate, netball and soccer. A few have joined clubs (chess seems a favourite) and it’s lovely to see the interest in youth empowerment clubs and clubs geared towards preserving the environment. Within these, nearly all students have been given positions of responsibility. There is a real positive vibe amongst our external students and they have made us smile with how they are spending weekends writing poetry, doing colour runs, reading, writing songs and growing vegetables.
Our internal students also had a great term this term! They benefited from weekly life skills sessions with Mrs Albertyn. They were able to go home and see their families during some of the weekends – which has not been possible for two years. When they stayed at the boarding house, our Gap year students helped us to ensure that lots of fun and relaxing was had. Africa Day was a particular hit. Students had a picnic on the grounds and played games for small prizes. In the evening they had a celebratory meal which included roasted chickens donated by a past Makomborero student. During the term, the tradition of sharing a few Sunday dinners with the Albertyns was upheld. Apart from eating together, Mr and Mrs A get to have lovely conversations and lots of fun with the students and both parties treasure these evenings. At their respective schools, many got involved in sport and extra-curricular activities which had staff doing school runs all days of the week, most hours of the day and many times during evenings. That said, we were happy to see so many of our students taking part and excelling in different activities!
We had a few occasions that brought both our internal and external students together. One of those was a Ndeipi entrepreneurship taster session which they all said they learnt a lot from. They are now looking forward to the annual camp due at the beginning of next term. The social aspect and togetherness of such occasions is always a huge hit!
University Students
Our university students have had a great term despite facing exams, some of which they found quite tough. Those who have settled at the recently opened University Residence have continued to see a huge change in the quality of their lives. We had the official opening of the house earlier in the term. It was a lovely occasion which united students, staff, board members and well-wishers!
As a goodbye to those who will be going to study abroad, Mr and Mrs Albertyn held a gathering for all alumni. It was a great afternoon of playing games, catching up with old friends as well as making new friends over doughnuts and tea. The timing was great for some of the alumni who were returning from various universities abroad for their holidays.
Similar to last semester, once fees had been paid, two more top ups were called for by all three local universities where our students attend. It goes without saying that this put a real strain on our budget and we are grateful to the donors who helped to rescue us on both occasions.
2021 Leavers
Well done to our 2021 leavers for all their achievements both academically and otherwise. They have made us so proud by taking on various gap year internships and volunteering at different organisations, including at Makomborero Zimbabwe. Others have taken initiative to gather donations for the less fortunate especially during the cold winter spell. Eight students have been accepted at universities outside of Zimbabwe and five have been accepted at local universities. We wish them all a fantastic journey through tertiary education. We believe in each and every one of you!
Girl Child
We have continued our Girl Mentorship programme with the 30 mentees selected in January from the three different schools. Apart from a few chilly mornings, the turn out for sessions was great. It’s lovely to watch the mentees grow and make meaningful bonds with their mentors. They are all learning so much during their weekly sessions. We were proud of them using one of their sessions to pick up litter around their schools as a way of giving back to their communities. To close the term, we held our annual lunch which unifies all three schools. The girls had a fantastic talk from Mrs Albertyn and an informative session on oral hygiene. We are thankful for a generous donation which enabled us to send each girl away with a tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush.
Ndeipi
Ndeipi is our small business training. Our participants are recruited from students’ parents and guardians and for the first time, this year we recruited from parents and guardians of our Girl Child mentees. What an amazing term we have had at Ndeipi! Attendance was great and participants made good progress with their small business initiatives. We had reports of some lovely projects that have been started between last term and this term. We had a donation of some baby clothes and we were able to make bags of about 8 items each for each participant to sell at a profit. This was a great ‘beginner’s project’ for many who did not know where to start.
Mobile Science Lab
Our Mobile Science lab has had a very encouraging run this term. We erred on the side of caution and once again recruited below full capacity due to lingering Covid restriction. We were impressed by this term’s very enthusiastic students who had a high turn-out rate each week. Once again, generous donations meant that we were able to purchase some new equipment for Physics practicals and the students thoroughly enjoyed using these!
Mutsidzira
Mutsidzira is an annual community grant that invites past Makomborero students to apply for financial help in order to fund their proposed projects. This year the grant was won by a peanut butter making project set to assist a small community in Buhera with putting children through education from the profits. We are excited to see this project develop and encouraged by two of the 2021 projects that are still running.
Alumni mentoring
Our Alumni mentorship continues to grow with past Makomborero students mentoring current Makomborero students. We appreciate all the hard work and time that past Makomborero students invest into this project and look forward to all their exciting ideas coming to fruition!
Thank you
Thank you to our staff and volunteers for all the time and effort you put into making this term such a wonderful term. We value being family, working through the challenges together and celebrating the highs together.
We would like to thank our Mobile Science Lab teacher Tongai who served students from 2015 up to the end of term 2, 2022. Thank you for all you invested into our young people Tongai and we wish you all the best for the future!
Thank you to Tanatswa for all you invested as one of our 2022 Gap Year students. Tanatswa is leaving his post a little early to go to university! We wish him all the best. We welcome Ropa who will be taking over for the remaining few months.
Thank you to our partner schools Gateway, Hellenic and St Georges. We are humbled to be able to continue to partner with you and grateful for all the work you pour into our students. Thank you to all teachers and heads of schools where our external students attend. You continue to produce well-rounded young men and women under exceptional circumstances and we are truly grateful.
Last but not least, thank you to our individual and corporate sponsors! You make a huge difference in the day to day lives of our students whether you are donating stationery, food, clothes or money. Like any other term, it would have been impossible to make it through Term 2, 2022 without you! We deeply appreciate you all!
GlobalGiving Report – Term 1 April 2022
A good start to the new year!
2022 begins with a few welcomes!
We are so pleased to be able to start 2022 with you and to give you an update of the first term. We can’t believe we are in April already! This year we have welcomed 27 new students to the Makomborero family - 10 Lower Sixth Internals and 17 Lower Sixth Externals (pictured). They have had a wonderful term of preparing for their A Levels, getting to know each other and attending Group Therapy sessions.
We have also welcomed our second intake of Gap Year students, Nicolle and Tanatswa. We are proud of them making the transition from being A’Level students to live-in Gap Year students. They have done an amazing job of assisting with the running of the boarding house as well as taking on tasks at the office. We want to take this opportunity to thank the kind donor who donated funds to build and kit out the Gap Year accommodation, now fondly known as ‘The Green House’ (pictured). It’s a lovely and much needed addition to the boarding house.
Another warm welcome goes to our new House Mother, Mrs Tambowoneyi. She has had a wonderful start with the students and we are enjoying having her as part of the team!
A Level students
Our Upper Sixth Internal students started off with attending online lessons from mid-January. Face to face lessons started at the beginning of February for both Upper and Lower Sixth internal students. We are so proud of the Lower Sixes making the transition from their former schools to their current schools. Many of them have joined clubs and taken up sport keeping staff on their toes with school runs but definitely making us proud! Our Upper Sixth external students also started attending face to face lessons later than usual, unfortunately without any online lessons prior to that. Our Lower Sixth external students have not attended lessons at all as O’Level results have just been released (mid-April) which is much later than the norm due to exams being written into January 2022. Lower Sixth external students are beginning to look for places to study their A’Level with the hope of starting lessons during the second term. Throughout the first term, the Makomborero team has been in contact with the Lower Sixth external students to encourage and equip them to make the best school choices.
We have been privileged to be able to offer Group Therapy sessions to all our Upper and Lower Sixth students as part of their Life Skills Sessions. External students travelled in on selected Saturdays and these sessions provided a great platform for them to get to know each other. We took the opportunity to use these Saturdays to give out helpful information on how to apply to universities and to give guidance on choosing schools for A’Levels. Mr and Mrs Albertyn gave out tablets and tips on how to maximise the use of these to the new Lower Sixth external students. Lots of fun was had throughout and the Easter Egg Hunt was a hit!
Internal students had their Group Therapy sessions during the week. Their Easter Egg Hunt was on the last Sunday of the term and the Albertyns had fun leading this together with the Gappies. We are so pleased to have been able to offer Group Therapy sessions to our students. It has changed their lives forever and helped them to make sense of some of their difficult pasts and backgrounds. We are very grateful to a kind donor who ensured we did not have to pay full price for the sessions otherwise we just would not have been able to afford them!
All Lower Sixth students had eye tests as part of their medical checks. These were heavily discounted by Specsavers who have supported us greatly over the years. We cannot thank them enough as these tests are another area where we see the lives of our incoming students changed. Of the 27 students, 8 needed glasses with one case being particularly bad.
Examination results
Under the most difficult circumstances, our students produced amazing results! We grinned, we jumped for joy, we did happy claps and we are still beaming with pride.
Our 10 A’Level Cambridge students had a collective of: 26A*, 9A and 4B
Our 10 AS Level Cambridge students had a collective of: 35A, 5B and 2C
Our 13 A’Level ZIMSEC students had a collective of: 25A, 10B, 5C, 3D and 2E
Our 27 Lower Sixth O’Level ZIMSEC results were as follows: 186A, 83B and 12C
One Lower Sixth student wrote Cambridge O’Level and his results were 7A*, 2A and 1B
Special mention goes to:
Internal student Tanatswa who was at Gateway High. He had 5A* at A’Level!
Internal Lower Sixth student Vitalis who was at Goromonzi High School. He had 16As at ZIMSEC O’Level
Internal Lower Sixth student Rufaro who was at St Faith’s High School. He had 18As at ZIMSEC O’Level
Well done to each and every one of you! We are very much aware that you have not had anywhere near a normal two years! We are in awe of your strength and ability to cope with the difficult situations thrown at you. You inspire us!
Class of 2021
Our Class of 2021 has done a great job of keeping in touch and letting us know how they are doing. We have seen many of them find jobs as they wait for university offers which we look forward to celebrating soon.
University students in Zimbabwe
Our local university students started back earlier than usual to finish off exams that were pending from 2021 due to Covid-19. Exams were written over the months of January and February with the new semester starting in March. It gave most students little time to rest. We are proud of our students for embracing ths situation so well.
UZ fees have gone up three times over the months of March/April 2022 with most degree programmes now triple the price they were last semester. Most university students appreciate the stipends we give them as they would otherwise struggle to keep up with the cost of living and we in turn appreciate the donors who enable us to give out these stipends semester after semester.
We now have a total of thirteen students living at our University Residence, eight more students were welcomed to the house this year. They are a jolly bunch who can be heard singing and having lively debates. We have had some wonderful discussions where students have expressed how much they are enjoying staying in a clean, spacious and functional home! They are loving being able to pick from the variety of vegetables and fruit in the flourishing garden as well as playing games on the grounds and sitting in the gazebo. Our official opening is set for the month of April. We are eternally grateful to the donors of the house and to Beit Trust for providing this haven to our students and we look forward to celebrating together at the official opening.
University students outside of Zimbabwe
It’s always good to hear from our past Makomborero students and keep up with what they are doing in various parts of the world. Past students continue to mentor current students via the Alumni Mentorship Programme, another great way of keeping in touch and giving back.
Other projects
Our Girl Child Mentorship Programme began with a successful mentors’ breakfast where the focus was on inputting into the mentors and planning for the year ahead. Mentors were joined by Dr Bogezi from the Makomborero Zimbabwe board of trustees as well as our COO, Co-founder and Girl Child Programme visionary Mrs Albertyn. Both spoke on the value of being a mentor and what an essential part of the Makomborero family mentors are. The sessions with the mentees began shortly after with two schools to start with and the third school joining us a couple of weeks later. We are grateful that despite all the pressures the schools face, the selection process went well and we met thirty new girls for the first time this last term. They were excited to become mentees and are looking forward to spending the year with us. We closed the term with our usual Girl Child lunch. It was full of food, conversation and some much appreciated art therapy!
The Mobile Science Lab also started well. We are still recruiting below full capacity as we continue to be mindful of Covid-19. Students enjoyed getting involved in both Physics and Biology practicals, most for the very first time.
Ndeipi! small business training was off to a great start! We had over twenty parents/guardians attend both meetings this term. We were pleased to be able to extend this training to Girl Child mentee parents/guardians for the first time with very pleasing results. The Ndeipi! participants learnt a lot in the first two sessions with some reporting they had started buying and selling after the first meeting and making small profits. We appreciate our continued partnership with One Hope Initiatives and we cannot wait to see and support the projects that will come from this year’s participants.
Thank you
Thank you Gateway, Hellenic and St Georges staff for partnering with us and for all the hard work you sow into our internal students! Thank you to our government school teachers. We appreciate all the hard work you put into educating our external students. Without all of you, our students would not be able to produce such amazing results and we would not be able to ‘release’ such well-rounded human beings into the world. Thank you to each and every one of our sponsors and donors. Monetary donations, funding of specific projects, donations of stationery, food and clothes - without all
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