Transformative Education for Refugees in Zimbabwe

Administration 

TWEENS is made up of 31 volunteer tutors and one full time employee holding the position of Operations Coordinator who monitors all the activities at TWEENS Center. TWEENS has a committee ( General Coordinator, Secretary, Treasurer, Accountant, and a Spokesperson)  and an advisory council to decide and put every action in place to maintain the progress of the TWEENS organization. TWEENS has contrived a monthly salary for the Operations Coordinator for the past three months. Furthermore, awareness campaigns, on the noteworthiness of education, in both local schools and within the community have been taking place in order to regerminate a seed of hope into youths who failed their national exams and encourage them to rewrite. 

Resources and activities at TWEENS Center

“I wonder how we would have completed all the CALA ( Continuous Assessment Learning  Activity ) ZIMSEC assessments without having internet and mobile phones. Luckily,TWEENS made our lives easier and paved a smooth way to our education journey”, said a TWEENS tutee. The monthly subscription of WiFi at the TWEENS Center has made 200 students  step ahead academically and with the ZIMSEC CALA assessments which covers 30% of their national exams results.  The connectivity also helped  4 tutors in their personal works like completing online courses and working on college applications. More resources such as the projector, whiteboard markers, stationery, new curriculum textbooks, gadgets (laptops and ipads) among others have made holiday tutoring lessons productive and smooth. 

December 2022

New curriculum Pure Sciences textbooks were delivered and TWEENS center set up the schedules which includes lessons for Biology, Chemistry, Pure Mathematics, and Physics for ‘O’ Level students and, we are well prepared with resources for those subjects.

TWEENS  power system has improved at the center and made it possible for other  intellectual support to students such as  having open hours and  self study during the Night Study to better their academic performance. We recognise students' talents and  seek to give them a space to collaborate with tutors and fellow tutees through extracurriculars at TWEENS Center.

All of thses services would not have been possible without your continued support and Education Matters and TWEENS are grateful for your genorisity throughout the year!

TWEENS Tongogara

GlobalGiving Report

August 19, 2022

Since fundraising took place, TWEENS has managed to fill many financial gaps which led to an increase of the services we offer. Besides the extra lessons that are offered to TWEENS students during holidays, the funds have helped to provide wifi subscription for students to access in depth research that goes beyond the syllabus.

Moreover, the funds have been used to repair the roof and fence construction. More chairs have managed were purchased and now TWEENS students have a better space to study. We also added more resources in preparation for national exams as more “New Curriculum” textbooks were purchased. We continue with additional tutoring lessons for Form Threes and Form Fours. TWEENS information sessions have been held to help tutees in applying to after “O” Level programs like USAP, Rise, and Makomborero scholarships.

The power system and Internet at TWEENS center has helped TWEENS to fulfill the following:

     Charge TWEENS gadgets

     Charge tutors’ and tutees’ gadgets

     Support the internet system at the Center

     Support the lighting system at the Center

• TWEENS_REPORT2.pdf (PDF)
  

We are excited for the first round of college acceptances for our inaugural Class of 2021 alumni! We wish them all the very best as they set out to pursue their higher education in the United States. We remain grateful to the many colleges and universities who have worked and continue to work with our students in the admissions process. 

While most of the acceptances have been from US institutions, our alumni have applied to various global universities that are able to offer them scholarships.  We look forward to the next round of admissions acceptances for the rest of our alumni in the class of 2021! 

As we end what has been a challenging year for everyone, we wish you healthy, happy and restful holidays with your friends and family.  We are very grateful for what we have been able to achieve in 2021 to provide truly tranformative education for determined, high-achieving, refugee youth here in Zimbabwe. 

None of this would have been possible without your faith in our initiative and continued generous support.  We look forward to moving onwards and upwards in 2022 with a third cohort of USAP Community School studnets that includes three refugee students from Burundi, Rwanda and the DRC as well as with more initiatives and opportunities for refugee youth at Tongogara Refugee Camp through our TWEENs program. 

From all of us at Education Matters and USAP Community School, thank you.  

We are very excited to announce that three of the 45 students in our first cohort of USAP Community School to graduate last Saturday, December 4, were refugee students from Tongogara Refugee Camp.  Olive, Damascent and Chrinovic, who originate from Burundi and the DRC, did us proud as they graduated.  

We are also happy to continue our commitment to educating refugees by admitting three more refugee students from Burundi, Rwanda and the DRC, to the class that will begin at our school in 2022.  This will keep our current refugee population to 7 students which in January will be 11% of our school population.  It is your kind support that allows us to pay 100% of these students' school fees, uniforms, and other supplies needed for them to be fully equipped to learn at our school and in camp with resources like solar panels and batteries during lockdowns.

Two weeks ago we also launched the TWEENS Youth Centre in the camp, a place where young people will be able to get tutoring, read from a library and enjoy activities such as pingpong, darts, chess and other games.  We are proud of the USAP students and alumni who have made this centre happen and look forward to watch it develop and grow as a by youth for youth project

Thank you for helping us to continue to prioritize transformative education for refugees in Zimbabwe!