By Dennis Gaboury | Founder, Chair, Board of Trustees
On any given day at the local clinic in Pumula North, where Zimkids is located, a hundred young women many 15 years old wait to see a nurse with their babies. It seems that teen pregnancy is the rule rather than the exception. Zimkids commitment to our girls is framed by this reality. So when we offer training in the many skills they learn at our center we also hold workshops dealing with this problem. And many or our girls have responded by becoming more involved at the center with a sheer determination not to become another statistic. They ho;d tight onto their dreams. Our counselor – Sithabisiwe, a Zimkids alumna who is raising her two younger brothers – pays particular attention to girls’ needs and works with them and their families to encourage them in achieving their dreams. We had one meeting with a former Zimkid who got pregnant all too young. She shared her experiences and life in an effort to enlighten them about what life is like on the other side of pregnancy.
Still, it’s an uphill battle. Over the past twelve months, three of our teenagers, all under 18 years old, got pregnant.
In the midst of our despair, however, there’s an extremely bright light we want to share, an important reminder about the difference we can make. Sibahlenkosini, who has been with us since 2008, just scored a remarkable 14 points on her Advanced Level high school exams, out of a possible 16 points. It’s a truly stellar achievement that puts her in serious competition for a place in the Faculty of Law at the University of Zimbabwe. We should know soon whether she will be accepted and have begun to put the word out to those interested in helping us help her with tuition.
Sibahle’s father died when she was 8-years-old, and she and her 8 brothers and sisters were raised by her mother, who scrambled for money by selling firewood and sweets by the side of the road. But Sibahle refused to be deterred by her circumstances, inspired, in part, when her sister got pregnant at the age of 16 and admitted how miserable her life had become.
Zimkids has offered Sibahle as much support as possible in her quest for an education. We bought her glasses when we realized she could barely see the chalkboard. We provided food and medical care. And, in line with our policy of pushing our young people to achieve by paying school fees for those who do well, we paid for her Advanced Level studies.
An independent and focused young woman of quiet determination, Sibahle has set her sights very high, on a career in family law, helping women and children much like herself and her mother.
On another front, our outreach program to a rural encampment called Methodist has grown to over 100 children. Our staff and school leavers volunteer on their day off to go there and work with the kids. We also distributed much needed shoes courtesy of the Buckner Foundation. We introduced water baloon games to the kids and they had a ball!
Our Garden continues to provide us with all our vegetable needs under the care of Ngqabutho, Brighten and Zibusiso.
And we just renovated our kitchen! So now we can add tiling and cabinet making to the list of skills our older kids are learning.
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