By Dennis Gaboury | Founder, Chair, Board of Trustees
Since our last report we have opened our new Ministry of Education approved pre-school. At present we have 32 fee-paying students and growing by one or two new additions per week. Orphaned children attend free. The fees cover all operating costs including salaries. Word is spreading that our programs, infrastructure and nutrition are better than any other pre-school in the area. And since we are non-profit our fees are lower. Begun by Samantha when she was only 17 as an informal program the Zimkids pre-school is thriving. We sent Samantha, Sithabisiwe and Samantha, former Zimkids, to training and all are now certified in Early Childhood Education. Presently they operate out of our Resource Center.
In the afternoon graduates of last year's pre-school return to Zimkids for tutoring and lessons conducted by Mbuso who is 16 years old.
Construction of a purpose built pre-school building has begun. We are up to the floor level now and hope to complete the building in late April. As usual, our crew of builders are our older Zimkids as part of their vocational training. In spite of heat that has rivaled a Middle East summer our crew hauled over 50 tons of rock and rubble to fill the foundation walls that is over a meter deep. Next week they will mix 20 tons of quarry stone, sand and cement by hand and pour the floor of the building. The new building will house up to 75 students.
Because of the withering heat we lost a lot of our vegetable crop and have since replanted in our outside beds and covered them in shading cloth. The greenhouse is too hot.
We are sending Esther, Mthokozisi, Shaun, Mike and Eddy on to their attachments in fields as diverse as auto mechanics, nurse aide and boilermaking. We provide school fees for our neediest and smartest kids. (To provide for all would cost a staggering $65,000 a year so we have to limit our assistance)
On a sad note, Langhilihle, a Zimkids from the start passed away at the age of 20 several weeks ago. She was born HIV+ and managed to get through life well until she was 17. Zimkids was a home she could come to for meals, hugs and lots of love, then her grandmother who was her caregiver died . The extended family abandoned her and Zimkids became central to her survival. But she soon contracted meningitis. We put her in the hospital, brought her meals, bought her any necessary medication and paid for her treatment. Because her immune system was already compromised, her case was severe and resulted in brain damage leaving her unable to speak. Then she got tuberculosis. But through it all she would come to the center and sit on the benches, have her lunch or dinner, observe the goings on and make dolls – something she loved to do. We will miss her.
This week we also lost another of our trustees, Energy, 26 years old. He was born with brittle bone syndrome but managed to graduate from Lynn University on scholarship in May of 2015. He went on to a job advocating for people with disabilities in Boston. He returned to his rural home in Zimbabwe two weeks ago and contracted pneumonia and died. He inspired many. He will also be missed.
I am humbled but the courageous lives of our Zimkid teachers, builders, students, trainees and trustees.
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