When?

Dear friends,

Just getting back from Goromonzi today made me reflect on a few issues going on in this country. I visited a couple of schools this morning, to see how they are coping, the enrollment levels and the need out there. This helps to inform us of the immediate areas that need urgent action and keeps our fingers on the pulse so to speak. One of the schools I visited which is 45km east of Harare, our capital city which is roughly about a 30 minute ride, had the most depressing classroom site. This school is a high school with 233 children as of today. one class, had 89 children! yes 89 kids all in one class and the furniture for the children made my heart skip a beat. These kids are literally sitting on each other! the head teacher mentioned to me that the kids come as early as 6am to school so as to get the best sitting spot.

Some years back whilst working for Mercy Corps, i was involved in the construction of this one school block that makes up the entire school and in my mind before the visit, I had conjured up an image of a well progressed school with furniture etc. This was not be as what I saw today was shocking. One would easily be forgiven for thinking that the schools closer to the fun capital Hararararrrrre would be better equipped and taken care of. That was not the case and as I left the school I only managed to say to the school authorities that I will be back! that situation is totally unacceptable and I felt God saying we need to act. I have started making some phone calls and I am getting interesting results from local people who want to be involved.

When, when and when? That is my question today. When are we going to be able to be able to support the struggling schools and give help to all these schools. each of them by the way has differing needs but when you look at them you say to yourself this does not take a lot. When are local companies going to rise and give back to the communities around the fun capital. Impact is not measured by what you have managed to do in Harare, in fact as a company your corporate social responsibility program goes further when providing support to outlaying areas such as the above mentioned peri urban schools.

Lastly I have been meeting various representatives/staff from the well to do companies in the fun capital with a view of roping them into the work we are doing. Honestly the economy has not taken off in a manner that gives these companies some funds to leverage but I am saying all it takes is making a commitment to act NOW!

Have a great week friends until next time...

Patrick

If you can't get people to listen to you any other way, tell them it's confidential.
-Farmer's Digest