Joyful noise...

Dear friends, Team Nhaka in the past week has been going round to schools within our operational area, looking at the infrastructure at schools e.g the state of the buildings, availability of desks, chairs and other learning materials and we saw a lot of differences between the six schools that we visited. Some schools have done well to mobilize local resources that they have then used to spruce up their schools whilst some have continued to fall into dilapidation because the surrounding communities are composed of poor people who even struggle to pay fees for the children. What was remarkable though in theses schools was the fact that the teaching staff are very excited about their work annd are keen to enrol more children in this new term, that has begun today, whilst providing the best service to the children. I am amazed by their professionalism, zeal and desire to continue teaching against the background of very low salaries and absence of appropriate teaching materials. I personally managed to visit two of the six schools and the reports I got from our team corroborate with what I also saw. This goes to demonstrate how Zimbabweans value education and how they continue believing in the educational institutions even though the past twelve or so years have wrecked havoc within that system. I believe working with the communities, we can restore some of the confidence in the education system that was lost during the political and economic turmoil of the past twelve years. With our partners we can harness the community energy towards creating vibrant and self sustaining program's that support the school system. This could be through community school feeding schemes that feed the poor hungry children, community gardening projects to boost vegetable availability and also infrastructural development projects that are aimed at rehabilitating the school classrooms and buildings so that the children are learning in a safe environment. My family lives close to a primary school and this morning at 6:15am the giggling,laughter and voices of excited young children heading to school filled our ears again. Coming back from school break, the kids are headed for another term, this time in winter, to learn, play sport and have fun with their peers. Hearing all this laughter and voices this morning felt like listening to a joyful noise being made as the kids celebrated the return to school. In weeks to come we will be noticing those kids who will be dropping out of class because of fees that will be demanded from them by the teachers. We pray that Nhaka Foundation will have resources to support the vulnerable children who will be affected by this exercise, many of whom are on our lists of children who need support. Until next time, thanks for reading. Patrick Makokoro " Be the change you wish to be"