News / Education
Australian Embassy donates school furniture to five primary schools in Bubi district
14 Aug 2017 at 07:01hrs | Views
The children at five primary schools in Bubi District in Matabeleland North ended the second school term of the year on a very good note. This comes when the Australian Embassy in Zimbabwe donated a total of AUD18 600 (USD14 100) worth of furniture to their schools on the 8th of August, 2017. The schools were Inkosikazi, Lukanda, Majiji, Mbembeswana 1 and Siganda. This was after a local children's charity, the Collin Nyabadza Children's Voice Charitable Trust (CNCVCT) had approached the embassy for funding. The embassy kindly responded by providing the CNCVCT with a grant. After all the paperwork had been done the money was deposited directly to the organisation's suppliers, Vast Engineering in Bulawayo.
The equipment was delivered last week to the beneficiary schools. Since they were quite a number, one main event was held at Inkosikazi Primary School. The event was graced by the Board Chairperson of the CNCVCT Mr. Siqhubumthetho Dube. The guest speaker was the Member of Parliament for Bubi District Mr. Clifford Sibanda, a man who has always been fully supportive of the organization's efforts to reach out to the district's disadvantaged rural schools. Teachers, parents and the children at the school expressed their joy through song and dance.
The head of the school Mrs. S. Ndiweni was elated. This donation could not have come at a more opportune time than this, for it comes when she had just newly arrived at the school. "I found the school in a not so good state, and as such being new, this kind gesture by the Australians and the CNCVCT has certainly given me a very good start and the motivation to do my best to help the community in moving the school forward", she said. In his remarks, Mr. Dube who also thanked the Australian government for their massive support, reminded the schools to take very good care of their new equipment as it does not come cheap. He further assured Mrs. Ndiweni of continued support. "We love to work with proactive heads like you who show deep concern for their pupils' welfare and the desire to see their schools develop. Our stay in this school certainly depends on your willingness, for us to do so", added Mr. Dube.
Speaking from his base in Canada, the Chief Executive Officer of the CNCVCT, Mr. Collin Nyabadza thanked the Australian Embassy for having demonstrated a lot of faith in his young organization by giving them this massive grant which he believes would pave the way for more embassies and other international organisations to follow suit.
"The success of our organization depends largely upon the financial support we receive from kind hearted people such as the Australian Embassy. We strongly believe that every child in class should have access to basic equipment such as school furniture. This is a right." added Mr. Nyabadza.
His organization had initially intended helping ten schools but his board in consultation with the schools felt the donation would have a far much stronger impact by scaling down to five for a start. The other remaining schools would be catered for in the next round of funding.
"We have schools such as Majiji and Siganda that have close to 1000 children each. As a team we felt it wouldn't make sense giving each one of them classroom furniture just enough for 40 children. We decided to furnish 1x2 classroom blocks at each of the five schools so as to make the donation more meaningful in each community".
Since being established in December 2012, the Collin Nyabadza Children's Voice Charitable Trust has recorded a number of huge successes. One of the biggest strengths is their team.
They have assembled a very strong, dedicated, passionate and highly experienced team. They all work 100% on a volunteer basis as their aim is to ensure that every penny that they receive, goes to the children they support together with their struggling rural schools.
"Having lived here in Canada for close to two decades now, I must say I deeply appreciate the concept of volunteering that is practiced in developed countries such as Canada, Australia, the UK, the USA, Austria and others. We are therefore using this organization as a vehicle to help introduce and inculcate this notion. Through it we can reach out to so many needy children", expressed Mr. Nyabadza.
Mr. Nyabadza also used this opportunity to appeal for help in purchasing a program vehicle which would enable his organization reach out to more remote schools which have often been neglected and abandoned for a long time. "We are appealing for close to USD11 000 for us to purchase a vehicle. At the moment our staff have to rely on asking for rides from well-wishers. This is certainly slowing us a great deal when executing our projects," lamented Mr. Nyabadza.
For more on the work that the organization does they could be reached at, www.childrensvoicezimbabwe. Their Board Chairperson could be reached at, Cell: 0772440070
The equipment was delivered last week to the beneficiary schools. Since they were quite a number, one main event was held at Inkosikazi Primary School. The event was graced by the Board Chairperson of the CNCVCT Mr. Siqhubumthetho Dube. The guest speaker was the Member of Parliament for Bubi District Mr. Clifford Sibanda, a man who has always been fully supportive of the organization's efforts to reach out to the district's disadvantaged rural schools. Teachers, parents and the children at the school expressed their joy through song and dance.
The head of the school Mrs. S. Ndiweni was elated. This donation could not have come at a more opportune time than this, for it comes when she had just newly arrived at the school. "I found the school in a not so good state, and as such being new, this kind gesture by the Australians and the CNCVCT has certainly given me a very good start and the motivation to do my best to help the community in moving the school forward", she said. In his remarks, Mr. Dube who also thanked the Australian government for their massive support, reminded the schools to take very good care of their new equipment as it does not come cheap. He further assured Mrs. Ndiweni of continued support. "We love to work with proactive heads like you who show deep concern for their pupils' welfare and the desire to see their schools develop. Our stay in this school certainly depends on your willingness, for us to do so", added Mr. Dube.
Speaking from his base in Canada, the Chief Executive Officer of the CNCVCT, Mr. Collin Nyabadza thanked the Australian Embassy for having demonstrated a lot of faith in his young organization by giving them this massive grant which he believes would pave the way for more embassies and other international organisations to follow suit.
"The success of our organization depends largely upon the financial support we receive from kind hearted people such as the Australian Embassy. We strongly believe that every child in class should have access to basic equipment such as school furniture. This is a right." added Mr. Nyabadza.
His organization had initially intended helping ten schools but his board in consultation with the schools felt the donation would have a far much stronger impact by scaling down to five for a start. The other remaining schools would be catered for in the next round of funding.
"We have schools such as Majiji and Siganda that have close to 1000 children each. As a team we felt it wouldn't make sense giving each one of them classroom furniture just enough for 40 children. We decided to furnish 1x2 classroom blocks at each of the five schools so as to make the donation more meaningful in each community".
Since being established in December 2012, the Collin Nyabadza Children's Voice Charitable Trust has recorded a number of huge successes. One of the biggest strengths is their team.
They have assembled a very strong, dedicated, passionate and highly experienced team. They all work 100% on a volunteer basis as their aim is to ensure that every penny that they receive, goes to the children they support together with their struggling rural schools.
"Having lived here in Canada for close to two decades now, I must say I deeply appreciate the concept of volunteering that is practiced in developed countries such as Canada, Australia, the UK, the USA, Austria and others. We are therefore using this organization as a vehicle to help introduce and inculcate this notion. Through it we can reach out to so many needy children", expressed Mr. Nyabadza.
Mr. Nyabadza also used this opportunity to appeal for help in purchasing a program vehicle which would enable his organization reach out to more remote schools which have often been neglected and abandoned for a long time. "We are appealing for close to USD11 000 for us to purchase a vehicle. At the moment our staff have to rely on asking for rides from well-wishers. This is certainly slowing us a great deal when executing our projects," lamented Mr. Nyabadza.
For more on the work that the organization does they could be reached at, www.childrensvoicezimbabwe. Their Board Chairperson could be reached at, Cell: 0772440070
Source - Agencies
