HOPE TARIRO TRUST ECD CENTER
As Hope Tariro Trust, an organization that is spearheaded by the desire of the betterment of children’s welfare, we have made it a dream and desire to be achieved, to engage ourselves in providing quality education for the young people under the age of 5.
Living amongst the community has allowed us as an organization to witness and comprehend the deepest whims and horrors they our fellow men are facing on daily basis. One of their biggest challenges is lack and denial of early childhood education to the youngsters due to a number of factors. One of the factors being distant schools. The closest school to the village; Mavhaire Coronation primary is approximately 6km away, while the other school; Gwengave is 8 km from the village. Thus, the distance being too long for children under the age of 5. The other factor is artisanal mines. There are a number of artisanal mines in the community which pose a lot of danger as children are prone to dangers of falling into the pits.
So as to address these issues, as Hope Tariro Trust we decided to open an ECD center for the community. Our first attempt to engage on this initiative was in February, where we had a meeting with the guardians who showed a lot of interest in the whole idea. We managed to register 36 children at that time, but however due to some communal challenges we would expect 6-9 children a day. People were fleeing from being arrested because of the illegal settlement issues; thus, they were going into hiding with their children whom were supposedly expected to be attending at the ECD center. With time we were now expecting 10-15 children per day as some would not come on daily basis as the situation was now cooling down.
After some time, around March we had our second meeting with the guardians with the intention of finding out the major reasons why they were failing to bring their children to school. Some highlighted that they could not afford to provide packed lunch for their children, hence they could not send off their children to school without food. Others said that they thought they had to pay tuition fee and they had not known that the children were learning for free. At the end the parents asked if they could get assistance on the diet issues. On this meeting we encouraged them to bring their children to school and we had a good result as we were now expecting at least 20 children a day.
As an organization we had our own challenges like infrastructural challenges, stationary challenges, furniture challenges, to mention but a few. The children had to learn while they were sitting on bricks and wooden boards.
We also have one shed that is being used for classes which was at times not convenient enough because of the harsh cold, windy weathers. Another big challenge was water scarcity. We did not have enough water for sanitation and cooking for the children so we had to ask their parents to help us by bringing a bucket of water each daily. We managed to cover it around with tents to make it convenient enough for the children to use. We also did not have formal – qualified teachers hence we had to assign our staff members to cover up for the time being while we were sourcing funds to get one. After the schools had been closed for summer break, Mrs. Ncube a qualified teacher from Zvishavane volunteered to teach the children for the rest of the summer break while we waited for a permanent teacher. We had to continue with the children for the rest of the April summer break so that they could catch up with the time they had lost.
Improved class attangements
Sometime in April, our friends from Norwegians People’s Aid helped us with funding towards this ECD initiative. With this funding, we have managed to drill a borehole for water supply, and also install a solar system for the water supply, build toilets for the children as there was only one toilet for both the children and staff, bought 40 plates and 40 cups for the children, and fence the premises. We also received a donation from Mr. Chitambo of Gibsan Enterprises in form of corn porridge and overnight mahewu thus we managed to start feeding the children on our own and stopped them from bringing their own packed lunches . Through donations from well-wishers we have bought some 23 chairs and 13 tables as well as stationary for the ECD center, They are not enough though.
With all the help we got through this journey of initiating the ECD center project we have finally managed to enroll 46 children and more are still coming, hence if we still have the resources, we see ourselves opening another class in the near future as our main goal is to provide education for all the under 5 pupils living in the community who do not have enough resources. Though at times we receive some children who are 7-8 years old with whom their parents claim to not have resources or tuition fees.
