Category: News

She oversees all the planning ideas and documentation so the teachers are sometimes working very long hours. The education department have also insisted on a fully qualified teacher being employed at the school. She will start work in January and take on some of the administrative duties. We are hoping she will take on the responsibility of writing reports on individual children and events at the school and relay them back to the UK on a regular basis.

The change in the curriculum is quite worrying because all of the teaching had been focused around Bible stories and characters but Samu has assured us that they have kept as much of the Christian content as possible and continue to add in stories from the Bible during free periods and maintain the Christian ethos of the school. We will be interested to see how it is all working out when we visit in March with Graham and Belinda.

Rhey have also had challenges with break-ins to the church building where the school meets. The last one resulted in the CD player being taken along with some dollies!

↑   Sitting outside of the museum.

↑   Ma Phiri and children in front of a stuffed Kudu in the museum.

Despite all of this the teachers try to maintain the high standard of education we expect from them and in November they took the children to the local Museum, a small zoo and swimming in the local pool. A unique experience for most of them. Very few children in Zim swim as it is a landlocked country and suffers from water shortages so we would have loved to have been there to see their faces!

At the beginning of December the ECD “B” children graduated and will start at the Primary school at the beginning of January. The graduation ceremony is always a “big” occasion for the school and especially the children. They perform for their parents and various dignitaries and receive a certificate to say that they have completed two years of early years education.

Sadly, the only video that successfully came through is of the children greeting the parents!

↑   The children preparing to go home on the combi (bus).

The teachers and children now have a well earned break for a few weeks which is their summer holiday. Please pray for rain for them as up to now they have had none. They plant their maize at the end of November, in anticipation of the first rains but so far there has been nothing so the seed will just shrivel.

There are 24 children registered on the waiting list for January so we are in need of a lot more sponsors! So please spread the news to friends and family. It is easy to register — you can sign up by filling out this simple form:

Inkosi Kids Sign-up Form
 

We hope this letter has kept you informed and inspired you to keep supporting the project.Please keep praying for your children in these uncertain times in Zimbabwe and also for the teachers and Taurai, the pastor of the church. They need wisdom and the Holy Spirits guidance to lead these children in the ways of God and support them in, sometimes, very challenging home situations.

To find out more about our child sponsorship program in Zimbabwe visit our Inkosi Kids webpage.

One of the major changes in the curriculum is the need to teach Heritage studies. With this in mind, the teachers used the opportunity that Africa Day presented to teach the children some traditional rhymes and songs. Parents also contributed with stories, poems and dances.

 
↑   A video of the parents singing a traditional song.

 
↑   The children performing for the parents.

 
↑   The children performing.

↑   Khulanis mum telling the children an African story and Tributes Mum telling a folk tale.

For the first time ever, the ECD students attended and took part in a local inter-schools sports. competition on the 31st of March and they came third out of seven schools. This was very encouraging for them and good for the children to mix with other children from different areas.

↑  The children who took part in the inter schools competition with Ma Phiri and Samu, their teachers.

Please pray for the situation in Zimbabwe. Life is very hard. Unemployment has increased and the economy shows no sign of improving. The children’s lives are very different from here in the UK.

This is a Facebook post a friend from Bulawayo who works in a different area running a similar ECD school wrote recently to give you an idea of just how different….

This is a smattering of what the Village ECD children (aged 4-5yrs) said they had done during the Half Term Break (Spoken in Ndebele, translated here in English):

….watering the vegetables; fetching water; mopping floors; chopping vegetables; carrying the dishes to the house; sweeping the yard; sweeping the house; helping to build a kitchen; playing in mud; fetching firewood; watering tomato plants; washing dishes. BLESS THEIR LITTLE HEARTS…..all said with a smile on their faces.

There is very little playing time for these children so the time the children enjoy at school is very precious! So thank you for enabling them not just to be educated but also to be able to just be children for some part of the day.

↑   This is what happens in Zim when the children can’t go to school. This little girl will spend all day on the pavement to earn a few Rand for her family.

↑   The children enjoying a special meal of beans, sadza and cabbage.

To find out more about our child sponsorship program in Zimbabwe visit our Inkosi Kids webpage.