The Embassy was introduced by Director Gary Birditt and his colleague Camela Pfupa. They informed about the ongoing activities of SOS Children's Villages in Zimbabwe. They are currently operating in the three locations, Bulawayo, Bindura and Harare. In Waterfalls, Harare, the organization runs households, kindergarten and a school. In addition it supports over 800 school children at many different schools in and around Harare's high density suburbs.
The Family Strengthening Programmes help families stay together and enable them to use their own local resources and support the children within their own families. The programme in Waterfalls comprised many visits, but first the school and then the headmaster's office.
We were showed the new greenhouse constructed for teaching the students basic agricultural skills, planned is tomato production. Thereafter we paid a visit to the District Education Officer whose office was on the same plot. The D.E.O. administrates 42 schools, hereunder 30 primary and 12 secondary schools. Later on we were given the opportunity to meet some families, among them a mother and four children. The mother was one from a group who had received training on saving & record keeping, she had received a loan facilitated by SOS CV, a loan success story. Another group visited was a sewing group that was formed in 2006 and trained in basic garment making so they could sew school uniforms. Local volunteers, interested and skilled in sewing, were organized into this sewing group. They have been able to buy bigger and better machines so the orders have increased.
SOS Children's Village Waterfalls comprises fifteen family houses as well as youth houses for the teenagers. Up to 180 children can find a new home in the family houses and each family has its own garden.
Glen View (Waterfalls) stretches over a large area and is one of the poorest high density areas in Harare.
SOS Children's Villages Zimbabwe is part of the worldwide SOS-Kinderdorf International which is based in Austria and has Villages in 131 countries.
Woman making peanutbutter
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