Recently two of the staff from the Norwegian Embassy in Harare visited the project to see some of the projects that are running. The Embassy staff was welcomed with the children dancing and singing.
The school’s headmaster was nowhere to be seen, though. She was on the doorstep to the local electricity authorities trying to connect the school to electricity before the end of the week, since there was going to be a function where amongst others the new school building was to be opened and computers to go online.
Mrs Rohde-Moe had invited some friends from Norway, amongst them two soccer coaches that held a two days work shop for the PE teachers in the area.The new coaching skills was practised on a girls team. They also held a two days soccer tournament for schools in the district. One of the aims for the Chivi foundation has been to start girls’ soccer teams and strengthen the women’s position in society.
There is a group of women that is now sewing bags, school uniforms, table mats and other necessities with the aim to sell and being able to provide income for themselves. The group is called GMESA. They inherited Mrs Rohde-Moes grandmothers’ old manual sewing machine. Now they have about 10 of these machines and they are eagerly waiting for the electricity, since new, electrical machines are waiting to be used.
GMESA is closely linked to the orphans in the village. Every now and then the orphans meet the women and they learn how to knit and mend their clothes. GMESA also do homestead visits to the orphans to see that everything is in order, regarding the house and the children’s belongings.
The embassy staff was taken on a round trip to different homesteads where the orphans live and to see the school and the vegetable fields. One of the buildings has lost the roof, but because of lack of classrooms, the building is still in use. The foundation has now provided a new school building which was lauched the same week as the Embassy visited the school. They are planning to make another building so that the 700 pupils have access to safe environments at the school premises. The building that is now ready for use, has a sick bay where sick children can stay over night.
Due to bad rains this year the crops are poor, and the head master is worried there will be lack of food for the children. The school has a vegetable garden that hopefully will provide at least one proper meal for the children every day, and particularly the orphans. The orphans has received grains for their homestead garden and they are tought how to groe their own vegetables, especially maize. Some of them have good crops, but due to lack of fertilisers and rain, they will still be needing food aid.