Overview

Our partners provide a full academic program for vulnerable and out-of-school children from poor communities in Harare, the capital city of fragile Zimbabwe. They also provide a high level of psycho- social support to students and their families. Our partners train members of the local community who are unqualified teachers to become mentors thus raising leadership capacity and empowering a community to start educating children without having to wait for a costly school to be built and staffed. Based on the effectiveness of the literacy and learning resources developed with initial Entrust funding, our partner would like to develop the mentor training program with a full teaching/learning resource kit covering 10 levels/grades in all curriculum areas. To coordinate this exciting development, a team of paid staff members (partially supported by Entrust) will be employed.

Why support this

There are a large number of extremely poor children who are no longer able to attend school across Zimbabwe, for one reason or another. These students often struggle with the formal curriculum which is in their second language. Without access to basic literacy and numeracy, these students will remain in intergenerational poverty and have little chance o f accessing what few jobs are available. Across Zimbabwe poorly nourished and vulnerable children are routinely taught through ineffective rote learning methods. Our partners break the paradigm by developing tools and resources that enable mentors to really engage children in learning. It also empowers second language non-teachers to teach English to second language students. The material is contextualized for Africa and is inexpensive. The classes, which we have had the privelige of observing, are vibrant, interactive and well suited to the students’ needs.

Budget

$40,000 for year 3 of a 3yr project. Total cost $120,000.

Expected Life Change

• Young people will learn to read and write and will be equipped with strong, positive character traits
• Mentors given confidence and skills, showing the rest of the low-income community that they too can ‘make good’
• Children will be saved from a life on the street, drugs, prostitution and theft, and have hope for a bright future