Sponsor's update letter from Bindura

Child sponsorship update from Summer 2008 from the SOS Children's Village Bindura, Zimbabwe

A visit to our village gives one a view of a very green landscape due to the heavy rains which characterized the beginning of the year. One visitor actually remarked that we are like an oasis in the midst of a desert. Thanks to the dynamic maintenance team. The mothers also took advantage of this season and started small plots of maize in line with our initiative of enhancing economic literacy.

The beginning of the year saw the enrolment of 21 village children at the SOS Nursery School, 5 toddlers joining the Toddlers’ Programme, 4 children starting grade one at the SOS Primary School. Fifty two children are at SOS Secondary School whilst 8 are at boarding schools. The Village admitted 6 new children who are still on the psychosocial support programme to help them settle down.

The village continues to be a hive of activities with a number of child development programmes in place which include extra tuition, library reading and remedial programmes. The children involved in Children’s Performing Arts Workshop, showcased their dancing skills at the farewell party of retiring SOS mother Grace Chakonda. Thirteen children diagnosed with a terminal condition continued to go to Harare hospital for reviews and most of them are doing well. Children with learning challenges have been assessed by psychologists from the Schools Psychological Services and we await the final reports.

The village youths have scaled up their bee keeping and rabbit projects and workshops on these projects have been carried out with the help of Bindura University, Animal Science Department. More workshops on Child Protection, HIV and AIDS, Oral Health, organized by a volunteer doctor from Bindura Hospital and an economic literacy workshop were lined up this holiday. Four youths sat for the SOS International College Ghana entrance examinations and 8 set for the baseline interviews. We have confidence that most of them will make it. Early in the year the village witnessed the graduation of five youths at the SOS Technical and Vocational Training Centre. One of the youths got married and this became yet another success story on final integration of our children into the community.

The SOS Nursery School
This year started well with the facility operating at full capacity. We have enrolled some of the children from the from the Family Strengthening Programme. Whilst the demand for places has been quite high this year, the challenge has been to charge realistic fees that are consistent with the current hyperinflationary environment. Recently children had an opportunity to visit the Greenwood Park (an amusement park) where they enjoyed themselves for the whole day.

SOS Family Strengthening Programme

The impact of the Family Strengthening Programme in mitigating the effects of HIV and AIDS in the community continues to grow. The programme currently has 1463 children in Bindura urban and 366 in Manhenga rural. Most children are now receiving medical treatment from both the clinic and hospital after signing a memorandum of agreement. This has seen 89 children and 7 guardians receiving medical assistance and 8 going for CD4 counts.

The School Quality Improvement Model is beginning to bear fruit and has seen a pass rate for grade 7 and, “A” level going up to 55% and 60% respectively. Two of our families, through the help of SOS and their own initiative have managed to secure residential stands from Bindura Municipality. A total of 207 families are now engaged in income generating projects.

The SOS Primary School Bindura
The current enrolment of the school stands at 710 and of these 83 are from the village, 99 are on the Family Strengthening Programme block grant and 120 are on scholarship. The economic challenges prevailing in the country have not spared the school but nonetheless fundraising activities like tuck shop sales, civvies days and ruffles were done in a bid to boost the income of the school. The school plans to start a stationery business and start up capital will be provided by the SOS Family Strengthening Programme Bindura.

During the term the pupils have been actively involved in a number of clubs notably the Scripture Union and quiz as they participated in a Justice for Children quiz though they did not make it to the top. Generally the school has been orderly this term with pupils showing a lot of discipline.

The SOS Secondary School Bindura
Currently the school has a total enrolment of 931 pupils and of these 52 are from the village. Although our operations were affected by the national job action by teachers it is pleasing to note that on the academic front we scored some successes with the, “A” level pass rate increasing from 77% to 85.2%.

In an effort to equip our students with vocational skills, the school is running chicken and rabbit projects. The first batch of 500 birds was sold to the local community where they were in high demand. Students also took part in a number of workshops which included Leadership Training and a workshop run by Justice for Children.

The SOS Primary School Maizelands Farm

This year’s enrolment has increased immensely to 1108 pupils. Of these 570 are boys and 538 are girls.
The school is still actively involved in sporting activities and we have continued to excel academically. The average grade seven pass rate rose from 68% in 2006 to 75% in 2007.

A lot of child protection workshops were lined up as it was noted that a lot of child abuse was being done in the surrounding area in one way or the other. These workshops were meant to educate parents and guardians on how to handle orphaned and vulnerable children and not abuse them physically, emotionally and mentally.

The SOS Family Strengthening Programme has identified 500 pupils to benefit from their programme. So far 4,000 exercise books have been bought for these pupils and plans are underway to start feeding these pupils. In support of our refurbishment exercise, the Family Strengthening Programme has bought 20 bags of lime wash. The school tuck-shop is still contributing to raise some minimal funds to help the operation of the school.

The SOS Maizelands Farm
In its quest to fulfil its mandate of providing food security to the Villages and the Family Strengthening Programme, the farm remains committed to ensuring continued availability of maize, wheat and other food crops. Despite challenges of procuring the necessary inputs and the regular power cuts, the farm currently has 50 hectares of maize ready for harvest and 50 hectares of soya beans which harvesting is already in progress.

SOS Vocational Training Centres
We continue to play our role of equipping youths from the Village, Family Strengthening Programme and the community with vocational skills. To date the institution offers engineering and agricultural training and early this year we witnessed the graduation of 7 students from the Bindura and Waterfalls villages. Though we experienced some challenges, we persevered and our projects were quite successful notably the poultry and piggery projects. We are still positive that our relationship with Bindura University will culminate in the accreditation of our courses.

Although the economic landscape has not been level, causing a lot of challenges for the entire SOS Bindura location, we are thankful that we made it again this time through the unwavering support of our SOS friends.

L.T. Zungunde
Village Director