Nyamasanga receives $700 books Pupils show their books after the handover of books by the Zimbabwe School Library trust in Chitomborwizi recently
Pupils show their books after the handover of books by the Zimbabwe School Library trust in Chitomborwizi recently

Pupils show their books after the handover of books by the Zimbabwe School Library trust in Chitomborwizi recently

Lovemore Meya Recently in Chitomborwizi
Nyamasanga Primary school children who received an assortment of 100 books for ECD and Grade 7 courtesy of a Zimbabwean girl based in New Zealand expressed delight saying the gesture will go a long way in alleviating their problems.

The handover ceremony of the books worth $700 was done by the Zimbabwe Schools Library Trust to school children last weekend.

Speaking at the event, the school head boy Hosiah Muchirahondo (12) said they were very grateful for the good gesture towards their plight.

“We would like to thank all those who made this donation a success,” he said.

“This is going to improve the pass rate at our school since reading materials were very few. It was very hard for us to share a single book whenever we wanted to read in our classes.”

The head girl at the school, Sophia Muchirahondo concurred.

“School work has never been easy for us considering that we had to endure for a long time to have something to come our way. We have had problems at our school with many children transferring to other school where there are no problems associated with reading materials,” she said.

Tapiwa Kunaka (10) who is in Grade 6 said the donation of the books came at an opportune time.

“We are very few at this school since some parents have taken their children to other better schools around. However, with an improvement on the reading materials, this is going to make us come out with flying colours,” he said.

He said Government would have sustained programmes for improving rural schools.

“I wish Government could do something for us in areas like constructing a library at our school and some additional classrooms so that we can have a better learning environment,” he said.

The children said their school which has only four blocks to house classes from Grade 1 to 7 which need a facelift and new furniture.

“This school was built many years ago and it is the same where our parents learnt. It has become old and has deteriorated over the years,” moaned Tinotenda Mashipe.

The books they received include ECD Express Arts Pupils’ book, language Arts, maths, science discovery, social science and Grade 7 Time Revision English, Maths, Revision General Paper.

In an interview Ropafadzo Kunaka (11) said she was inspired by New Zealand twin sisters Shefali and Shivani.

“After I saw them raising funds to buy books for a school in Zimbabwe, I felt challenged and told myself could also do something,” said Ropafadzo.

“I set a target to raise NZD $500 to buy books for Nyamasanga School and after looking at various fundraising activities, I decided to buy and sell chocolates. My parents bought the boxes of chocolate but they were not selling fast enough at school, so I had to go knocking on doors in our street and surrounding area.”

She said apart from selling chocolates, had to take up the challenge of doing Christmas decorations.

“It was a challenging experience but it had to be done to raise money to buy the books for the children at Nyamasanga Primary School. I met my target before I came for my holiday to Zimbabwe and it was dream come true.

“I was inspired after visiting St. Peter’s Tokoyo and saw how children were keen to read. I am ecstatic to have played my small part in making books available for the children,” she said.

Ropafadzo’s effort is part of the Zimbabwe Rural Schools Library Trust’s Ziva Midzi Yako/Yazi Odabuka Khona/Remember Your Roots Library Project initiative.

The Ziva Midzi Yako initiative seeks to encourage Zimbabweans to give back to the deserving rural schools which they, their parents or grandparents went to by providing reading material to the schools or helping construct libraries at the same schools.

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