Walter Mswazie Masvingo Correspondent
Copota School for the Blind in Zimuto communal lands, Masvingo – home to more 500 physically challenged children – is appealing for help to service its soaring water and electricity bills, which have ballooned to $35 000.

The headmaster at Copota Primary School, Mr Simbarashe Manjere, said the institution was mainly being affected by donor fatigue. Also, non-teaching staff at the school had gone for almost a year without getting their salaries.

“We are in urgent need of assistance from well-wishers and the corporate world. We have not been able to pay our water and electricity bills for a long period now because of lack of resources. Our water and electricity debt shot up to $45 000, but we reduced it $35 000 after making payments recently,” said Mr Manjere.

The main challenge, said Mr Manjere, was that pupils were enrolled based on the level of disability and not their ability to pay fees. Mr Manjere said the school often relied on church-run sister institutions in Zimuto, which sometimes gave a helping hand by paying utility bills. Zinwa (Zimbabwe National Water Authority) once threatened to stop water supplies to us, but one of our sister institutions rescued us by paying part of our debt,” he said.

“We have non-teaching staff who have gone for 11 months without getting their salaries and that is a major challenge.” The school also requires special material to teach visually impaired students, hence the appeal for donations.

“We are sending an SOS to those in a position to assist us to buy specialised teaching and learning materials. We are a boarding school and pupils here are enrolled based on disability rather than the ability to pay fees. Some parents have literally dumped their children and we still have three pupils who have completed school, but have nowhere to go,” said Mr Manjere.

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