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Auxilia Katongomara

EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD Bongani Craig Ndlovu is about to fly halfway across the globe, a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Silicon Valley in the United States — home to the world’s largest technology companies. Yet just six months ago, Bongani — who is orphaned — was staring the abyss: out of school, out of money and all hope of ever making something out of his life lost.Bongani scored eight A’s and two B’s in the 2015 November O-Level examinations at Regina Mundi Secondary School. He knew his results because his school announced him as the best student — but he could not be issued with the results slip over a $1 200 school fees debt.

Then in January, while reading a newspaper, he came across an advert about the STEM School Fees Initiative. O-Level graduates who took up sciences at A-Level in 2016 would have their school fees paid in full.

“My uncle advised me to go to ZIMDEF offices where I was told to bring my results,” Bongani recalls.

“That’s when we engaged the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights who assisted us to engage the school. My uncle made a payment plan to pay $50 a month to offset the debt.”

His life was not always one of despair and lack. But the loss of his mother in 2003, following his father’s death earlier, changed his reality fundamentally.

“I started my education at Mpumelelo Primary School in Mpopoma and then my parents died. I was forced to transfer to Mangala in Kezi where I lived with my grandmother. Although things were tough, I scored 12 units in Grade 7.”

He secured a donor for his secondary education, but on one condition: his guardian would pay a quarter of his fees.

“Unfortunately, my guardians couldn’t raise the difference which had accumulated to $1 200 by the time I finished my O-Level. It was so because from Form 1 right through to Form 4, they weren’t paying,” he said.

Now a Lower Sixth pupil at Luveve High School in Bulawayo, Bongani finds himself in unfamiliar conditions: he need not worry about his fees and being thrown out of school. He is one of 4 200 pupils who benefited from the school fees scheme spearheaded by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development at a cost of nearly US$1 million which was underwritten by the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (ZIMDEF).

Bongani, who is pursuing a combination of Maths, Physics and Chemistry at A-Level, dips into scripture to explain his stroke of good luck.

“I was fortunate that the STEM initiative came just at the right time and I also managed to benefit. Honestly, if it wasn’t for this scheme, I would be home. Before I heard about STEM, I had lost all hope about going to school. I knew I had passed because they announced that I was the best student. I had no money. Even if I got the results, then what?”

As if his STEM breakthrough was not enough, Bongani got the luck of the draw on April 28 when the Ministry’s STEM Awards were held at a Bulawayo hotel.

His name went into the hat with hundreds of others from Bulawayo Province, and the result has only strengthened his faith.

He missed the awards after falling sick.

He revealed: “I didn’t attend school on the first day [May 3], so I only got to know on Wednesday, but it was announced on the opening day. I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to travel [to the US] as I don’t own a passport.

“Whatever happens, I’m so grateful. I’m quite happy to win this trip because, honestly, I had lost all hope. As an orphan, I had accepted that I wasn’t going to get a chance to go back to school, let alone be flying to California to visit Microsoft!

“I’m a living fulfilment of Psalm 23 verse 6 which says ‘Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me for the rest of my life’.

“I’ve learnt that one’s background doesn’t limit anyone. I thank God, my family and my Apostle Abraham Kimberly who always told me not to lose hope. Now my fees are paid up and I have won a trip, it’s all God’s grace.”

Bright students like Bongani, upon completing university, get snapped up by foreign universities who give them scholarships. Eventually, they settle in those countries.

“My dream is to plough back to Zimbabwe,” Bongani says.

“I want to teach Maths. There’s a fear that is attached to Maths from a very young age. It has become a culture and I want to help Zimbabweans remove that mentality which is really holding us back as a country.

“We need more people in the sciences. My passion for sciences started when I was in Form 1. My science teacher always told us that science is something that you see and experience every day. That has demystified science for me since then.”

Bongani is the last born in a family of three and is being looked after by his uncle, with whom he stays in Cowdray Park suburb.