Land to be cleared…trenches to be dug….
But first, money to be raised!
The last few months at The Foundations Project have seen
us madly rushing around organising the VERY successful Art for Hope event we
held a few weeks ago. We invited people
to donate pieces of art from photography to drawing to pottery to paintings and
had the most amazing response. We were
inundated with art and, in true Zimbabwe fashion, I had a full army of helpers
setting up the donations around and about the very generous Kuiper’s beautiful
property. Over 150 people came to the
event where they bought artwork, enjoyed a g ‘n t with friends and learnt a bit
more about what we do. The event raised
$6 500 and this means we are now well on our way to our target of $50 000 to
build and run our Mabvuku Family Centre for the year of 2013.
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| The St Johns Marimba band entertained us throughout the afternoon |
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| Art work was displayed all over the property in various ways, all set up by our amazing volunteers |
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| Will Sykes donated the main auction piece, the most beautiful piece which drew enough money to build an entire classroom |
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| Marvin and his mate joined us a bit later and stayed on to play around the fire at the end of the day - a true Zimbabwean evening had by all |
Following on from the Art for Hope event, we have been
very kindly embraced by the polo community of Zimbabwe who invited us initially
to run the gate for them at the National Polo Open held on Sunday 19 August at
Thorne Park. We attended the cocktail
party for the event on the previous Wednesday and had a great day manning the
gate and watching some polo while we raised a little more money to add to the
coffers! We will be joining the polo
group again on Saturday 8 September when the International Polo Open will be played
out at Bushmans Rock in Ruwa. The
Foundations Project will run the gate and will also be showing the movie ‘The
Gods Must be Crazy’ in the evening after a great day of polo and ‘alcoholic
milkshakes’ for the adults!
Last but not least, we have been informed that 9 people from the UK, Zimbabwe, Bosnia and New Zealand accomplished the
near impossible... London to Paris on bicycles in under 24 hours!! They did this in support of the ZImbabwe Rural Schools Development Programme as well as us at The Foundations Project and have raised close on 5000 POUNDS towards our work - thank you to those who pedalled all that way. Your efforts are greatly appreciated and we look forward to welcoming you to visit our school one day! To hear more about their incredible feat, visit http://www.zrsdp.org/ZRSDP_Classic/Welcome.html.
And finally....on the ground
We had a fantastic community awareness day with the people of Mabvuku a few weeks ago, finding out what THEY want out of this project, what is important to them and how they can contribute to make it a successful project that is sustainable when the Foundations Project moves on to assist another community.
There was lots of discussion, much of which I could not understand! However, I had some very good translators and once we had had a few hours of talk and questions and a couple of arguments, everyone lined up to receive a polony sandwich. We did not have enough so those who had got a whole sandwich at the start shared theirs with those who were late. This gave me great hope that we may be able to work well with this community, even if it has been rather tricky up until now!
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| Grannies attended the community day with their small grandchildren in tow, alongside other caregivers and members of the community |
There was lots of discussion, much of which I could not understand! However, I had some very good translators and once we had had a few hours of talk and questions and a couple of arguments, everyone lined up to receive a polony sandwich. We did not have enough so those who had got a whole sandwich at the start shared theirs with those who were late. This gave me great hope that we may be able to work well with this community, even if it has been rather tricky up until now!
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| Our polony sandwiches were shared amongst the community, young and old and everyone made sure that their neighbour had something to eat! |
Kerry Van Leenhoff and her team have been working very
hard to put together the most brilliant plans for what was once an idea for a
little preschool and is now a proper family centre. They have been so helpful with their ideas
and we are now just waiting on council approval of the plans. However, in the meantime, Godfrey, the
community development chairman of Mabvuku, has gathered together CVs of
builders and teachers so we can commence construction and we can also get
teachers trained in time for the opening of the first classrooms.
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| Our plot in central Mabvuku which is being cleared as we speak to begin digging the trenches |
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| An ECD classroom at a school in Chitungwiza - our plan is to emulate something just as smart but with a touch of Shona culture round house on each building so that the children learn about their culture as they live in this urban area on the outskirts of our big city |
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| Blankets and mattresses and play equipment neatly piled in a classroom that we have visited. We are slowly collected these resources for our classrooms |
The school in Mabvuku will consist of four classrooms,
each holding 20 students and being managed by one trained teacher. The skills development centre is made up of a
big hall with a stage for workshops and productions and a kitchen from where we
will run the feeding programme. We have
worked closely with the International Child Resource Institute to design a
child-friendly and stimulating environment and think that we have a great product
on our hands!
We will be advised on the final materials and amounts
that we need to lay the foundations this week and then, once the land has been
cleared, we will be set to dig the trenches and start laying the footing, the
first step in the construction of a hope for a better future for the children
of Mabvuku.
I look forward to keeping you updated and will do so in
the next few weeks as we progress.
