2012 at The Foundations Project

The end of 2011....

MUCH has happened since the last time we updated this blog and I do apologise for my lack of alacrity in this matter but as a one man band, I inevitably lose track of something!  But I am back on it now and 2012 is going to be a year when you all know what is going on and are kept up to date with the very exciting progress we are making!

The last few months of 2011 brought about the registering of The Foundations Project Trust with thanks to Clare Peech who very kindly assisted us in that process.  Once that was done, it seemed that we had a very real project on our hands and suddenly this was no longer a fun school girl idea but it was ACTUALLY happening!  And many more things brought me to this conclusion as the year came to an end.  We had designed for us a very cool logo by Christine Seaman at Simply Creative:

 Having this logo has meant we now have a presence and we parade it around like no man’s business! 

We had two great fundraising events/awareness campaigns, one after another, to end the year off with a bang and make sure that the project was able to continue into 2012.  Our first was a wonderful art exhibition showing the works of Brennan Seward who worked tirelessly with me to pull the whole thing off (who would have thought fundraising would be such hard work?  And now I realise that it is never going to stop either – but we did have lots of fun planning it and on the night!!)  The evening was held at Amanzi Lodge in Harare and people were invited by invitation only.  We had a raffle of beautiful prizes donated by amazing friends and an auction of the main piece at the exhibition.  We managed to pull off a wonderful evening with no glitches and a good celebration afterwards! 

Charlotte and Brennan, our featured artist and invaluable event organising assistant! 

Tim Wotton running a fantastic auction of the main piece - congratulations to Russel Clarke who bought that painting

Beautiful wine and whiskey were served to the guests on arrival at the event

Our amazing volunteers sold raffle tickets in amongst all the other ways they helped 

The second event we took part in last year was the 20 mile run from the Enterprise Sports Club on the Shamva Road to OGs sports club in town (for those who know Harare!)  32kms of gruelling running, much of it UPHILL but we were wearing our Foundations Project t shirts and were ‘running for a reason’ which made it all worth it!  Our incredibly faithful volunteers were up bright and VERY early that Sunday morning setting up the waterpoint.  They handed out cokes and water to those on their last legs who still had 3km to go until the finish line.  But their motivation and support kept us all going and I wish to thank everyone who helped at both of these initial events for our project.

The Foundations Project was out in full force to give support to those reaching the last few kms of a hard race

Our volunteers ran up and down helping everyone who was feeling parched as they longed for the finish line!

The beginning of 2012....

This year has started off with a bang with us moving into our new offices at 14 Aintree Road where we can now run all our administration from.  It is central and has a fabulous coffee shop so meetings are a delight!  (Cake is also on offer so if anyone wants to come and ‘see me’, you know where to come!)  We have now got the cash to start building the first school but are waiting on the finalisation of land which is proving to be a little more complicated that initially envisioned!

We have met some absolutely AMAZING people throughout this whole experience including a gentleman who owns a great piece of land next door to the JCF centre in Old Snake Park.  He and his family of about 32 members live on this 8.5 acre plot, grow mealies and other crops and live day by day, hand to mouth.  He, however, seemed very on the ball when we spoke to him and so I asked him what he did.  He was a lecturer in motor mechanics at the university in town and then went to work for an NGO.  He knew all the lingo and when I kept reiterating that I was NOT going to hand out cash in any way but was going to provide them with income generating projects and help them that way, he said ‘Ah, so you are not giving us the fish, you are giving us the rod!’ – he CLEARLY went to preschool!  His children and their ten or so cousins living on the property will be some of the first students we have at our school.  They are, like their father/uncle, incredibly intelligent, polite and hardworking from what we have seen in the visits we have made there.  The older of the preschool aged children spend their days looking after the babies while the caregivers work the fields and it is precisely these children and those like them that we want to give the opportunity to go to school, to play like children should, to be given the attention and mental, emotional, physical and spiritual stimulation that every child needs.

This little girl and her cousin below should be at school but instead they are at home looking after the babies while their caregivers work in the fields

This lady draws water from the well while her children look on - the school will provide income generating projects for this lady while her children are learning the basics to give them their foundations to life

These children will be part of the first intake of the first Foundations Project School - I have had many great visits to them and have realised that there is SO much potential in this tiny community

We do not think that we will use their land for the school but would like to set up some income generating projects there as they have a great chicken run already built and a perfect spot for mushroom farming.  I am learning all about agriculture and how it works in the African culture as well as considering the possibility of buying a brick making machine.  These are things no degree could ever have talk me and I am incredibly grateful for my experience on the ground and my time spent with the people and the children whom I have grown to love so much.  

The process of setting up our first preschool - a LONG one!!!!

Once we had decided on the idea to set up a preschool, originally for the children of Faith and Hope and those in the surrounding communities, I recruited my trusty friend Mary* and we began what promises to be a long and frustrating but exciting journey towards our first, hopefully of many, pre-schools under the FP banner. 

Visits were made to various pre-schools in other high density areas around Harare, as well as in the areas surrounding the Faith and Hope Centre.  The pre-school model is all fairly similar, and although most of them are very well run, the cost of the schools varies from US$18 to US$90 a month - a bit ridiculous to even consider for a household of whose monthly income is more or less US$50 and in whom at least 2 or 3 pre-school aged children live. 

 The excitement of having their photo taken by a murungu!

 Nap time in the green zone - vital for any child's early development.  The children are well versed in the day's activities and the government curriculum provides for a holistic programme....

These schools, however, were an encouragement to the idea of our project as the children were HIGHLY entertaining and provided us with much amusement as they sang to us and showed us their artwork on the walls.  To have all these little faces shining up at us, asking us ‘How do you do?’ and telling us ‘It is very nice to meet you’ in perfect English was almost too much for us to handle.  We left each school feeling extremely excited at the prospect that our children could be taught their alphabet and numbers and how to draw and colour in between the lines, as well as relating to others their own age.  We also left feeling slightly despondent that those children at the schools we visited included only those that could afford to pay the fees and who would thus benefit from the advantage of attending a pre-school. 

 

How wonderful it will be when our kiddies can sit in a line and sing to their visitors! 

However, we decided to proceed and see how far we could get.  With the five pre-school aged children that we have at Faith and Hope, we already have a small and very bright class but we wanted to see what the need was outside our gates.  So we took the chance of a bright winter afternoon in Harare to visit one of the surrounding communities.  I already stuck out like a sore thumb and without Mary* by my side, the project would have ended there and then!  We were swamped by ladies who had been drawing water from the well. As they each picked up a chubby, grubby toddler by the one arm, wiped its snotty nose with the bottom of their t-shirt, they walked towards us with their unsupported bossoms swinging freely under their shirts.  And there and then we realised that there IS in fact a great need for some sort of childcare for these children. As well as the chance for them to be stimulated, fed and loved while their parents attempt to earn the measly income that they do.

Once the group had got used to our presence, we began to ask a few questions to ascertain the number of children in the community - how many go to school, why they don’t, what the average income of the community was, etc.  The results of our questioning pointed towards a perfect market for our pre-school as well as a large group of people offering to be the headmistress, the grounds-man and any other employment we might like to offer them!  We suddenly realised that there was room for a pre-school in this community alone as well as at Faith and Hope and probably in every suburb we might enter in these areas around the city – and so we have started to make this realisation into a reality!



Building foundations

Building foundations...with your own two hands

Welcome to the Foundations Project (FP) blog.  This is a story written by me, a Zimbabwean girl coming ‘home’ after 15 years exploring the world and all it has to offer (well, perhaps not ALL but a small sample!)  The story starts with the idea to set up pre-schools for orphans and vulnerable children; children who do not have the opportunity that I had to grow up in a country that was the bread basket of Africa; the freedom to learn and play in the knowledge that my parents would provide me with an education which would set me up with a future. 

The central theme of the FP blog is a serious one but the main aim of it is to report back on the amazing adventures of setting up such a project in Zimbabwe the way it is today. A country where things do not work as they might in other places and thus, where every day is filled with surprises and experiences unlike any that you might encounter in any first world country or even ANY other country around the world!   

Background to the project (slightly dull and sobering but important nonetheless)

Many of us are given the opportunity for a future through the foundations that we are provided with; the upbringing we receive, as well as the education that we so take for granted.  There are many who do not have the chance of a future due to the fact that they are not provided with the basic human rights that we might be fortunate enough to enjoy: health, education, physical attention and love from our families and those around us.

                                       

Having volunteered at The Just Children Foundation (justchildrenfoundation.org) I have become aware of the importance of all of these human rights in the upbringing and holistic development of children.  Watching the older children head off to school each day, one recognises a sense of purpose to their lives in which they leave the residential care of the Faith and Hope Centre to go out into the world to learn and to interact with other children who may or may not be more fortunate than themselves.   The younger children, below the age of six, do not have this luxury as the pre-schools in the area are too expensive and the government does not provide subsidies for them to go to school.  They spend 24 hours a day at the home and interact only with those who live or work in the home on a daily basis.  Any other interaction comes in the form of visitors who are there for a flying visit and who inevitably bring ‘treats’.  Their view of the world is limited to the Faith and Hope Centre and to the ‘foreigners’ who ply them with goodies. 

Once they reach the age of six, the children leave the safety of the centre and embark on the five kilometre walk across the busy Bulawayo Road to primary schools in the adjoining suburb of Kuwadzana.  They are overwhelmed with a world completely foreign to them and are THEN asked to take part in the institution of school, being expected to behave in a certain way, understand certain commands and learn from scratch those skills that their counterparts will have learnt at pre-school.  It was hard enough wearing a uniform for the first time, let along being introduced to the outside world for the first time when I entered grade one a few years ago!

So came about the idea to start a preschool for these children – a place in which they could learn, play and get used to being taught. As well as where they could meet their peers from the local community who are in similar situations regarding the affordability of pre-schools in the area. 

This blog hopes to provide you with an insight into the development and progress of the project and invites you to give your opinions or ideas if you would be so inclined!