Building Classrooms for Zvamaida Primary School

Dear Friend

When I wrote to you last month, I indicated that the 6 classrooms were almost finished. Well, the good news is that they are and the children are now using the classrooms. Just think about this, around 300 children can now have a desk in a classroom and not have to have lessons out in the open. This alone has brought delight to the whole local community. It will certainly make a real difference for the children.

However, all the headwinds  have meant that we have gone well beyond our budget. On top of the problems along the way, from the bricks problem, Covid, and a variety of other things - the collapse of the Zimbabwean currency and the surge of inflation in the country and shortages of materials have meant that the last stage of the classroom buildings has taken a longer time than expected. 

Here is where we are now with the project. Keep in mind the classrooms were always going to be the first thing (and most expensive) part of the project. 

• Three classroom blocks (6 classrooms) now completed.
• The foundation work on the Library has been completed, but not beyond that (my hope was that this could have been completed, but no money left)
• Some of the training has been done. The most important bit I think - the WASH training (water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programming)

Where does that leave us now?

To provide the necessary school desks etc. They have some desks for the one classroom building they had provided recently by UNICEF, but more is needed.

• Completing the Library building. 
• The solar panels and power for the buildings.
• An additional number of toilets, wash basins etc
• Rest of training

 If I could tell you the costs of these outstanding items then I would. The problem is that the economic situation in Zimbabwe currently makes it difficult for our Rotary club there to get prices on building and materials, but they are working on it. I will continue to try to raise funds from Crowd Funding and any other means possible to try to complete the project.

 I attach some recent pictures including children in the new classrooms.

 Yours sincerely

Danny

PS – if you have the means to make a larger donation GlobalGiving have a special deal for next Wednesday 20^th July. I attach details of this, which you will see that you can get up to a 50 percent bonus on top of your donation!

See below:

 Matching Funds

The 2022 July Bonus Day campaign will have a Matching Fund of $400,000 USD.

While funds remain, the following matching structure will apply:

Note the campaign is on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, starting at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. That is 2 pm London time.

• Donations of $100 - $499 USD will be matched at 30%
• Donations of $500 - $749 USD will be matched at 40%
• Donations of $750 - $1,000 USD will be matched at 50%

Donations will be matched based on the order in which they are received while funds last.

• Donations above $1,000 USD will be matched on the first $1,000 USD while funds last. The match offer is restricted to donations made by unique donors per organization.
• Each organization can receive a maximum of $3,000 USD in total Matching Funds to benefit as many partners as possible.