Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
BUY A Brick Foundation, a Victoria Falls-based humanitarian organisation has made significant contribution to development of rural communities with over US$500 000 invested in building educational and health infrastructure in the last decade.
Established about 13 years ago and working with Team Africa of USA, Buy A Brick Foundation is synonymous with development in Monde, Chidobe, Chisuma, Sizinda, Ndlovu, Jambezi, Matetsi and Masuwe outside Victoria Falls.
The organisation has been involved in the building of 12 schools, a clinic, and also installed Wi-Fi services at one of the learning institutions.
What makes Buy A Brick Foundation projects unique is that it is also building resilience of communities through community gardens and involvement in the particular projects as opposed to food handouts done by other donors.
In addition, the organisation is involved in the schools feeding programme and carries out targeted food distribution to needy groups, in line with its focus on spiritual, agriculture, medical and education development in the communities.
Its goals are inclined to constructing and refurbishing schools, building special needs facilities, providing education activities, building and furnishing clinics, providing vital health, water and nutrition through nutritional gardens to help create self-sustaining, thriving communities.
The organisation works with Hwange Rural District Council in construction of schools, Agritex in development of community gardens and Department of Social Welfare in the food distribution programme, as it complements Government on its thrust to achieve an upper middle income economy in terms of Vision 2030.
Chronicle caught up with the organisation’s team of Mr Vusumuzi Masilela who is chairman, Mr Khumbulani Tshambo who is the co-ordinator, Mrs Rosemary Nyoni (secretary), Mrs Sipho Gumbo (treasurer) and Messrs Rakel Ndlovu and Jonas Sibanda and Ms Haile Ndlovu who are committee members as they donated groceries to Chinotimba Old People’s Home last week.
At the home they donated 140kg of mealie meal, 28 litres cooking oil, 28kg sugar, soya mince and other items, following a similar gesture to Mosi-oa-Tunya High School quarantine centre also in Victoria Falls. In an interview, Mr Tshambo said the organisation seeks to empower communities through ensuring availability of educational, health and water facilities.
“Buy A Brick Foundation was registered in 2008 under the People Link Tours and Transfers. Our idea is to give back to the community and so far I can say we have spent more than half a million United States dollars in school projects.
“Our mission is to help in the education of our communities. Growing up we used to walk long distances to school hence we decided to have a project that ensures schools are closer to the people. As we were building schools, we realised that was not the only solution as some children were not coming to school because of hunger hence we then partnered Social Welfare for feeding programmes,” said Mr Tshambo.
He said where there is need, Buy A Brick Foundation organises transport to carry grain from the Grain Marketing Board to schools and sometimes mills the maize and distributes the maize meal to schools.
“We also source the particular meals for schools feeding because we believe children should love school. As for the old people’s home, we saw a story in the Chronicle about the home’s need for food and started mobilising this donation. We are also helping elderly people aged 72 and above and the disabled in the surrounding villages where we give them food and we have identified 30 households so far,” he said.
Buy A Brick Foundation has since its establishment carried out projects at Chidobe, Vulindlela, Batoka and Matetsi secondary schools, as well as Masuwe, Matetsi, Chimbombo, Simakade, Bethesda and BH36 primary schools.
It has built Leona Clinic and a nurses’ cottage near Vulindlela Secondary School from scratch and plans are underway to construct Moringa Secondary School in Victoria Falls town.
According to Mr Tshambo, Buy A Brick Foundation constructed two blocks with four classrooms each and two teachers’ cottages to accommodate seven teachers at Chidobe Secondary School where they also drilled a borehole and installed Wi-Fi services for the school.
They also constructed two classroom blocks and a cottage at Vulindlela Secondary School as well as a single block at Batoka Secondary School where a piggery project has also been started to benefit the community.
Batoka Secondary is a new school which is to be built as one of the community projects funded by the Batoka Hydro-Electric Project which is yet to set-off.The organisation is currently constructing a 26-roomed accommodation block for borders at Matetsi Secondary School and the structure is now at roof level.
The school’s catchment area goes beyond 20km covering resettlement areas such as Breakfast and Lubangwe where over the years many children dropped out of school before going to secondary because of the long distance they travel to school.
At Matetsi Primary, two blocks each with three classrooms have been built from scratch while a single block with two classrooms was constructed at Masuwe Primary.
The organisation built a classroom block at Chimbombo Primary, connected electricity to the school and bought beds for teachers. BH36 Primary had its roof renovated and electricity connected as well as construction of bathrooms for teachers.
Renovations were done at Simakade and Bethesda primary schools, with the latter also getting a solar powered borehole and Jojo tanks to serve both the school and community.
“We were meant to construct Moringa Secondary School in Victoria Falls but that is on hold now. Matetsi Secondary is the project we are seized with at the moment and we are at roof level,” said Mr Tshambo.
“As for the community gardens, the community identifies land where we drill a borehole for them in partnership with Agritex. So far one project is underway in Monde’s BH126 while Agritex are still surveying for more in Chidobe, BH159 and BH129,” said Mr Tshambo, a former taxi driver, tour guide and curio vendor who established Buy A Brick Foundation with the help of some development partners and Team Africa.
He is proprietor of People Link Tours and Transfers and recently opened iRock Lodge about 10km between Victoria Falls town and airport.
He said the lodge will be using 10 percent of its profits for community development.
Mr Tshambo appealed to community members to come to the party and take responsibility of the developmental projects.
“We sometimes have a challenge of people who don’t understand the concept of giving back to the community as some expect to get paid when they participate in community projects. We are a non-profit making and non-political organisation hence we don’t employ people. We share expenses with the RDC as we bring building materials and we employ builders.
“We expect village heads to mobilise their subjects for labour and provision of water so that we all take ownership of the projects. I want to encourage everyone to participate in community development projects especially in their areas so that we all work for the future of our country,” he said.
Mr Masilela who works as a tour guide for a leading operator said Buy A Brick Foundation is working on expanding the scope of its coverage.
“All the achievements by Buy a Brick are a result of teamwork and trust which has also earned confidence to funders. We want these projects to expand even to town here in Victoria Falls,” he said. — @ncubeleon.
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