adminSukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Gwanda Correspondent
THE Zimbabwe Red Cross Society has embarked on a $1 million dollar project to rehabilitate schools in Mangwe District, Matabeleland South Province and empower communities and learners with disaster preparedness skills.
In an interview, the organisation’s operations director, Mr Karikoga Kutadzaishe, said the project, funded by the European Union, will run for two years in 10 schools within the district and then extend to other districts and provinces.
“As the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society we partnered with the British Red Cross, Finnish Red Cross and European Union to implement a schools safety programme in Mangwe District, Matabeleland South Province which will also incorporate the community.
“This is a two-year programme that will target 10 schools and about 18 000 learners. Of these 10 schools, five will undergo rehabilitation. Learners and communities will also receive education on disaster reduction. We will also put in place a cash preparedness plan where we will allocate schools and communities money they can use in case disasters strike. We have allocated $850 000 towards this project but it may increase to $1, 1 million,” he said.
Mr Kutadzaishe said the region of Matabeleland was constantly experiencing strong winds and storms that destroyed infrastructure thereby disrupting the learning process for pupils.
He said after conducting a research, they realised that Mangwe District in Matabeleland South Province was one of the most affected areas which prompted the intervention.
Mr Kutadzaishe said last year, 15 schools from the district were damaged by hailstorms and five of the affected schools were set to benefit under the programme.
He said they were going to work together with the local authority and existing community structures.
“The project is at inception stage as we are in the process of engaging, informing key stakeholders and identifying schools that we will work with. In the next phase which begins in January we will start rehabilitating some structures and concurrently we will deal with cash preparedness and disaster reduction in schools. Once the project is complete we will focus on moving to other districts.
“Most of the schools that we have in the country were built in the 1930s and have outlived their lifespan. The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has specific standards on infrastructure but finances remain a challenge. After this project we hope to have achieved disaster risk reduction among schools and to have created safe learning environments,” Mr Kutadzaishe said. — @DubeMatutu
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