Chronicle Editor
Fairness Moyana, Hwange Correspondent
FIVE rural schools in Hwange District received a shot in the arm when World Vision donated 200 goats and building material to construct pens in an effort to create income-generating projects and lessen reliance of tuition fees from economically struggling parents.
The project comes at a time when the country is grappling with Covid-19 induced economic impacts which have resulted in some parents struggling to raise money to pay fees.
Those that benefitted are Dinde, Mashala, Nekabandama, Makwa and Dambamkulu primary schools. World Vision Hwange Area development programme manager Mr Lovemore Nyoni said the donations were a way of supporting schools to have sustainable income for development.
“The main objective of the goat project is to support schools to have a sustainable income which will drive school development be it infrastructure, furniture, stationery, textbooks and all the other needs.
“The realisation is that schools are struggling with the ability to raise enough income for sustainable development because of a number of reasons,” he said.
In Hwange, Mr Nyoni said consecutive droughts, Covid-19 impact on jobs especially in the tourism industry and the general economic difficulties have resulted in people failing to meet basic needs.
He said each school received 25 goats with female variety having been locally obtained while a special breed of boer goat was sourced from other areas.
“So the objective is to say if schools are supported with the robust income generating projects in this case we are talking of a goat project.
“We used to do it with fewer goats but over the years, we learnt that maybe we needed to increase the number.”
The organisation also donated materials to build state of the art pens, which are critical in ensuring maximised productivity and protection.
Bongani Ndlovu