Whiz kid’s story of perseverance

Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
“TEACHERS open the door, but you must enter for yourself,” is a popular — Chinese proverb.

This proverb sums up the journey of Rufaro Russell Gamariel, a 17-year-old pupil from Gifford High School in Bulawayo who took heed of calls to take education seriously by his teachers and family and eventually scored an impressive 10 As and a distinction in the November 2018 Ordinary Level examinations.

The 10 As were in Mathematics, English Language, IsiNdebele, Biology, Physics, Geography, History, Heritage Studies, Chemistry, Combined Science and a distinction in Computer Science.

Rufaro, whose name means happiness in ChiShona indeed brought happiness to his mother and maternal grandmother whom he stays with as he has not let his difficult circumstances deter his willingness to learn. Rufaro is now doing his Lower Six at the same school where he is doing Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Statistics and intends to be a medical doctor.

But his educational path has not been easy. He said he faced challenges as he did not have adequate resources but he had to do with the little that he had.

“I have a very supportive family and school teachers, this is why I managed to get these grades. I have also managed to select good friends for myself that share similar interests with me and that has kept me going. I did not let my challenges distract me from reaching my goals,” he said.

The soft-spoken boy was the best 2018 O-level candidate at Gifford High School.

“From the time I was in Form One up to last year, I always came out tops every term. I am proud of myself and the help that I have received to achieve this,” he said.

However, he said he was not expecting to ace all the subjects.

“When we checked results online initially I thought it was a joke as it was a chain of As which I was not really expecting because the examinations were tougher than I expected and I thought I was not going to perform as good as that. However, after a while it sunk that they were real,” he said.

His mother Ms Lynette Mashonganyika said she was proud of her son and knew he would perform well.

“I am very proud of him, the whole family is. I thought that since he had challenges in his learning journey and accessing reading material it would affect him, but no, he did well. I was scared his eyesight was going to affect him but he performed well,” she said.

Mrs Mashonganyika said she was appealing to those who can assist her son with a laptop and a smartphone to help him in his studies to give him.

“He needs a laptop and a smartphone that he can use to research and store information for his learning, as we are in a technologically advanced era; they need these laptops for study. I would be grateful if he could be assisted with any other form of sponsorship,” she said.

Ms Mashonganyika said she is not economically active as she suffered a spinal injury in 2013 and cannot work anymore to raise the resources needed for Rufaro’s education.