adminThupeyo Muleya Beitbrigde Bureau
WORLD Vision Zimbabwe has donated 3 645 bicycles to 18 schools in Beitbridge district under the Bicycle Education Empowerment Programme (BEEP).
Limpopo area development programme manager Mrs Pretty Dube said in an interview yesterday that the initiative was meant to benefit the girl child who in most cases dropped out of school because of the long distance between home and school.
She said the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education was spearheading the project under the Improving Girls Access through Transforming Education (IGATE) initiative.
Mrs Dube said distribution of the Buffalo bicycles started on Monday last week.
“This is a programme aimed at supporting children to go to school with a bias towards empowering the girl child. A total of 7 284 children between the ages of 10 and 18 years will benefit from Beitbridge district.
“Our target is to deliver the bicycles to 50 percent of the beneficiaries in the first phase,” she said.
Mrs Dube said 36 schools from Beitbridge were set to benefit from BEEP.
She said Matshiloni, Madaulo, Tshikwalakwala, Shashe, Dite, Lukange, Dendele, Msane, Jalukange, Mutshilashokwe, Ndambe, Madali, Vuturura, Chabili, Limpopo, Toporo, Jompembe and Dumba primary schools would benefit in the first phase of the programme.
She revealed that the schools had been charged to form a supervisory committee to select children for BEEP.
“The whole idea is to encourage enrolment and ensure retention of children from primary to secondary education. You will note that in most cases girls in the rural areas drop out of school because of the long distances between their homes and the schools.
“BEEP beneficiaries were identified by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. The bicycles will be delivered to the schools as per the current enrolment,” said Mrs Dube.
She said they had also trained mechanics to service and repair the bicycles at all the schools. She added that her organistaion would provide the schools with spares though they needed to create a fund for that purpose (procuring spares) in the long run.
“Apart from the BEEP project we are constructing a secondary school in Masera area which is almost complete. There are three classroom blocks and three teachers’ cottages. The school will enrol Form 1 and 2 pupils and at the moment we have 192 students,” she said.
Online Reporter