Beula villagers in Matobo district have pooled resources together to build a primary school in their area to cut the distance travelled by their children to the nearest school.
Learners are walking over 10km to Mzila Primary School.
After seeing the plight of the learners, the villagers came with the idea of constructing Mnyaka Primary School.
As part of the fundraising projects, the villagers have come up with various initiatives.
Under the first phase which started last year, the villagers managed to mould over 50 000 bricks while the second phase focused on pegging, clearing, and fencing the school premises.
Speaking to CITE, Dawn Ncube the project secretary said in the third phase they will move to is now focusing on constructing a classroom block.
“As villagers in Matobo working with a group of young people based in South Africa and 10 headmen in the area we are trying to construct a primary school in our area. So far, we have moulded some bricks while those based in South Africa have managed to buy a fence. We have also managed to peg the area where we are going to construct the school. We are at a stage of building a classroom block and we have already started with the foundation,” said Ncube.
Ncube added that long-distance schools are leading to the poor performance of their children.
“As parents, we saw that our children walk long distances even during the rainy season they cross so many rivers and the long-distance schools are contributing to the poor results.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the project who is based in South Africa Luka Ncube, said they are facing some challenges of resources.
“We are experiencing some challenges in terms of resources as we are still starting our project thus we are also doing some fundraising projects,” he said.
“We are also going to have a fundraising tournament in order to assist us to raise some funds,” said Ncube.
Beula ward 5 Councilor Madalaboy Ndebele said the school is going to assist learners who walk long distances.
“At times as parents we often think our children are not doing well at school yet they will be tired from walking long distances to school and when they get there they will just sleep,” said Cllr Ndebele.
The villagers also said they welcome donations from those who will like to assist in the project.
