17 October 2007

1. Out of the mouths of children…

It is widely known that the so-called "Seppo Concept" of Dzivaresekwa means that a large number of white people are given the familiar title of 'Seppo' regardless of age or gender. However, we have recently spotted some amusing variations on this theme: the little ragamuffins living nearby the Rujeko Street Shelter Home have noticed that they can get Oili particularly happy if they call her "Seppo boss" and have started calling out "Seppolin, Seppolin" after Eveliina!

2. Visit to the boarding schools

On Saturday 29 September, Brenda Mbengo, Oili, Eve and Assan drove out to greet Brenda's brother Troy at Kwenda High School, when the school held an Open Day. We went equipped with bags full of school gear, and extra food, such as juice, peanut butter, cereals, porridge oats, rice, sugar, tea, biscuits and of course soap and washing powder. These days schools are only able to offer a monotonous menu of just sadza and cabbage stew, with meat, if available, at the weekends only.

On Wednesday 3 October, it was the turn of Seppo, Oili and Eve to make a trip to Dewure High School, where we have 26 pupils boarding. The flatbed of the big Nissan was packed to the gunnels with stuff, including food, missing items of clothing and other gear. Our supply of toothpaste and toothbrushes was met with particular enthusiasm!! Particular thanks to all those who donated such a good supply! The Dewure group was again a joy to see and entertained us with many beautifully sung songs. The boys' performance of the swinging gospel groups' rendition of "Awesome Brothers" made a special impact on us. According to Levi, who led the gospel group, they will be ready to record next year – is there an agent for them out there?

Two of the youngsters from the Dewure group returned to Harare with us. Precious came to visit the ophthalmologist and was prescribed her very first reading glasses. Kudakwashe came for a check up on his wrist; he had broken it earlier in the year and now it had again become painful and swollen as the result of some kind scuffle. New X-rays happily showed that his wrist was fine. Next week Progress will make a trip to the dentist in Harare, as the only dentist in the township of Gutu has closed down. Also we arranged for Natasha to have her injured knee checked up by an orthopaedic specialist in Harare and she is facing surgery to put it right. We are currently doing our best to negotiate a decent discount on doctors' fees and hospital charges.

The deputy head at Dewure told us that of the 860 pupils at the school, and 650 are boarding. The school now has 37 teachers and are still hunting for a competent physics teacher.

3. Dzikwa Activity Centre construction project

Construction of the 'Palisade' wall has been started up, with vigour, at the beginning of the month. Our contractor, Mr. Jena has expended blood, sweat and tears to get hold of the material we need for construction of the boundary wall. Happily, by Monday 15 October we had already managed to purchase over 75% of all the materials we require, along with 100% of the steel elements and 80% of the cement. Inflation is again on the rise and September saw a monthly rise of 39% (the annual rate is approximately 8,000%), so pricing becomes a fluid concept. We have found we have had to bring forward some payment dates, to make matters work. Every now and then the problem can be that the building supervisor is unable to get to the site because of the petrol shortage and work comes to a grinding halt. Apparently accepting the lift to the work site and back, offered by Mr Jena, is not in line with administrative good governance.

One piece of happy news comes from the Australian Embassy, who has shown a green light to funding a smallish project or two. We will be submitting a formal request for funding the bore hole and part of the security wall.

4. News from the Shelter Home

There are now 27 children resident in the Shelter Home. On Sunday 14 October, we had an Open Day at Rujeko Street # 3861 for all the guardians of the Shelter Home residents, to which a majority of them turned up. We showed the guardians the facilities and went through, in detail, the Home's operational principles, the Matron's duties and responsibilities, the Dzikwa Trust's expectations regarding the children's behaviour and the rules concerning the children. Each of the visiting guardians filled in a specially designed form, formalising their request that the Dzikwa Trust keep the child concerned in the Shelter Home. The guardian had to fill in the reasons for the request and the paper was signed by both the guardian and the child.

In addition to the permanent residents in the home, we now have two children on a short-term basis. They are both 13 years old girls and have both been involved in friction with their respective guardians. One arrived at the Shelter Home with a bloody nose and said she had been battered and otherwise given a hard time by her adoptive grandmother. The other girl arrived crying her eyes out, saying that her mother wanted to marry her off to an old man. We have ended up trying to sort these problems out with the help of the a division at the nearby DZ police station, which has specialised in handling complaints related to child protection (the victim-friendly section). They will hear both parties in each case and check out any other related testimony. Occasionally it feels as if active help for a child only comes when the situation has already got well out of hand. Luckily one of the senior staff at the police station has personally given his support to the investigation of our children's cases. Tsidzo, the psychology student on attachment with Dzikwa, is holding special sessions with the two girls in an attempt to clarify the background of these cases and how they developed as well as analyse the girls' behaviour and personalities.

Tsidzo and Eve have finalised the list of First List children who are still missing birth certificates altogether. There are approximately 50 such cases. An organisation called "Justice for Children Trust" has promised help in acquiring this essential piece of documentation for each of the children concerned.

Britt and Kevin, from the Harare International School, again had a Saturday session with the children on 13 October; giving tuition and hobby guidance to a whole crowd of youngsters. The walls of the Shelter Home are slowly starting to burst with all the product of their hobbies and the results of Eve's art lessons.

5. Child numbers

We are now in the middle of a small exchange programme with another charitable organisation, working in the Dzivarasekwa Township and supporting orphans, run by Mr. Kakono, with whom we are very familiar. He doesn't place any minimum requirements on the children he assists, regarding their school achievements, and aims to help as large a number of children as possible. Therefore, we have decided to hand over to his care, the children who are academically at the bottom of the Second List and replace them with those on Mr Kakono's list who are doing particularly well in school. We aim to keep the number of Dzikwa children to a maximum of 360.

6. Special lessons arranged by Dzikwa

We finished looking through the results of the second term and on Sunday 14 October we held a special meeting at our Vice chairperson, Mrs. Dune's home along with the special lesson teachers and all the children called to take extra lessons. The principles of the Dzikwa Trust require children who consistently bring poor school reports home to attend special tutorials. The 23 children concerned have been divided into four groups: 3rd and 4th grade pupils (6 children); 5th grade pupils (2 groups of 6 children) and 6th grade pupils (5 children). The lessons will be given in the morning 08.00 – 10.00 or in the afternoon, 14.00 – 16.00 and will commence from Tuesday 17 October. In both cases, the timetable allows for the children to eat at the Dzikwa kitchen. The rules of conduct, regarding the organisation of and participation in these support classes have been made absolutely clear to teachers and children alike. Persistent and groundless absenteeism from the tutorials will result in the child being dropped from the Dzikwa lists.

7. Culture sessions

The yard of the Gombo School buzzes with activity and enthusiasm at the weekends, when the Dzikwa Choir practices new songs, the marimba players and drummers do their thing in another corner and the traditional African dancers go through their agile steps elsewhere. It has also been delightful to follow the drama group's activities. They are currently working on an animal-themed production and Prince S. is bringing the role of lion to life in a most delightful manner. The teachers from Pamuzinda have handed over a thorough quarterly report, giving detailed analysis of each child's progress.

We are in the process of getting new performance outfits for both the choir and the dancers. We already know that the headmaster of Gombo School is intending to invite our groups to perform at the school's Prize-giving Day on 2 November and they will also perform for the Dzikwa Trust, when we have our Activity Centre groundbreaking ceremony on 12 November.

On Tuesday 16 October we took all our 'artists' and other involved in creative activities to see the dress rehearsal of the musical Dance, Stretch & Groan at the REPS theatre. We had received 40 tickets to the performance as a gift. Unfortunately the local electricity board let us all down – the district in which the theatre is situated remained in darkness and we ended up following last rehearsals without background music. Quite a procedure!

On Saturday 13 October, two of our highly artistic boys, Anyway and Joe attended lessons at an art club that is being arranged at the National Gallery. They learnt some of the secrets of watercolours and from now on we intend to send our best artists there every Saturday morning. Joe’s charming water colour painting of a giraffe eating at a baobab tree will be auctioned on December 2^nd in Helsinki – so be ready!

8. Other points of note

We are in the process of making an agreement with the consultants Ernst & Young on an independent analysis of Dzikwa's operations. The commission covers the issues required by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland, such as the relevance, efficiency, economic viability, effectiveness and long-term sustainability of the Trust's operations. We are also looking into analysis of the competence and training needs of our key staff, as well as analysing the current operational procedures and how they can be enhanced and incorporated into an operational manual for Dzikwa Trust. Institutional capacity building is the issue at hand.