What a great term it has been. 2nd Term of the academic year always seems to be the busiest – mock examinations, incredibly full co-curricular programmes, etc and our students have thrown themselves into all of these things whole heartedly.
As has become our tradition, we celebrate all our students birthdays at one party each year – we did the same this year and what a wonderful celebration it was of each one of them. We had such fun playing your classic party games, laughing and just enjoying being together. We had 7 students volunteer to bake different kinds of brownies – this has become a tradition each year and such a lovely opportunity for them to do something (baking) that is so foreign to them and they have such a sense of accomplishment!
Two of our Lower Sixth students received full colours blazers for their academic accomplishments at O’level – we are so proud that their efforts were recognised. Well done Takudzwa and Ruvimbo who are at Hellenic Academy!
Yes we did it again – 6 of our students were invited, all expenses paid, to the 49th National Science Olympiad Focus week at the beginning of July. What a life changing opportunity for these students – a first for all of them – travelling out of Zimbabwe. Mark and Mr Muchoko (a local Trustee) were able to attend the week with the students. We were so proud of them – well done Nyasha Katemauswa, Taringana Guranungo, Lisa Luka, Collen Gondo, and Blessing Murangate. On the final night at the awards ceremony Taringanga, Nyasha and Blessing each won an i3 Laptop for best results in the Physical Science Paper!
Sean came back for a feedback session on the $1 loan business set up project. What an inspirational morning we had with him as families fed back about how this $1 inspired them and has changed their lives. Thank you Sean – this will become an annual event with our students parents. If you want more details on this please visit my personal blog.
We had two past students of Mark’s from the UK visit during July. Sophie (who is now a qualified Maths teacher herself) and Fleur (who is on her gap year). What wonderful young ladies! They blessed our home with their presence and were invaluable to Makomborero. We sought ministry approval for Sophie to volunteer at Mt Pleasant High. This was a great opportunity for her but also was an incredibly challenging experience – she was very positive and went each morning with a skip in her step even though she was faced with some difficulties!! Fleur helped out at a local pre-school, whose children came from fairly poor backgrounds. Both of them redid the boarding house Library and got some cool Maths posters printed for the boarding house study. Sophie came out 2 years ago and both of them say they will be back!!!
Tinotenda who is in Upper Sixth at St Georges has made it onto the schools volleyball team that will be touring in Western Australia at the end of the year. This is a mind blowing opportunity for him and we are so grateful to St Georges for their incredible support of Tino and the funding they have raised for him to go!!
Every Lower Sixth class in this country does some kind of team building during their first year of Sixth Form. We have seen how important this time is particularly for our scholarship students as it really cements them into the school and they come back feeling more part of the school they attend. This term, from Hellenic Academy, Takudzwa and Ruvimbo went to Tree of Life. They both came back so inspired and excited at the amazing challenges they overcame in those 5 days! They were literally beaming!!!
Our annual Domboshava outing was particularly special this year as Sophie and Fleur could join us but we also had some of our past Makomborero students join us up the mountain. This trip always fills my heart and this time more than ever, we particularly felt like a big family, lots of laugher, games, and fun was had by all! We had to all squeeze into 2 minibuses!
Mark, Mrs Banga and Joan had the privilege of attending the USAP graduation ceremony for Destiny Mhishi and Ryan Maponda who have received full scholarships to study at and at Tufts University, in the USA, respectively. The Ceremony was held at Prince Edward and the Guest of Honour was Ms Beatrice Mtetwa. It was a truly inspiring morning and Mrs Banga and Mark shed a few tears as they bid farewell to Ryan and Destiny. We are so proud of all they have achieved. Thank you again to Mai Mano for your dedication to your USAP Students . We our trusting that our two current USAP students, Lisa and Taringana, will be flying the Zimbabwe flag next year for us.
Our Pioneer students are starting their tertiary studies during this year and we have been able to start a small grant scheme for those who are studying locally! How exciting this has been and is an opportunity for them to give back to Makomborero in the future once in employment.
Our annual revision school will be taking place again these holidays and we will be holding it in Harare this year. The students will travel to us from various townships around Harare. We will pay for their transport, give each student stationary packs and a meal each day. They will be attending 4 days of lessons and we feel very excited about the impact that this will have on their studies. Our students will be volunteering their time, as well as a few teachers.
Bruce and Kate are out from New Zealand to help with English at this! Thank you guys!! Thanks to all our volunteers that make this annual event such a success.
On a sad note, Rufaro Nyoni’s father passed away in Botswana in July. She is in Lower Sixth at Gateway. What was so lovely was that a bus full of teachers and students from Gateway, as well as all our students, visited her home in the township to pay their respects. Her family were so touched by the love and support.
Fundraising
We were so proud again of Stuart Campbell and Sheffield High for their incredible fundraising efforts – though their annual event Peter’s Commute. Thank you, thank you!!!! Peter now has a job, while the company that employs him will be sponsoring his degree. What an incredible journey this young man has been on!
The London 10km had an incredible amount of Makomborero runners this year – all sporting bright yellow t-shirts. Thank you to all of you – the employees of Acturis
who ran for us and our 4 amazing UK Trustees. We know it was an incredibly hot event – well done!!!
Our local fundraising has been incredibly hard but we keep knocking on doors. This is largely due to the uncertainty during this election period. We are so grateful to the local companies that do sponsor us and we hope to continue to have your support!! You really are changing lives.
Another great term!! Thank you also to our wonderful staff – Mike, Mrs Banga, Joan and Johannes. Without you guys this all would not be possible!
