An Update from Mark and Laura Albertyn – 3rd Term 2017

Well we made it to the end of another year! It is always incredible to look back and see everything that has been accomplished in the year and this year is no different.

During the August school holidays we had a wonderful 3 day camp with our Internal and External Students at the Resource Centre. What a fantastic few days together – fun games, team building workshops, robots, writing workshops – community service in the rural areas, as well as celebrating all the students’ birthdays at a fun filled party! What a fabulous way to start the term!

There are 3 Prize Giving evenings to fit in before exams begin and we love the opportunity these evenings offer us to celebrate our students achievements and to reflect on their times at their incredible schools.

Awards and Prize Giving – St Georges

  • Chiko – Rector’s L6 Commendation and Coffin Prize in L6 Maths.
  • Brandon – Rector’s L6 Commendation and Blackbeard L6 in Geography.
  • Munya – Major L6 Commendation

Awards and Prize Giving – Gateway High

  • Taku came 4th in the whole of Zimbabwe in the Zimbabwean Maths Olympiad
  • Belinda – Subject Prizes for Maths and Biology and Carnduff Trophy for outstanding Club Leadership.
  • Ruramai – Subject Prize for Chemistry and Physics and Science Trophy

Awards and Prize Giving – Hellenic Academy

  • Chenai – Chenai received a trophy for best AS results and prizes for Mechanics, General Paper and Accounting.
  • Donald – Best in Economics L6 Prize.

Incredibly two of our students were made prefects at their respective schools this year – well done Kuda and Donald. So proud of you both with the huge cultural adjustment this first year has been and to also be able to stand out enough for your leadership qualities to be noticed! We know you will serve your schools well over the coming year.

Various Upper Sixth students enjoyed their leavers’ dancers at their respective schools and we always love seeing them dressed up!

Our students conquered the examination season with determination and stamina! We look forward to their results in the new year. Even though it is a term filled with exams – we still manage to accomplish quite a bit and have a lot of fun. The swimming pool brought much stress relief during this time!

Our Annual Graduation is always a very memorable event – a wonderful time to bid our students farewell, look back over their time with Makomborero and celebrate who they have become with their parents, teachers, schools, corporate and individual sponsors. It is always such a highlight of our year! Here is a short video of the wonderful afternoon.

Makomborero’s Christmas party is always a highlight of the year – Internal and External students, Makomborero Staff and family coming together for games and food and a present from Santa! A very special way to end the year!!! Have a little watch of this great video!

Congratulations!
A huge congratulations to Chenai on getting into Harvard on a full scholarship! We are thrilled – what a journey this amazing young lady has been on.

Congratulations also to Destiny (Pioneer Student 2012) on graduating from Lipscomb University, with a Computer Science and Mathematics Degree. He starts his job with Goldman Sachs in January as a Technology Analyst.

We can also celebrate as all 5 of our university graduates are employed, all in their areas of expertise! This is huge in a country where unemployment is in the 90%, and is testimony to the long term impact that Makomborero has!

UK Visit
I had the incredible opportunity to visit the UK in November to attend a Makomborero event and speak to supporters and people looking in to support the work that we do. This was a wonderful opportunity, humbling and incredibly encouraging.

Selection Process 2018
Every year we say it gets harder, but honestly it does. Mark and I, with our Makomborero team have just gone through the gruelling process of deciding which of the many worthy candidates who apply for a scholarship should be accepted. Laura tells us a bit more about the students coming in to the house this year:

“The stories of lives affected by the dire economic situation our country faces become more heart wrenching every year! Of the 500+ applications that we received this year, we invited 200 of these amazing students to the first round of testing. It is a joy to meet all these students and get to know them a little throughout this process. We often get text messages afterwards saying they are sad not to have made it but what they gained from the testing process will stay with them forever. It is so much more than just testing! It is often giving students their first experiment of the practical side of a subject, building relationships, having teachers invest fully into them, being treated as a person and not just a number, and that their voice wants to be heard and holds value. We love watching all of our past and current students help out during this process, and seeing them reach out and build relationships too. The final part of the process involves visiting the homes of our short list of students. These home visits are always emotional but also so incredibly humbling to be welcomed into a strangers home and leave friends. Some homes have this incredible atmosphere, despite what the family are facing. Laughter, joy etc.”

So we welcome 8 new Internal Students into the Resource centre and 10 new External Students. We so look forward to getting to know them. 6 have already started at Hellenic and St Georges and the last two will start this week at Gateway. Our external students are waiting for their O’Level results.

Please keep our new students in your thoughts as they make these huge cultural adjustments into their new schools.”

Happy New Year
As this year draws to an end we want to thank all our long term donors – corporate and individuals who have continued to stand by us through some really tricky months in Zimbabwe. We hope this next year will see things improving in Zimbabwe and more and more students accessing an education. But Makomborero continues to stay committed to its vision and is excited for whatever the new year holds.

Thank you all and a very Happy New Year!!

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An Update from Mark and Laura Albertyn – 1st Term 2018