An update from Mark and Laura Albertyn – 1st Term 2016

Well what a year it has been so far!! We have come to the end of a very eventful term.

We welcomed out new 8 Lower Sixth into our boarding house and have been so impressed with how quickly they have settled into their schools and the boarding house. We have begun to see them blossom. The Upper Sixth have really matured, found their confidence and taken up their position as new leaders of the house. It has filled us with great joy to see them grow over this last year and we are excited for what all their futures hold. Both Lower and Upper Sixth received outstanding reports this term.

It has also been wonderful to have new external students join Makomborero and we look forward to getting to know them too!

Results

We were thrilled to receive our A-level results this year and our students did us proud! Our AS students obtained – 19A, 8B, 3C and 1D and our A2 Students obtained – 8A*, 14A, 5B, 2C. We now wait to hear where our 2015 leavers will be studying for tertiary education!

Nicola already has a Mastercard Scholarship to UCT in South Africa. Sikho is waiting for confirmation of a possible scholarship in the States. Micheal Dzine has a full Mastercard Scholarship to Ashesi University in Ghana. Yeukai has a MBCA one year scholarship for studying engineering at the UZ. Prince has got into Medical school at UZ. We are so proud of them and continue to wait to hear what the future holds for the 2015 leavers!

We are also thrilled at our New Lower Sixth students O’level results, which always come out once they have started with us and acts as such confirmation of our recruiting process – thankfully!

  • O’level internal students results – 62A,4B, 1C
  • O’level External Students results – 47A, 13B, 5C

Safeguarding Policy

This term we implemented a Safeguarding Policy in the house. This was so appreciated by our students and staff. In a country where peoples’ rights are not important and often overlooked, our students so valued going through this document. Learning what abuse is. Many of them asked to take the document back to their communities to share. I was struck at what a privilege it is as Makomborero, to provide a safe haven for our students, something that is not offered to so many in Zimbabwe.

Student Achievements

Tatenda won a prize in the Old Georgian Fred Both Essay Competition. He walked away with spending money and goodies which he shared with his peers at the boarding house. He loved the recognition and we were proud of him!

Joseph Mahiya published a collaborative poetry book called Fresh Ink (available to buy here). This is a great achievement and a beautiful compilation of different poetry works from students all around Zimbabwe and who come from different backgrounds.

A big congratulations to Tanaka who won the DSTV Eutesat essay completion in Zimbabwe and was awarded a brand new laptop.

Our students wrote the Science Olympiad exam in March and we wait to hear how they did. Our external students also wrote the exam for the first time.

Colours awards

Full colour blazer for Chenai and Charlegne at Hellenic – for outstanding O’level results
Full Colour blazers for Tatenda, Prince for outstanding AS results
Tadiwa and Ropa – Academic Half Colours for outstanding AS results

Reflection

I had time to reflect recently that through Makomborero we have managed to touch 104 students lives personally and a couple of hundred more, through Revision lessons – this is huge and reminds me that this is why we do what we are doing!

Resource Centre

It has been incredibly humbling to receive a very generous donation to purchase a boarding house. Having rented a house for just over 5 years this has been a very exciting development. This house could not be more perfect for our needs and we are so excited to see how this property is utilised. The students are loving more space and the incredible peace a place that size property brings to ones soul! To say we are thrilled is an understatement.

Trips

We had another wonderful trip up Domboshava and it was special for our Lower Sixth Students to experience the big rock for the first time.

Domboshava

I also travelled to the UK in April to thank long term sponsors and to meet with the UK board about fundraising initiatives.

Sponsors
We were incredibly thrilled to welcome a new local Zimbabwean sponsor – IH Securities. These guys have been fantastic in the way they have embraced Makomborero and have shown such a personal interest!

And to our long term donors, who have stood by us through thick and thin and the ups and downs of a Zimbabwean economy, we are incredibly thankful!

As things in Zimbabwe continue to be uncertain, we value the support of our sponsors even more! Thank you for continuing to change lives through Makomborero Zimbabwe.

Proudly Sponsored by

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