What we do

A-level Scholarship Programme

We provide a scholarship programme for around 8 promising students each year. These students are selected from hundreds of applicants following a rigorous academic and character based selection process developed by Mark. All of the students are provided with a high quality A-level education at three top private schools in Harare, a home to live in and all the resources they require to make their study life as easy as possible. These students have all been recruited from the surrounding townships of Harare and each of them has an incredibly inspiring story of how they fought against tremendous odds to get through their GCSEs and come out with outstanding results.

The A-level Scholarship Scheme started in 2011 and we have had 5 groups of students graduate from Makomborero.  Our 8 second-year students from the 2016 intake are all doing well, and we have just recruited a further 8 first-year students for 2017.

Our past students have all achieved extraordinary A-levels results! Here are their results, and stories of what they’re all doing now:

• 2012 leavers
• 2013 leavers
• 2014 leavers
• 2015 leavers
• 2016 leavers

Makomborero also supports a number of A-level students who don’t qualify for the scholarship scheme (8 per year), paying their school fees at local government schools, examination fees and providing them with textbooks.

University Grant Scheme

Support for our students doesn’t stop after A-Levels. In order to ensure that our scholarship students go as far as they can with their education, Mark and Laura work with these students to apply for university scholarships around the world. Those students who don’t benefit from university scholarships are offered a grant to study at a Zimbabwean university. These grants will be repaid once the students are in full-time employment, making this scheme self-supporting.  We will have our first University Graduates in 2017.

Revision Schools

Each year Mark and Laura run revision schools in the surrounding townships of Harare. These revision schools target pupils and students about to write their GCSE in October, so are run during the August school holidays. This is a much needed service for these schools, and is a wonderful way for our scholarship programme students to give back to their communities, as well as volunteer teachers from Zimbabwe or abroad. Makomborero has been welcomed with open arms by the headteachers of many high schools we partner with. Our team of volunteers and students find it very humbling working with these schools and to see the hope that many pupils and students are given just by teachers who come from very different backgrounds to them taking the time to invest in their lives. The heads often say it is an incredible motivator for them.

Mobile Science Laboratory

In Zimbabwe, many schools in the high density (township) suburbs and rural areas are unable to afford to run science laboratories. The result is that pupils learn the theory behind practical experiments, without having any hands-on experience to draw from.

Makomborero is in the process of converting an old shipping container into a Mobile Science Laboratory, that can be moved from school to school, enabling as many pupils as possible to have practical experience of using science equipment, as well as giving the teachers hands-on training and helping them gain confidence in using the small science kits each school is supplied by the Ministry of Education. The Mobile Science Laboratory will spend a total of 4 weeks at each township school, and we will supply a teacher’s guide as well as worksheets, notes and multiple choice questions for each student to keep.

We need your help to make this happen, and we are running a Global Giving Campaign to fund this project.

Support of Rural Schools

Mark and Laura have a vision for education throughout Zimbabwe and love supporting rural schools. In previous years they have worked in Mondoro/Ngezi supporting local government schools, helping to raise achievement.  As a young family whenever they go on holiday they pop into rural schools along the way painting blackboards and leaving textbooks.  These schools often don’t receive much outside help and are always so so grateful for any support that they receive. It is hard to describe some of the conditions of these schools and what an impact something as small as painting a black board, donating text books, resources, chalk etc, can be.  With time they hope to establish a more strategic work with rural schools but, with a young family and Mark working a demanding job, they will continue to serve in this way.

Work with Infant Schools

This work started in Mondoro/Ngezi area when Laura lived and worked in this rural area of Zimbabwe in 2010. Like most rural primary schools it was over subscribed and under resourced. Laura spent time playing games, and doing music, dance and craft sessions with the pupils in Grade 0 – ranging in age from 3 to 5 years. These pupils come from very rural backgrounds and had not been exposed to many of these things. Laura is looking to start this work in the surrounding townships of Harare as travelling out to Mondoro/Ngezi is not currently sustainable due to Mark and Laura now living in Harare.  They hope with time to work with Nursery and Infant schools in the surrounding areas of Harare.