Plans for African school

By Casey Neill
A SCIENCE teacher has big plans for a struggling school in a poor African village.
Belgrave’s Rob Simmons is calling for help to provide electricity and classroom upgrades for the school in Zimbabwe.
The school is in the farming village of Gurambira in the country’s west which is home to 2000 people.
“They generally don’t have excess food to sell, and in a bad year they don’t have enough to eat,” Mr Simmons said.
“To me, education is the key because it has so many spin-off effects.”
He secured US$3500 to upgrade the town’s six-classroom school through an Australian Embassy assistance program two years ago.
The cash paid for new doors and windows, roof and floor repairs and repainting.
The refurbishments were underway when Mr Simmons visited in January.
“They were literally dancing around when they saw it. They were just over the moon,” he said.
“It turns out this project has motivated and enthused them. It’s affected them so much they’re now thinking to the future.”
School staff presented Mr Simmons with plans for a secondary school on the site.
“They’re an incredible bunch of people,” he said.
“They’ve sat down and shown me a vision plan for the next five years effectively, and they’re struggling from day to day.”
The school needs just one building to begin Year 7 and 8 classes.
It would cost about $15,000 and service children from five primary schools.
Mr Simmons said secondary school students from the village currently walk more than 10 kilometres to school each day.
“They then have to do all their chores, collect wood and water, tend the fields, and still find time to do their homework,” he said.
“Generally what happens is these kids drop out. By the time they get to Year 8 the grind wears them down.”
Mr Simmons’s association with the primary school began in 1999.
“I saw a photo of a cupboard that was going to become their library and it was just bare,” Mr Simmons said.
He sent them books his children had outgrown.
“And I got this fantastic letter back from the headmistress, Matildah,” he said.
They began to correspond regularly.
“The more I learnt about the school, the more I realised they were in a bit of trouble,” Mr Simmons said.
School fees fund everything except teachers’ salaries.
“These parents, who live out in the middle of nowhere and are rural peasant farmers, had to pay fees,” he said.
Many could not afford the annual $3 per child, particularly those affected by AIDS.
Mr Simmons started off helping 11 students and now pays the fees for all 280.
He also helps kids continue to secondary education.
The school suggests capable students from impoverished families who would benefit from continued schooling.
“This is one of the beauties of these people,” Mr Simmons said.
“They are by no means rich or wealthy or comfortable, but they can still acknowledge people within their community that are even worse off.”
Mayliess Ncube is 22. She studied textiles thanks to Mr Simmons and now produces school uniforms to support her family.
Her story is in stark contrast to girls who leave school.
“They’re basically getting married at 15 and having children by the time they’re 16,” Mr Simmons said.
“Because of her secondary education, Mayliess has been able to put that off.”
Mr Simmons wrote to Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith earlier this year.
He explained Gurambira’s plight and requested a meeting to discuss funding opportunities.
Mr Simmons plans to connect electricity at the school for lights and fans.
Teachers could then hold homework sessions and adult English classes after school.
“At the moment kids go home and do their homework by candlelight,” he said.
He also hopes to secure funds to upgrade four primary schools nearby.
La Trobe MP Jason Wood said a link to donate funds to the project would be available at www.jasonwood.com.au from April.
Anyone who would like to donate before then can call Mr Wood’s office on 9762 4066 or send an email to jason.wood.mp@aph.gov.au.