Media Article on Book Donation
Bulawayo NGO Collaborates with Two British Charities to Donate 50 000 Books to 42 Local Schools and Two Universities
Pachikoro News | May 30, 2018
During the course of the last school term up to Saturday 26th May, 2018, a local NGO, the Collin Nyabadza Children’s Voice Charitable Trust (CNCVCT) collaborated with two British charities to donate 50 000 books to a total of 42 primary and secondary schools and two local universities. The CNCVCT approached Books Abroad a Scottish based charity for help with books. They responded positively and began mobilizing the books across the U.K. The Scottish charity also mobilized the funds for shipping. Another U.K. based charity Sands of Faith Child Foundation then came on board and provided a grant of £3 000 to help towards shipping.
The consignment was then shipped directly to Bulawayo where the CNCVCT received it. By then the recipient schools had already been identified. These were from Bubi, Bulawayo, Imbizo, Matobo, Tsholotsho, Umzingwane and Mutasa Rural Districts. This remains one of the biggest projects undertaken by the CNCVCT so far, as it helped impact a total of 19056 (nineteen thousand and fifty-six) children. Two local universities, the National University of Science & Technology (N.U.S.T.) in Bulawayo and the Lupane State University in Lupane Rural District were the tertiary institutions that received the books which if purchased locally would have cost a total of USD500 000 or more. This therefore makes, this project a worthy investment.
“This has been an exciting and important project for our organization as it helped us reach out to so many children, teachers and parents too. Books form an important part of every child’s learning and as such they should readily be available to them”, said Mr. Collin Nyabadza the Chief Executive Officer of the CNCVCT. His organization wishes to express its sincere gratitude to the Books Abroad and Sands of Faith staff and volunteers, for having worked diligently to ensure the successful shipping of the consignment as this is a process that requires a lot of volunteer hours to sort out the books. “Our U.K. partners did an excellent job as the books were nicely sorted out which made our distribution very easy. It takes a special group of devoted and dedicated people to do that. On behalf of our team I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Books Abroad team together with Washington Magaya and his Sands of Faith team for their faith in our young organisation”, added Mr. Nyabadza.
The CNCVCT also wishes to pay homage to Dr. Themba Nyoni whose premises were used to store the books upon arrival. This allowed the organization to work on the distribution logistics without pressure on their backs. “Dr. Nyoni’s timely intervention could not have come at a better time than that. He came to our rescue by providing us his premises for free as storage for our books. It’s a huge challenge to find someone willing to store a whole consignment of 50 000 books, without any charges. Without his quick intervention we would most likely have ran into serious problems”, said the CNCVCT Board Chairperson Mr. Siqhubumthetho Dube.
The project helped make books easily accessible to thousands of children from the beneficiary schools. Without a conducive environment it is very difficult for the children to develop a keen interest in reading. To echo these sentiments, the CNCVCT Schools Liaison/ Logistics Officer Mr. Muziwandile Dube had this to say, “We would like to thank the CNCVCT, Books Abroad and Sands of Faith teams for their generous book donation to our schools and universities. Without assistance such as this one, our school library resources would be lacking. We are still in need of updating our reading selection, but are so very grateful because every bit counts. Thank you once again for your kindness, generosity and for your willingness to believe in the learners in Zimbabwe and to contribute so selflessly to their educational process”.
Despite the success of this project, the Collin Nyabadza Children’s Voice Charitable Trust still lamented the lack of a program vehicle. “The lack of a program vehicle exposed us a lot as it slowed down our pace in as far as the distribution of the books was concerned”, remarked Mr. Nyabadza. He therefore appealed to those willing to assist in the purchase of a vehicle to get hold of him. The organization is also in the process of building a 1×2 classroom block at Sishawe Primary School in Bubi. The project is already at roofing level and has been receiving kind assistance from the Swift Current community where Mr. Nyabadza is based in Canada.
See more photos at this posting: http://childrensvoicezimbabwe.org///donation-of-50-000-books/
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