2010: The rundown!

Tariro student Ashley B. in Mhondoro

Happy New Year from Tariro!  I’ve been absent for a few weeks now, working on my dissertation.  However, I’m back online now, and I’d like to kick off the new year by giving you the details of Tariro’s work in 2010.

Our fundraising progress

Before I talk about our work in Zimbabwe, I’d like to give you an update on our progress toward our fundraising goal of $40,000.  While we didn’t make it all the way to our goal, we did raise over $25,000 to support our programs in 2011!  This means we’re a third of the way toward meeting our budget of $75,000.

Tariro’s support helps students facing increased vulnerability

So what do we do with the money we raise?  I’m very pleased to report that Tariro’s work is having an incredible impact in the lives of the students we sponsor in Zimbabwe.  As our program coordinator reports, Tariro’s work is now more important than ever, as Zimbabwean children have become even more vulnerable following the dollarization of Zimbabwe’s economy.  As a result of economic and political trends, fewer Zimbabwean students received educational support in 2010 than in 2009.

In contrast to this general trend, thanks to our committed donors, Tariro has managed to retain all of our sponsored students, and was even able to recruit fifteen new students to our program in 2010.

An overview of our student demographics

During 2010, Tariro supported a total of 57 students with comprehensive education support.  These numbers included 8 primary level, 3 university and 46 high school students.  Tariro supports children at 4 primary school, 6 high schools and the University of Zimbabwe.

Of our 57 sponsored students, 6 attended boarding school in 2010. Boarding school is offered to students who have unstable or abusive home situations, or come from areas where there are no high schools and have excelled to proceed to a higher level.  Unstable home may include child headed households, or families which move constantly, resulting in significant absences from school.

Our model leads to higher school attendance

Thanks to our intensive case management with students and their families, Tariro’s sponsored students had a 98% attendance rate in school in 2010.  Our attendance rate is bolstered by our sanitary ware program, which helps ensure girls attend school full-time.

Tariro gets results!

This year, Tariro celebrated our first university graduate, Pamela Kawungwa.  In addition we saw 16 out of 17 of our graduating class students complete their exams.  Six students won awards for academic excellence, and two students were accepted to university.  Finally, Tariro assisted a street child to return to school.

Looking ahead…

In the following week, I’ll be giving a summary of our progress in other areas, such as our traditional music and dance group and mentoring programs.  I’ll also share with you our goals for 2011.  To support our work, please join us on Facebook, spread the word about our program to friends, and consider making a donation online.  We couldn’t do it without the generous support of our friends and volunteers all over the world… thank you and happy new year from Tariro!