Mid -Year Newsletter

Zimbabwe continues to face serious socio-economic problems, a situation that has resulted in various challenges in many institutions including the health and education sector. This situation has been compounded by the COVID 19 pandemic.  Inflation continues to rise and the cost of living continues to gallop upwards.

As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates, fears are increasing about the effect of the pandemic on women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and their access to care. Although Zimbabwe has often eased restrictions, the effects of travel restrictions, inaccessibility of health services, economic hardship, and gender-based violence are already evident. 

The impact of Covid19 has also been significant on education systems around the world, with policymakers and other key stakeholders scrambling to prevent a global learning crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected educational systems worldwide, leading to the near-total closures of schools, early childhood education, and care services, universities, and colleges. Most governments decided to temporarily close educational institutions in an attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Over the past year in Zimbabwe, as in many other countries, schools closed and reopened only to close again, teachers and learners face uncertainty, and there is an increasing reliance on remote and blended approaches to learning, despite limited ICT infrastructure and other resource constraints. 

Before COVID-19, there was already a long way to reach gender equality in and through education. Any gains scored towards equality are now threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic. A failure to prioritise the needs of women and girls in COVID-19 responses risks further entrenching disadvantages. Tariro continues to prioritise the needs of the girls through provision of funds to enable extra tuition support and through the provision of sanitary pads. Efforts are also being made to support the girls with internet compatible gadgets. Tariro is appealing to its supporters to support our initiative to buy laptops for the students. $100 USD will enable us to buy one refurbished laptop. The laptops will be used for our remote learning initiative. 

To ensure learning continuity for primary students during the vacations and school closures: 12 primary students (including our Grade 7 students) have been brought together and taught by one contracted teacher, provided by Tariro, at Chembira Elementary School. 

Covid19 continues to be a threat and to date Zimbabwe has recorded more than 46,000 positive cases and more than 1,700 deaths. Vaccination is ongoing but a significant number of the population are hesitant to be vaccinated. As of 23 June 2021, a total of 715,056 people had been vaccinated against Covid19,” Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a third wave which has been a heavy strain on the health system. Due to the upsurge in Covid19 cases, the second term schools opening has been deferred to a later date.

Good News!

For the 6th year running CBZ Holdings, one of the leading financial services conglomerates in Zimbabwe which owns subsidiaries in banking, insurance, investments, wealth management, mortgages and retail finance donated RTGS 220318.00 (USD $2000.00 ) which went towards paying semester fees for 7 tertiary students. Thank you, CBZ!