Meet one of our beneficiaries: Tiny J. She lives with her mother, grandmother, three other siblings, and six cousins. Together, the 12 of them share three small rooms in Harare’s densely populated suburb of Glen Norah. With an absent father, it was up to Tiny’s unemployed mother to single-handedly raise Tiny and her three other siblings, among a huge extended family. In 2010, when she was in grade 5 at Chembira Primary School, Tiny almost dropped out of school due to not being able to pay her school fees. Like many orphaned and vulnerable girls, she was plagued by continued absenteeism from school and this was severely affecting her grades.
Fortunately, Tiny heard of Tariro through our dance instructor, Daniel. After going through our vetting process and with recommendations from her Headmaster, Tiny was enrolled into Tariro and before long, her grades gradually began to improve. Now doing Form 2 at Glen Norah 2 High School, Tiny is happy that Tariro has taken her this far. She is doing well in school and her confidence has returned. Today, Tiny is a prefect at her school.
When she spoke to us, she revealed that she strongly wants to become a nurse so that she can offer immediate help to those who are ill. She says she was inspired by her friend’s aunt. Tiny is so passionate about becoming a nurse that she disclosed to us that she is studying her mathematics and science extra-hard so she will be eligible to enroll for the profession.
On a parting note, Tiny revealed her dream to give back to Tariro through donating money for school fees as well as stationery once she is working. She also had a word of advice for her fellow Tariro colleagues, “Girls, we should work hard in school so as not to let our donors down”. We would like to thank all the supporters for helping us get this far! As we move toward a new school year in Zimbabwe, your donations mean the world to Tiny and her peers.
This blog post was written by Sagar Patel, a Tariro student intern through the University of Rochester’s Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender & Women’s Studies.