The Magazine for English Professionals - English Teachers ...

News from Matopo Primary School,
Zimbabwe
Autumn Update
A quarter of Zimbabweans – more than three
million people – now live abroad, having fled
the horrendous living conditions which now
prevail. Many of these pay remittances to half
of Zimbabwe’s families who depend on their
friends and relatives for foreign currency and
vouchers for food, fuel and medicine. Hyperinflation
of over 4,500% is destroying the
economy, forcing people to resort to bartering.
Rural areas like Matopo are the worst off.
All of this has resulted in Zimbabwe having
the lowest life expectancy in the world: it has
dropped under Mugabe from 60 to 37 for men
and from 65 to 34 for women.
There is no hope of recovery until Mugabe’s
regime is replaced. All of this makes our
efforts to help Matopo Primary School seem
futile … but how can we decline? Our donations
have already given the teachers and
children a small ray of hope, little victories
which, I hope, will enable survival until the tide
finally turns.
As I reported in the Spring and Summer Journals,
the ETAS Teacher-to-Teacher Project
has already provided funds for books and
uniforms. Denis Paul, our on-site go-between
on the project, was also able to bring in some
36 ETAS Journal 25/1 Winter 2007
NEWS Teacher-to-Teacher Project 2007
basic supplies such as cooking oil from Botswana.
I hope to use some of the remaining
funds to assist with school fees for the neediest
pupils, and for repairs to the crumbling
infrastructure of the school.
Many of my students, friends and colleagues
have spontaneously come forward with donations,
large and small. One ETAS member
(who prefers to remain anonymous), even
donated his retirement bonus - SFr. 500.- to
the project!
One of my students, Sabrina Fasano from
Ringier Print AG in Zofingen, took a special
interest in the project and began busily calling
up companies and asking for freebies. It was
amazing what she came up with: paper and
pens, an enormous box of coloured pencils,
bags, even samples of Nivea cream! In the
end we had 90 kilos of stuff to send to the
school. The only problem was how to get it
there! The postage would cost over SFr. 500.and
I didn’t really want to use our hard-won
ETAS donation money for that! But Sabrina
didn’t give up. She kept on making her phone
calls, and in the end she got the Swiss Post
to cover the costs of sending the materials to
Zimbabwe!
By the time you are reading this, I will have
already returned from visiting the school in
October. This visit is especially important, as I
will be leading a day-long series of workshops
for the Matopo Primary School teachers as
well as teachers from the surrounding primary
and secondary schools. Right now I am busy
preparing booklets for each teacher which
will contain ideas for teaching English which
require little or no materials. This is quite a
challenge, as most published material these
days highlights activities which need
computers and internet access, not to say
unlimited amounts of paper and drawing and
writing equipment, and usually show children
and teenagers living a lifestyle nothing at all
like that of the people who live in Zimbabwe.
Speaking for myself, however, I find that
activities which use the students’ ideas and
don’t have to have any whistles and bells are
often the best anyway.
So I am very much looking forward to the
event, as is everyone in Matopo. I plan to
write up a report on it which should appear in
the next Journal, with lots of pictures!
A big thank you once again to everyone who
has donated to this year’s Teacher-to-Teacher
Project. Your help has really made a difference
and touched the lives of many children
who would otherwise be forgotten.
Cindy Hauert
e-mail: business@e-tas.ch