CIVIL society group, Mopane Foundation International, has expressed concern over the high number of school dropouts in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces.
BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
Mopane Foundation International co-ordinator Hlanganani Dube told Southern Eye that they recently conducted a survey in the two provinces and noted that the majority of the dropouts also did not have birth certificates.
“Challenges are that most of the children don’t have birth certificates and most of them don’t have school wear,” he said.
“We would like to encourage all caring Zimbabweans to plough back to their former schools, especially in the rural areas.”
The organisation said it had paid school fees for more than 30 children for the whole of this year and also provided school uniforms and other basic stationery such as exercise books, rulers, pens, pencils for pupils from poor families.
The organisations’ founder, Nomsa Neke, said their assistance was targeted at less privileged orphaned school-going age children in rural communities.
“If I were asked to talk about the everyday challenges these children have what we have seen witnessed and the ones we had to enquire about, trust me. We need a lifetime. Our main role is to ensure they get that access to those opportunities children their age do have,” she said.
