THE Embassy of Japan recently commissioned five classroom blocks, eight toilet blocks as well as several desks and chairs worth $123 450 for physically-challenged students at King George VI School in Bulawayo. Report by Fidelity Mhlanga
The buildings and equipment were officially handed over by the Japanese ambassador to Zimbabwe Yonezo Fukuda.
He said the Japanese government believed in giving children an opportunity to learn in an appropriate environment and that all children had a right to education regardless of their physical status.
“It is a natural right for every child to attend a decent school with quality facilities and receive quality education,” Fukuda said. The new development will enable the school to enrol more physically-challenged and deaf children.
In a speech read on her behalf, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s wife Elizabeth Macheka, who was scheduled to be guest of honour, said the new classrooms would make a huge difference in the lives of the physically-challenged and deaf children, allowing them access to education in order to compete in the world of employment as well as being self-reliant.
“The gesture extended by the Japanese government is a milestone towards alleviating the conditions of our children. I would like to express my gratitude to the government of Japan for this generosity and friendship,” said Macheka in a speech read on her behalf by Thandiwe Hlabangana, principal director in the Prime Minister’s Office.
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Fukuda emphasised that it was crucial to equip the children with knowledge to build the future of the country on solid ground and encouraged Zimbabwean parents educate their children regardless of their physical conditions.