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Leonard Ncube, [email protected]

LEARNERS with disability at Fatima Primary School in Lupane will finally have a decent place to sleep following construction of a hostel by Uluntu Community Foundation.

Uluntu was registered in 2008 to provide a people centred mechanism of community development and empowerment in the Bulawayo and Matabeleland provinces and serves as a convener and a catalyst for community empowerment through training and grant making.

The organization aims to facilitate community led and people centered development to alleviate poverty, hunger and empower communities in response to pandemics and other natural disasters.

It is constructing a hostel to accommodate 45 disabled learners at Fatima Primary, a huge relief for the vulnerable kids who have over the years been using makeshift facilities at Fatima High School which is some distance away and putting them in danger, as well as a priest house at Fatima Mission where the Roman Catholic priests were providing accommodation for them.

Fatima is a referral special needs school in Matabeleland North and the institution is also administered by the Zimbabwe Foundation for Education with Production (Zimfep).

Uluntu Community Foundation executive director Ms Sibusisiwe Sithole said the organisation partnered with some local and foreign partners including the community, and continues to seek partnerships to mobilise resources through acknowledging the community asset base and wealth within the communities, to build strong resource base.

Uluntu Community Foundation executive director Ms Sibusisiwe Sithole

“We have been working with rural communities in Bulawayo and Matabeleland South and this project where we are building a hostel at Fatima Primary is the first in Matabeleland North. We are building a hostel for children with disability after we realised they were learning but without proper accommodation.

“A few of them were staying with priests while others were staying at the secondary school but the distance and bush is not safe for them. So we are looking at a hostel that will accommodate 45 kids,” she said.

Fatima is located on the edge of the Hwange National Park and protected forest land and predators stray into the community putting lives of people in danger which may also befall children with disabilities on their way to school.

Ms Sithole said they partnered with a group of Roman Catholic priests and others, including Government through the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and Kusile Rural District Council.

The hostel will have in-house ablution and bathroom facilities.

The building is already complete with roofing, plastering and tubing done, while plumbing and flooring is underway.

“We are doing final touches and we are working with other stakeholders like the council, Ministry and we are also grateful to the community for working hard to see that the project is successful,” added Ms Sithole.

Uluntu has done a number of projects using a collaborative approach with stakeholders such as  Associazione Amici di Padre Savino – Onlus (Italy), Government departments and others.

Uluntu has invested in community capacity building, philanthropy, resilience and self-sufficiency and pushes programmes on HIV and aids, pandemics, climate change, preservation of Natural Resources towards empowerment of communities.

Uluntu has done Qedudubo project in Zhugwe, Gwanda, Portbury youth empowerment enterprise in Umzingwane Ward 7 and several other education support initiative at 45 rural Gwanda and Umzingwane schools.

The Foundation also mainstreams gender equity and gender based violence prevention and during Covid-19 era supported Government with protective wear.

ZIMFEP Regional Manager Southern Region Ms Nobuhle Nyoni said the project will help increase enrollment at the school which is the centre for learners living with disability in Matabeleland North.

“We are honoured to have partnered with ULuntu Community Foundation who have constructed hostels at Fatima Primary School for learners who are deaf and those living with disability. The hostels will house 45 learners and the partnership will go further than the construction as the foundation will continue to manage the hostels and also provide learners with disability-friendly living and learning equipment.

“The construction of the hostels at the primary school have become a blessing to the learners as they will now be closer to the classrooms. The learners were housed at Fatima High School and used to walk back and forth for meals. The availability of hostels of such standards will attract learners from all over the country. We want to thank Fatima High School for taking these learners in from long back and Uluntu for uplifting standards

She said the project dovetails with President Mnangagwa’s philosophy of leaving no one and no place behind.

ZIMFEP has also partnered with Nhaka World View Trust at its other school George Silundika High School in Umguza to develop the school farm, Mbongolo which is a demo plot to promote climate change resilience.

The Trust has also partnered with Seniors without Borders from Denmark and the school to promote Anti-Drug and Substance abuse in the district.