On the side of the road .........

"On the side of the road . . .”

- A Zimbabwe rural school project, April 16 - August 13, 2002

A joint initiative of Districts 5020, 9210 and their sponsoring clubs, Rotary International (through the matching grant program) and the Canadian Government through funding from the Canadian Rotary Committee for International Development. (C.R.C.I.D.)

By Doug Ante, Project Coordinator

Forward: This project was 2-3 years in the organizational stages but originated in 1997 when Doug Ante was in Zimbabwe as part of a Southern Africa holiday-safari trip. On the side of the road, near the village of Silozwe's secondary school in the Matopos Hills National Park (the site of Cecil Rhodes' grave) he met four school girls and gave each a pen and ruler. The girls ran down the road screaming for attention from anyone who would share their joy in this unexpected gift. Their reaction changed his life. Later he handed over the balance of his pens to Louis, a schoolteacher, who asked "Are these pens for the students or the teachers?” A short tour of the school revealed the magnitude of the problem and a commitment was made to return with help.

It took two years and a $US10,000 Rotary "New Opportunities Grant” to return with pallet loads of school supplies including 27,000 pens for distribution to dozens of schools. The plight of the rural schools is unmistakable. Our system has "everything” - theirs has "nothing”. The rural schools in Matabeleland, North and South, are forgotten areas when government support, other than teacher salaries, is considered. These schools rely on fees from students in a land of subsistence farming where money is seldom available. Tribal issues come into play, with the ruling Shona tribe ignoring the needs of their rival Ndebele tribe.

The need is great, through Rotary, there was an opportunity to serve these people, and plans were made to implement a significant matching grant/Rotary volunteer project. Three trips to Zimbabwe (at personal expense) were undertaken to do assessment studies at targeted schools, prioritize needs, create budgets, and locate source materials. Funding began with speaking tours at Rotary Clubs, schools and other organizations in District 5020. Educational and medical supplies were collected and stored. Matching fund grants were applied for and received from Rotary International and C.R.C.I.D.

The Rotary International Matching Grants were #16435, #16437 & #16438. The first two were applied to this volunteer trip and the third is available for the year 2003. These funds total about $US75,000 of which $US50,000 was accessed for this trip.

The CRCID grants were # 2000.093, .098, .099, .100, & .101. The first two were applied to this trip with the remaining three available in the future, at a sequence to be determined based on funding from the parent organization, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Total funding was approximately $US50,000 of which $US20,000 has been accessed for this trip.

Three forty foot containers of supplies, one medical and two educational, were sent to Zimbabwe to compliment this project. One arrived in October of 2001 and the other two in April of 2002, in time for the volunteers to distribute. A conservative estimate of the value of these container loads at used equipment prices is $2.5 million US dollars. Over 140 schools and 40,000 students received school supplies including books, pens, pencils, paper, backpacks and gifts. The medical supplies went to four major hospitals in Bulawayo and over ten rural clinics.

Doug Ante, of the Rotary Club of Comox, BC, Canada was the project coordinator and Phil Whitehead, District Governor of 9210, coordinated the Zimbabwe side with a team of wonderful Rotarians. Fourteen Rotarians from District 5020 came to Zimbabwe in three groups for approximately a month each in May, June and July of 2002. The following is the report of the project as it unfolded.

I arrived in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where our project was headquartered, on April 16th 2002, and stayed until August 13th. This gave me approximately two weeks before the volunteers arrived and two weeks after they left to organize and finalize the project in Zimbabwe. The first two weeks were spent dealing with suppliers, getting quotes and making initial purchases of generic supplies common to recipient schools. My initial concern was the inflation rate of 122%, compounded by two previous years of inflation over 100%. Our budget was based on two-year-old quotes, now meaningless. Luckily, the parallel market rates for US dollars in Zimbabwe adequately covered the inflation, preventing a dramatic reduction in the project. Ultimately, we had money "to spare” and were able to enhance our project goals at the targeted schools, and expand to other schools, as their needs became known.

The second task during the first two weeks was to get two containers through customs ready to distribute when the first group of volunteers arrived. This is a constant challenge in Zimbabwe. Significant costs including storage, customs fees and trucking were incurred but we avoided import duties.

Other tasks included setting up housing for the volunteers in Bulawayo and in the rural schools. In Bulawayo, we were able to arrange accommodation at the home of Rotarians Don and Judy Ratley, from California. They have a wonderful home at 43 Percy Avenue specifically set up to handle Rotary Volunteers working in and around Bulawayo. It is a remarkable sanctuary and meets the needs of volunteers. Local Rotarians provided sleeping bags, cots, cooking kits and cooler boxes for the rural school accommodation.

The final task was transportation. It was not organized as anticipated and alternatives had to be arranged. Local Rotarians came to our rescue. We needed a vehicle for six people plus supplies, capable of handling unmaintained rural gravel roads. We finally found a safari van belonging to a Rotarian available to lease. It was an excellent vehicle but there was no money in the regular budget and so the costs were born by the volunteers from their stipend from Rotary International.

I had an immigration problem upon entry into the country. I was issued a 30-day visa for a 120-day stay. Again, local Rotarians came to my rescue and this was corrected.

A number of generic supplies, common to all targeted schools were sourced and purchased in bulk. At the individual schools where intense, hands on work by the Rotary volunteers occurred, these supplies were distributed and used in the projects we had slated. Six schools, two for each of the three volunteer groups, shared these supplies. The supplies included wheelbarrows, water buckets, hoes, shovels, pitchforks, garden hoses, picks, cement trowels, levels, hammers, squares, paint brushes, paint rollers and trays, work gloves and bags of cement. We also supplied quality ladders for each school, exercise books and school furniture. The furniture came from an organization called "Abilities” in Bulawayo. It is non-profit, largely supported by Rotary, hiring mentally and physically challenged adults to work on the manufacture of classroom chalk and furniture. They also make wooden toys and perform contractual work. Supporting this organization is a "win-win” situation.

After two weeks of intense organization, the first group of four volunteers arrived. They were Stan Robinson, Dr. Kirsten Emmott and Steve & Madge Williams. Their first task was the distribution of the contents of the two containers. The volunteers, local Rotarians and some hired laborers, unloaded them. Rotarians with medical backgrounds determined the best recipients for the medical equipment and supplies. Wheelchairs, gurneys, beds, surgical gloves, crutches, walkers and hundred of boxes of supplies were picked up or distributed to local hospitals and rural clinics.

The second container of school supplies was distributed to over 140 schools using local Rotarians, nineteen Interact Clubs and school contacts. Books were separated by subject matter into Primary, Elementary and Secondary.

Specific days were set aside for pickup of the school supplies and the response was overwhelming as hundreds of educators descended on our storage building to receive their allocation. Some were delivered up to 350 km away. Some Interact students arrived by taxi to get books for their schools as they were not old enough to drive or had no access to a vehicle.

Volunteer Group 1 then proceeded to its first school. It was the only school within Bulawayo and was chosen because it caters to physically and mentally challenged children in an abandoned school, the oldest in the city, in need of some "help”. The reward of working with these wonderful children can not be over emphasized. Bonding between students and volunteers happened over the two weeks. We privately funded furniture for a group home and helped one girl fund clothing, shoes, equipment, transport and food costs for a 500-km fund raising walk.

We laid one hundred of feet of sidewalk at this school to even out the footing for physically challenged students who need flat surfaces. We painted benches and fencing, worked on their sports field (including a long jump pit), and put up railings on their steps. We supplied desks, chairs, benches, a TV & VCR, and roof repairs.

The volunteers lived at 43 Percy Ave. throughout this two-week project, as it was only five blocks away. The second school was a "live in” experience, perhaps the most rewarding for all the volunteers because we had longer each day to mix with the "locals”.

The last two weeks for Volunteer Group 1 were spent at Silozwe Secondary School. Our first task was to put up one km of chain link fencing around the schoolyard, to keep out such animals as cattle, donkeys, sheep and goats. It also helps control the children and makes supervision easier. Local villagers were out in force. The first morning, 125 were on site ready to assist. It took until noon to get them organized into shifts, half in the mornings and half in the afternoons, to keep them all busy. They are hard working, competent people. They just need the materials and they can do the job. "Helping them help themselves” was our constant theme and they never let us down throughout the entire project. We re-painted the school. A roof had blown off the science wing in the cyclone of 2000 and the volunteers put on a modern trussed roof. A two-km barb wire fence was supplied to start a small cattle farm at the school to supplement their school income. (These schools get little government funding and must rely on other sources of income to survive. They are quite creative.). Six teacher cottages were plumbed with a kitchen sink, toilet, basin and shower. A soccer kit was purchased for the school team. Four sewing machines were purchased for the home economics class, a drip irrigation system was installed in the school garden and a set of classroom furniture was delivered.

The close friendships developed between the teachers, students, villagers and the Rotary Volunteers resulted in a number of privately funded projects including more sewing machines, wiring for cooking stoves, scholarship funding, and making donkey carts for rural, mobile libraries. This school has 140 students who have their school fees paid by private and matching grant funds.

Two remarkable incidents here come to mind. First, as we saw at every school, one person from the village volunteers seemed to stand out as a leader. With the fence installation, one man was first to arrive in the morning and last to leave each night. We noticed his gumboots were torn to shreds. They were all he had so he kept wearing them. We would have thrown them away eons ago. We bought him a pair of quality gumboots and presented them at the end of the project. He was speechless. He literally could not form words to express his gratitude. The boots probably represented three months of income for him.

The second incident had more drama. A young student collapsed in the school ground and went into a coma. Dr. Kirsten Emmott determined she probably had pneumonia with complications. Her lungs were filled with fluids and she had shallow breathing. We wanted to take her into Bulawayo (50 km away) for medical attention but the locals wanted to deal with her "their way”. We took her to her home and watched as she deteriorated. When it was obvious this young girl was dying, I convinced them, because of six years of association with the village, they could trust me. They let us take her to a clinic where, luckily, there was oxygen and she emerged from the coma. Trying to find a vein, including her jugular, to do an intravenous to administer anti-biotics, proved impossible so direct injection into her buttock was performed. She slowly recovered. Without our intervention, this beautiful young girl would not be here today. Other medical `events' occurred throughout the project, usually involving painkiller `tablets' once the villagers knew we had them.

May ended, the first group of volunteers returned to North America, and Volunteer Group 2 arrived including Rotarians Mary Parker, George Hinkel, Denise Larson and John & Mary Mulrooney.

Group 2's first school was Sojini Secondary, 40-km north east of Bulawayo. We painted six double classrooms and eleven teacher cottages. Electrical repairs were made to eleven teacher cottages. All were plumbed with kitchen sinks and toilets, including septic tanks dug and lined with bricks. Over 60 windowpanes were replaced and 250 meters of fencing were put around the school garden. A set of school classroom furniture was delivered along with 60 sets of door handles and locks to re-fit the entire school.

The joy of these experiences was constant, but there were highlights at each school. Two come to mind. The volunteer from the village who mixed our paint took great pride in his work and `begged' us to let him come to the next school (120 km away!) just to mix the paint there. The other was the delivery of twenty 4” foam mattresses for the boys and girls who lived in two teacher cottages during the week because the walk from their homes was just too far (25-30 km each way). Many of these students walk 10-12 km each way, every day, to get to school. They sleep on a cement floor with a single blanket. The situation at their rural homes is no better. It was winter with nighttime temperatures at 10 degrees Celsius or lower. The reaction to these mattresses can be expressed this way - they went berserk!!! In all my experiences, I can not recall quite that reaction from anyone. The mattresses were funded privately by the Rotary Volunteers and we shared in the joy we brought to these youngsters.

For Group 2's rural, live-in experience, they spent two weeks about 75 km southwest of Bulawayo at Njelele Primary School. It is also in the Matopos Hills, directly below the most sacred place in Zimbabwe, the Njelele Shrine. Access to the Shrine is limited to invitation by guide only. Whites are not allowed into the area of the Shrine for fear it will upset the spirits there.

We painted the entire school and teacher cottages. Minor roof repairs were done, windowpanes and doors were replaced, school classroom furniture delivered and cement for floor repairs supplied.

Occasionally, we took the teachers to the local village stores and enjoyed a barbecue or braai. This was a real treat for them, beyond their salary abilities and a highlight of our stay. In return, we asked them to sing for us on the way back. Their singing is beautiful. Their national anthem is among the nicest of any country. Hearing them sing (or better yet, 250 school children clustered around their flag in the schoolyard) can bring tears to your eyes. The volunteers sang O Canada once. Only once! By the way, we had nineteen in our vehicle with seating for nine!

June ended and Group 2 returned to North America. July saw the arrival of the third and final group of volunteers. They included Dr. John Dickinson, Mike Faris, Bill Robinson and John & Lynne Marinus.

Group 3's first school was Sacred Heart Primary boarding school, run by the Roman Catholic Church. It is about 60 km south of Bulawayo and we commuted daily. Fencing was a big priority here, with 650 meters of fencing put around their play field for animal and student control. Many of the buildings were painted on a priority basis. Forty benches were ordered and delivered for their community meeting hall. They have nine low yielding wells all connected to supply water, but lacking proper coordination of the wells to maximize yield and synchronize delivery. Controls were installed, using my expertise and local engineering. A shade shed was installed as a viewing stand at the sports field. The boy's dormitory had 3000 tiles removed and a new tiled floor installed. Local volunteers worked until 3 AM to get this job done!

To indicate the roughness of the roads we traveled to get to these schools - on one trip, the back bumper of our vehicle fell off after countless bumps and `bottoming out'.

After this school, Group 3 went on a real adventure 183 km from Bulawayo, the furthest school out in the bush, virtually on the border with Botswana and at the "end of the road”. The villagers finally gave up waiting for the government to build a primary school so they did it themselves. Four classrooms for grades 1-7 (sharing of classrooms occurs) and one teacher cottage for eight teachers. Three actually sleep in the classroom closets intended to be a teacher office. There is no running water, no electricity, no sewage and cooking is on wood fires.

We delivered two sets of classroom furniture, teacher desks and chairs, filing cabinets for textbook storage, goal posts for soccer, netball posts and hoops, volleyball posts and nets, a flag pole, roof patching material, windows and doors for a second teacher cottage and gutters for one classroom block to catch rainwater. We also `treated' the teachers here as they are so remote and have so little in their cottages. We bought them blankets, foam mattresses, fire grates, paraffin lanterns, cooking pots and utensils. Our biggest project here was to install 1.6 km of fencing around the entire schoolyard. It was a huge undertaking and went on for the entire two weeks we were there. Two crews or more were constantly working at clearing brush, digging fence post holes, cementing posts, driving standards into the soil between the posts (posts every 100 meters and standards every five), stringing the support wire (three strands at top, middle and bottom) and finally hanging the diamond mesh fencing in thirty metre lengths.

Two highlights at this school include the goat they killed and cooked for us when we first arrived and the reaction of the villagers when our big truck with all the materials arrived in the schoolyard. They marched, en masse, from where they were sitting entertaining us, down to the truck, drums pounding, singing and dancing with joy and continued unbroken for an hour while we unloaded the truck. When you experience this reaction, you know Rotary is making a difference. We are appreciated and are "Sowing the Seeds of Love”.

The three-month program ended and Volunteer Group 3 returned home. All the schools offered farewell parties. Seldom under two hours and often going to five hours in length, they were filled with speeches, dancing, singing, tributes and gifts. We were humbled by their generosity. Lifetime friendships have developed from these ventures into the rural areas around Bulawayo and with Bulawayo Rotarians.

Additional projects were accomplished due to the exchange rate stretching our funding dollars, extra money brought by volunteers from their clubs and private donors and the generosity of the volunteers and Bulawayo Rotarians. These projects included school classroom furniture, painting, window glass, water pumps and payment of school fees. Numerous Rotarians from the Bulawayo Clubs took time to travel to the project sites and experience, first hand, this remarkable matching grant project.

The hospitality of local Rotarians was remarkable. Arrivals and departures at the airport were well attended. Welcoming and farewell parties occurred. Trips to game farms, cultural centres and events, historical sites and mini-safari trips were organized. The local press in Bulawayo gave us good coverage a number of times, including front page, full colour pictures on one occasion, noted and commented by many. Press coverage not only enhanced the project image, but also helped the local Rotary Clubs gain a presence they had never attained before.

As a volunteer and as the group coordinator I can unequivocally state this project was a huge success. It touched the lives of tens of thousands of children and villagers. It ignited a lasting sense of community and a spirit of volunteerism at these schools and villages. Rotarians from Bulawayo became aware of the power of `hands on' volunteer work. The spin-off projects that will occur as a result of this effort will carry on for years to come.

My fear is the political climate in Zimbabwe will scare us away from this desperately needy nation. The world press is doing Zimbabwe a great disservice. It is true there are huge problems to be overcome, but the vast majority of the people live in peace and harmony. It is a safe place to be. We saw nothing raising physical concern. I traveled over 15,000 km and did not see one instance of violence.

I consider myself blessed to have had the opportunity to serve as a Rotary Volunteer. I will continue this `journey', helping the rural schools of Bulawayo, for the rest of my life. I understand "Service above Self” and our goal of "World Peace and Understanding” much better, having served as a volunteer. The Rotary Foundation and its programs are remarkable. We must continue to encourage Rotarians and others to contribute in order to support and enlarge the work we do.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve.

Respectfully submitted,

Doug Ante