Chrispen Gumunyu, Business Reporter
A CANADIAN non-governmental organisation, Canada-Zimbabwe Project Society, working with the Zimbabwe Project Society has funded a piglet project at a primary school in Matabeleland North with donations worth $20 000 to support vulnerable children in the community.
The school, Mbembeswana 1 Primary School which is in Bubi District has 23 teachers and 807 pupils. The school head, Mr Nelson Masukume, praised the funding, saying it will go a long way in supporting the project.
“We started searching for donors in 2017 to fund the school’s piggery project with no luck but early this year we managed to get hold of agricultural-orientated projects Canadian donors who managed to assist us with two breeding pigs, drugs and feed worth $20 000. The school has also received a science kit that contains instruments pertinent to the piggery project from Government in collaboration with Unicef,” said Mr Masukume.
He said the objective of the project is to raise funds that will assist vulnerable and orphaned children in paying school fees.
“The school’s administration observed that the school was heavily populated with orphaned and vulnerable learners who have challenges in payment of fees. In sync with Government policy on child psycho-social support, the school wanted a project for fundraising which would also augment Basic Education Assistance Module and the proceeds from the project will go towards levies for the learners,” said Mr Masukume.
He also said the pigs have increased in number and the project will benefit the community by providing a boar for cross breeding.
“The pigs have since increased to 10 and they will be ready for sale in two months. This project will also assist the community by providing information on how best to breed pigs as well as providing sows for cross breeding with the school’s white boar pig,” he said.
Canada-Zimbabwe Projects Society local co-ordinator, Mr Moses Murewa said the organisation will continue to assist the school up until the project becomes self-sustaining.
“The donors are a small NGO from Canada and they normally fund start-up projects such as the piglets’ project. We assisted the school with two breeding pigs and we provided them with start-up feed for the project and we are going to assist them until they sell the first litter of piglets. It is a small project whereby once they start generating funds they will use the funds to assist vulnerable children at the school,” he said.