The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
THE hardship of walking 20 kilometres to the nearest secondary school when he was growing up in Tshalimbe in Umzingwane District, has inspired Mr Cecil Sibanda to build an educational institution for boys and girls in the remote village who had previously had to hike for six hours a day to and from the nearest learning institution.
Mr Sibanda, a Zimbabwean expatriate now living and working in the United States, is the founder of Mlomotsha Secondary School, an institution whose primary objective is to serve communities in Mlomoliwoto and Tshalimbe villages.
Mlomoliwoto is a small village located in Ward 5 of Umzingwane District and while the village has one primary school, the nearest secondary school is more than 10km away.
In most cases, in order to continue their education past primary school, children as young as 13 must walk for about three hours a day, in good weather, just to attend school.
Likewise, Tshalimbe, a small village in Ward 8 of Umzingwane District, only has a primary school and upon advancement from primary school, children must begin a 20 kilometres daily walk to the nearest high school.
Like pupils growing up in Tshalimbe, Mr Sibanda used to make the painful trek to Mzinyathini Secondary School, where fatigue and hunger made learning difficult.
“I was born and bred in Tshalimbe and I had very humble beginnings. The children of Tshalimbe walk a total 20km to and from the closest secondary school. I know firsthand what walking 20km on a hungry stomach feels like.
“No one can tell me how that feels like because I walked for four years. Freezing temperatures, hot summers and crossing the mighty Nsezi River were all part and parcel of that journey. I do not want others to go through what I went through,” Mr Sibanda said in an interview.
While Mzinyathini now offers A-Level, this was not the case when Mr Sibanda was pursuing his education, hence he was forced to move to Bulawayo to further his education.
“Because Mzinyathini did not have A-Level I had to go to Bulawayo. I attended Founders High School. My family did not have a house in Bulawayo. I rented a one-bedroom house in Nkulumane after I enrolled at the National University of Science and Technology. So, our school will bring opportunities to where the people are,” he said.
A close encounter with death when he started living and working in the United States convinced Mr Sibanda to bring his dream of building a school in his old village to life.
“After university I got an opportunity to go and stay in USA. I had always dreamt of doing something for my
community. I already had the dream of building the school when I landed in USA.
‘Working as a project manager for a big company helped expand my mental muscles. After managing multimillion-dollar projects made building the school look like a small endeavour. In the end, well, it wasn’t. In 2014 I had a terrible health scare to the extent that when 911 American emergency service was called, they said I was dead. This made the project even more urgent,” he said.
While he initially had difficulties in setting up the school because of bureaucracy, Mr Sibanda said a few guardian angels along the way helped him work around the then red tape.
“I did not build the school because I am rich. My wealth is similar or lower to that of the average Zimbabwean in the
Western diaspora. Initially the bureaucracy nearly killed the project.
‘The good thing is that God will always place strategic people who are always willing to help and we were allocated 24 hectares of land by the Government,” he said.
The school’s stated vision includes the provision of high-quality, practically useful and reasonably accessible education which must never be withheld based on geography, gender, economy, income, social class or any other uncontrollable circumstance of a child’s birth.
“We envision a world in which families with villages, neighbourhoods or local communities together take responsibility for providing their daughters and sons with abundant opportunities to learn and grow. This world must, and will, begin with our own Mlomoliwoto and Tshalimbe. For if we do not grasp with vigour this most sacred responsibility, who will?” Mr Sibanda said.
