The Parish Justice and Peace Group has chosen Zambuko House in Harare, Zimbabwe run by Jesuit Missions as the Parish overseas project for 2014-15.
In the past we have through Father Arbo’s charity You Touch Africa supported a hospital in Tanzania and last year we supported the village of Kainmari in Bangladesh through the CAFOD Connect2 scheme.
Summary of Project
Livelihood support for 400 orphaned and vulnerable teens and young adults, both male and female, to improve living standards and enhance livelihoods at Zambuko House, Harare.
Origin of this Project
UNICEF estimates that in Zimbabwe orphans/children aged 0-17 years orphaned due to all causes (including HIV/AIDS) is estimated to be 1,400,000. The charity Street Child Africa carried out a census in 2009 and found more than 700 children, under the age of 18, living on the streets of Harare; the numbers aged 18-21 years of age are even greater.
Through no fault of their own, these young people have found themselves without a home, living and sleeping on the city streets. Most have found themselves there as a result of the death of their parents, or family breakup, or the unwillingness of a new step-parent to accept them. Apart from the physical deprivation of living on the streets, this lifestyle is also dangerous in terms of exploitation, susceptibility to disease, succumbing to bad influence, moving into crime and imprisonment.
What Zambuko Provides
Zambuko House centre runs an outreach programme to make contact with young people living on the streets, offering to those who are willing, the opportunity to grow into a more table and healthier lifestyle.
Zambuko provides a refuge and rehabilitation centre for orphaned and vulnerable teens and young adults. It offers a refuge from street life and a home-like environment for vulnerable young people. The centre provides shelter, food, counselling, personal development, family support, academic and skills training, all in the hope of re-integrating youths with their families, becoming self-reliant and in addition responsible citizens.
The centre has the capacity to hold 22 such residents at any one time, where they can pursue their formal education or skills training. Such in-depth, integral assistance is unique in Zimbabwe. The centre also differs from many child welfare organisations in Harare as it able to assist young people from the ages of 15 – 21 years of age. Over the past five years, 112 youth have been resident at some time at Zambuko, of whom 75 have persevered, resuming their formal education or undertaking skills training courses.
Resuming Education / Skills Training
At present Zambuko House offers vocational skills training in welding/metal work fabrication and building/plastering. Currently there are 11 students enrolled in the welding course, while 10 are studying building. The training courses are 1 year in duration, after this time Zambuko House places students on attachment/work experience for 6 months. The centre has plans to start up a skills course in tailoring; this type of course traditionally appeals more to female students. Tailoring will commence as soon as the equipment is sourced, and the class will accommodate 10 students in total.
Over the past five years 31 youth have pursued formal primary, secondary or tertiary education while 27 have received skills training. These have then either become self-employed within the informal sector or have found employment in industry. In addition Zambuko House run micro income generation projects such as maize and vegetable production and chicken breeding.
Reunification with Family
Another unique feature of Zambuko is that the staff go to great lengths to make contact with the relatives of these abandoned young people, with considerable success in reuniting the young people with their own family support structure. Over the past five years, out of a total of 112 residents, 52 have been reintegrated with family.
Drop in Centre
In addition to this, Zambuko provides an emergency drop in centre for young people not yet ready to abandon street life. This provides the youth with an opportunity to bath, wash clothes, receive food, medical help and informal counselling. The centre deals with 30 such youth each month, hence on average Zambuko House assists more than 400 youth, both male and female, each year.
The purpose of this concept note is to seek funding to:
1. Purchase of materials, equipment and trainers for the skills courses – welding, construction and tailoring;
2. Construct a structure to facilitate skills classes;
3. Provide a drip irrigation system and inputs for the agricultural & horticulture plot;
4. Provide an incubator to increase chicken production.
1. The provision of materials, equipment and trainers for welding, construction and tailoring will directly benefit 31 students this year. The equipment will benefit a new batch of students next year and beyond. Two courses are presently operational but they have many constraints due to lack of resources. The equipment will aid the teaching and learning experience and result in increased productivity of goods and services which will ultimately generate income that will benefit students and their families.
2. The structure will allow construction classes to take place under cover from the sun and rain. Currently classes take place on the veranda of the main property which is unsuitable, but the structure will provide temporary room for expansion until funds are raised to build a permanent structure.
3. The drip irrigation system will cater for agricultural production, enabling Zambuko to grow vegetables all year round. It will improve the young people’s diet and generate income through commercial selling of produce for which there are ready-made markets in the close proximity
4. The current chicken project will benefit from an incubator, which will hatch 120 eggs per month, both for our own project, and for sale to neighbours. The incubator will have solar backup, so as to overcome intermittent electricity shortages.