By Conrad Mwanawashe – Recently in Chiredzi & Zaka
“MY dream school provides food and books”, Gabriella Mangule, a Grade 3 pupil at Benzi Primary School, Chiredzi, responded to a question on what she liked about her school.
Across the province, at Charingeno Primary School in Jerera, Zaka, a Grade 1 pupil who preferred to be called ‘Fatso’ said he does not like beans but eats to get energy to get home after school.
Fatso was having a meal, a portion of traditionally ground maize cooked with water, a staple food in Zimbabwe known as sadza, and beans as an agent, given under the school’s feeding scheme.
The provision of nutritious meals for school children is often taken for granted, yet, from a biological perspective, poor nutrition impairs cognitive skills among children and is a primary reason for absenteeism and poor school attendance.
The World Food Programme (WFP) says that every day, millions of children worldwide go to school on an empty stomach – hunger affects their concentration and ability to learn.
WFP says that school meal programmes can help address these challenges and that better health and nutrition through school meals allow children to learn and perform better, broadening their educational opportunities.
School-meal programmes also act as an incentive for families to enrol their children in school.
However, the school-meal programmes rely heavily on clean water and sanitation access.
“This feeding programme would not have been possible if we did not have reliable water,” said Charingeno Primary School Headmistress Mary Mukwenha.
Zimbabwe’s current water and sanitation situation faces many challenges around capacity, and yet access to clean water is a basic right.
To address this, the government and UNICEF have implemented initiatives to increase access to water by drilling new boreholes and rehabilitating defunct pipe water schemes and boreholes in rural districts with a strong focus on solar power to ensure sustainable water supply under the School Improvement Grant (SIG) WASH programme.
SIG provides funding to financially constrained P3 registered and satellite (primary and secondary) schools and schools for children with special needs. The funds cover non-personnel and non-capital resource demands to enable schools to cover their most basic needs.
The grant was made possible thanks to the Education Development Fund, a multi-donor pooled funding mechanism supported through aid from the UK Government and the German Development Bank (KfW). The EDF enables donors to jointly support the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education in its activities, with UNICEF managing the funds and providing technical support.
UNICEF recognises that the nutrition of school-age children is a core component of its child-centred programmes. To reach children of this age group, schools are a proven platform for delivering nutrition interventions.
At Charingeno Primary School, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, in collaboration with UNICEF, with funding from the UK government and Christian Care as the implementing partner, invested in a water system that has not only helped the primary school but also Charingeno Secondary School, Chipimbiri township and the surrounding community. The water system is powered by a solar system also provided by UNICEF.
The water system has come as a massive relief to the children.
“Before the system was connected, we drew water from the borehole using buckets to water the school orchard and flowers twice daily, during break and lunchtime. It was tough,” said Ashley Ronje, a Grade 7B senior at Charingeno Primary School.
The orchard was established in 2014 to supplement the school’s nutrition project, which includes a multi-component school feeding programme.
Ashley’s classmates, Covenant Havazvidi, Blessing Makwangudze and Sarafina Macheka, concurred.
“We no longer walk long distances to fetch water. We just connect the hosepipe to water the orchard or school flowers, which is very convenient for us. This means that we now have more time to rest, even to study during break,” said Sarafina.
“Having young children carrying buckets of water and making several trips between the borehole and the orchard was a concern to me,” Headmistress Mukwenha said.
The water system also provided tapped water to communities, thus decongesting the school water point.
“We would not have all this green around the school without a water system. The availability of water has helped us to green our environment. Before the water system was connected, there were always long queues at the school water point, which sometimes affected our children’s timetables. Some pupils would skip lessons while stuck in the water queue. I was sometimes forced to plead with the parents to allow the children to draw water first because the queues were long. It was a mess. This water project has helped us very much,” Mukwenha said.
“Water is life. Access to safe, clean water ensures that we avoid diseases and guarantees continuity of the feeding programme. Since the advent of the water system, we have not had any disease outbreaks such as cholera. I want to thank UNICEF for this water system initiative,” she added.
“We now have fruits all year round from this orchard. We give the children oranges and naartjies during sports programmes and sometimes sell to supplement the school feeding programme. Apart from guaranteeing fruits to the children, we use the orchard also to demonstrate the importance of fruits, as they help to protect against diseases,” said Mukwenha
Taungana Ndoro, Director of Communications and Advocacy in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, said: “This orchard is benefitting from the SIG WASH programme. Once there is water, nutrition is guaranteed.”
“The feeding scheme is helping the children to concentrate. For instance, at Charingeno school, some pupils who walk about 6-7km to school are fed at break time. That motivates them; they can concentrate. Effective teaching and learning can take place,” Mr Ndoro said.
With water availability guaranteed, Charingeno started a fish farming project to provide an alternative agent to beans and cabbage.
At Benzi Primary School, SIG WASH funds were used to dress the borehole and lay the tap water system.
“We bought components for the borehole, including casings, with the funds from the SIG WASH programme. We remained with a balance of US$1,300, which we used as seed capital when we approached Malilangwe Trust for more support to complete the water system. They responded positively,” Benzi Primary School Headmaster Makasi Chimwai said.
However, serving the community with piped water has brought new challenges for Charingeno Primary School.
“Now that the borehole is also serving the whole community, water demand has grown and we are sometimes forced to ration water. We need another borehole to service the school only,” said Mukwenha.
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