Building a library and community hub in Zimbabwe

In early 2018, I travelled to Zimbabwe - primarily - to meet and watch the Matabeleland football team for work.

 

While there, I witnessed the power of community, the impact of hope, and the brilliance of the team's President, Busani Sibindi.

Busani dedicates his life to community betterment, campaigning for human rights, and working with the UN to make tangible change.

 

I found him, immediately, an inspiration. A truly remarkable man. So we stayed in touch.

BELOW: An intro to Matabeleland and Busani - the project through which we met

 

In 2019, I founded a charity called The Big Book Club - dreaming of providing materials for primary school students in the UK to fall in love with reading, the same way I had as a child. While also setting up a community-focussed element, whereby they would go into old people's homes to read to/with someone from an older generation. This was the magic lied for me.

 

Sadly, COVID put paid to the idea of mixing generations, and the charity's ambitions went unrealised - but, along the way, I had reconnected with Busani, and we'd hatched another dream: to build a library in Matabeleland.

 

You'll see the official plan and notes below - but the goal here is straightforward: to build a simple library that opens up an entire community to books, learning materials, and opportunities.

 

And, perhaps most powerfully, this building would serve as a community hub, providing access to the internet - which is otherwise rare in the region.

 

I spend most of my life online. The information, the services, the ease it provides me is hugely beneficial. And that's what we can share with the Matabele community through this project.

 

As Busani puts it: "Internet empowers people and communities in an ever-changing digital era. Rural communities are particularly behind in terms of having access to information and such opportunities. The digital penetration in rural areas is particularly low in Matabeleland. Even mobile carriers do not invest adequately in installing boosters.

 

"A general person has to go to a better area for signal reception, even on top of a mountain. This defeats the purpose as the relay of information is delayed and sometimes missed. Installing the internet in this hub will transform people's lives as it will assist youths and students in accessing more school material. It will also impact other ordinary citizens like community farmers to have information on best practices for crops and livestock."

 

I hope that you feel the opportunity to make an impact as strongly as I do. Thank you for your support.

 

Oh! And 'Intuthuko' is Ndebele for 'Progress'.

BELOW: Busani speaking at a UN conference

 

Project Background

Matabeleland is a territorial region South West of Zimbabwe. Its capital is Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city and once the Industrial Hub of Southern Africa. The region is marred with many socio–economic challenges, which range from unemployment to high rates of illegal migration to neighbouring countries due to marginalisation and problems that have persisted over the decades.

 

One of these challenges has been education. The infrastructure in the region is sorely lacking due to a lack of investment. This has affected the quality of education in the region resulting in most children failing at the primary level.

 

Each year, Matabeleland schools make headlines for producing zero percent pass rates. In the last exam period, Matabeleland had 55 schools in Matabeleland North alone that had zero per cent pass rates. This is a massive concern. The poverty cycle does not seem to end. In turn, young people are deprived of further life development opportunities and the bulk remain unemployable in and outside the country.

 

The Intuthuko (Progress) Rural Libraries Initiative seeks to provide practical intervention strategies to this problem.

 

We will address access to educational material and books and provide a safe space for young people in communities to read, self-learn, and develop - with a model that is easy to replicate in other communities.

 

Set-up

The first pilot project will be set up in Tape Village in Nyamandlovu under Chief Deli Mabhena. The library will be set up in a new school initiative that seeks to build a primary school, with space already allocated for a library block.

 

Budget estimates

 

Substructure

 

Bricks. 3500 x 0.50 Total $1750.00

 

Cement. 90bags x $9.5 $855.00

 

Quarry. 21Tones $150/7Tonne total $450.00

 

Riversand. 28Tones $60/7Tonne total $240.00

 

Pitsand. 7Tones $60.00

 

Brickforce. 9x115mm $25.00

 

Filler. 28Tones/$80/7Tones *Total $320.00

 

Termite treatment. 4x5Litres @$4.00/5litres Total $20.00

 

Material Cost

Total $3720.00

 

Structure

 

Common bricks. 16500 x $0.50 Total $8 250.00

 

Cement. 55bags x $9.50 total $522.50

 

Pitsand. 25Tones @$60.00/7Tonne - total $214.3

 

Brickforce. 18x115mm $50

 

D.P.C. 4x115mm $20.00

 

Total - $9056.8

Grand total: $12,776.80 (around £10,500)

BELOW: Images of the current site and structure where we will build