After Independence in 1980 the government embarked on a massive school building project to ensure its policy of education for all meant every child would attain at least primary schooling.
Fast forward to 2000 when the government embarked on the chaotic and often bloody land reforms, gains made in the past were reversed with Harare failing to build schools in the resettled areas, forcing many children to drop out of school. But some private companies like Delta are now stepping in to close the gap.
In its quest to give back, Delta, one of the few successful companies operating in Zimbabwe, is helping communities to build classrooms at satellite schools in newly-resettled areas as the cash-strapped government fails to deliver. Struggling parents are now expected to build their own schools.
This week Delta opened two blocks they built at a cost of $50,000 at Muchiedza School in Makonde district. They also donated 50 desks and 100 chairs to the school.
Speaking during the handover ceremony, Delta Corporation general manager for soft drinks, Moses Gambiza, said investing in education is investing in the future.
Gambiza said Muchiedza School is the first school in the country to benefit from the ablution blocks project that is designed to improve sanitation at the schools.
One of the classrooms handed over to the local community by Delta Corporation. (Photo: VOA)
Besides building classrooms blocks for primary schools, Gambiza said Delta provides bursaries and scholarships for less privileged students in the country who also have great academic potential.
Muchiedza Primary School was established in 1998 by a white commercial farmer, a Peter Pretorius, to cater for his farm workers' children with only two trained and two untrained teachers.
But now the school boasts of 667 pupils from Early Child Development to Grade 7 and 17 teachers.
The handover of the Delta block exposed the land reform program's chaotic nature when the school headmaster Philip Chikwariro bemoaned the taking over of part of the school by a local war veteran.
Parents in Makonde are celebrating for now and hope more companies will follow Delta in ploughing back their profits into struggling rural communities.
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