Pencils & Smiles: A Personal Effort To Bring School Supplies to Students in Zimbabwe
By: Fadzai Mavindidze
Moved by the story of a grandmother who walked over 5 miles to my grandfather’s homestead to borrow a pencil so that her grandchild could attend school, I made the decision to make a difference. Pencils and Smiles is an initiative that aims to ease the adverse effects of unimaginable situations and circumstances such as these, caused by poverty, which are robbing children in this little village, Mazvihwa in Zvishavane Zimbabwe, of their basic right to education.
Pencils and Smiles seeks to bridge the gap between education and poverty. We endeavor to motivate and encourage those less privileged, giving them hope for a better future and an opportunity to tower above the effects of the poverty they are born into.
Mission of Pencils and Smiles:
To make the learning process an enjoyable and fruitful experience through provision of necessary tools and equipment for every child.
- We want to equip these children and give them hope, we want to plant smiles on each and every one of them and keep them looking forward to going to school.
- We believe every child deserves a chance and an opportunity to reach their fullest potential regardless of their financial backgrounds. We believe we can do something to make it happen.
- We started out by making sure each child had a pencil so they wouldn’t stay at home because they had nothing to write with.
- We then moved on to distributing not only pencils but other stationery too for the upper grades (grades 3 to 7).
In October 2017, we launched the first library system for the younger grades, kindergarten to grade 3 and we also distributed toys and visual aids that help to stimulate the little ones’ minds.
Pencils and Smiles has also been privileged as guest of honor at Gwamadube primary school for 2 consecutive years starting in 2016. We provide prizes for excelling and outstanding students and also award a semester’s worth of school fees and supply uniforms for every top student from kindergarten to the 7th grade.
We are not stopping here.
To find out how you can help Fadzai in this personal effort* to help these children. Contact: pencils.smiles@gmail.com
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*Pencils and Smiles is a personal effort and not a registered 501 c3. It has no affiliation with Gibbs Interwire & Steel.
