In September 2004, St. Mary’s Hall set in motion Children for Children. This is now a registered charity with an adult Board of Trustees and an Executive of pupils. The adults look after the administration but the children drive the charity forward: making decisions as to who they would like to support and how they should fundraise. They then action these ideas and see them to fruition.
One of their focuses is to work with Musami Mission located 75 km from Harare in Zimbabwe. This mission started in the 1920s and has grown in size to include St. Paul’s Primary School, a secondary school of a thousand pupils, a hospital and numerous outstations. It is one of the few schools in the area that offers an education to handicapped children. Currently, Musami Mission is suffering the ravages of the economic crisis in Zimbabwe where inflation is 1040% and rising.
What is important to Children for Children is that they develop a reciprocal relationship with Musami Mission and that they learn and gain as much as they give. To date, St. Mary’s Hall has raised money that has facilitated the purchasing of much needed textbooks for St. Paul’s, Musami. The school were delighted to receive this gift and created a booklet to commemorate the event.
A relationship based solely on money creates imbalances, thus fundraising is only one aspect of this Companions’ Programme. Other elements that are of equal importance include awareness, communication, and the exchange of educational material. There are challenges and hurdles that need to be crossed. For example, communication links in Zimbabwe are not always accessible. What is important, though, is that the journey to meet these objectives has begun.
To make the idea of a companion school more accessible to the younger children Barnaby Bear was tasked to be the school envoy to visit Musami and gather information. He has recently returned from Zimbabwe and has brought a friend with him from Musami. At the beginning of September they will visit St. Mary’s Hall and tell the pupils what they saw on their travels. They will bring with them an African alphabet frieze, created by the pupils at Musami – showing elements from Zimbabwean culture that relate to letters of the alphabet, as well as some drawings and photos from the school.
Jesuit Missions
