Sir Humphrey Gibbs faces financial challenges

SIR Humphrey Gibbs training centre in Bulawayo has appealed to the Government and well wishers to intervene as it is facing financial challenges which are threatening its operations.

In an interview, the institution’s superintendent Mrs Siphiwe Mwenda said the situation was bad. The institution, which caters for mentally challenged people, depends on donations for its daily operations and handouts which she said have been dwindling due to the country’s economic situation.

“We need financial assistance as we are struggling to meet our financial obligations. We have no money to pay for electricity and no money to cover water bills. Currently we are surviving on donations from wellwishers; the Government only pays for BEAM (school fees) and of late payment has not been that smooth.”

Mrs Mwenda said the training centre was struggling to pay its workers with some of them going for two years without getting full salaries.

“Right now we have a backlog of salaries which go as far as 2015.Our non-teaching staff has not been receiving any salary so we are trying to look around but we are not getting anything. We also need assistance for our staff, currently we have a staff complement of 24 and we are receiving 40 percent of our salaries through an organisation which is assisting us.”

The institution looks after 89 mentally challenged people and trains them in various vocational subjects. The institution is engaged in various self sustaining projects like gardening and carpentry done in conjunction with other organisations.

Last month, another similar institution, Jairos Jiri Vocational Training Centre also appealed to Government and other well-wishers to assist with resources to enable it to buy training equipment.