School caters for orphans

A MASVINGO school has pledged to take care of two primary school pupils who were orphaned after their mother passed away a few years ago.

Their father is serving a 30-year prison term. Teachers at Zishumbe Primary School, about 30 kilometres east of Masvingo city, have since started taking turns to provide food and general welfare to Tendai and Gracious Murwira (aged 10 and 11), who are doing Grade Three and Grade Four, respectively, at the school.

The Murwira siblings of Greenhills resettlement area in Masvingo East lost their mother a few years ago, before their father was condemned to Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison three years ago after being convicted of raping a minor in their village.

The siblings now live alone at their parents’ home in Greenhills. Speaking during a donation of clothes, food and toiletries to the children at Zishumbe last week, one of the teachers at the school, Ms Tracy Marechera, said it had become the school’s responsibility to take care of the children, who were now virtually orphans.

“We just treat them as our own children,” she said. “As teachers, we take turns to feed and clothe them. They are still young, they don’t even know how to bathe and we make sure that they bathe when they come to school.”

Ms Marechera said the children’s fees were paid through the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM), while teachers cater for the children’s other basic needs.