Maize from Sister Antonietta and the Oratory children.

In the attached foto, some of the children from the Oratory can be seen helping to remove the maize from the maize cobs. All this maize was harvested from the garden in the new school, we have had a very good harvest and those who are coming to Zim you will get the opportunity to eat the taste of the local staple food that is a product of Sister Antonietta and the Oratory children.

Maize is grown by almost all the people in Zimbabwe except for those areas that receive little or no rain ut those areas they do grow drought resistant crops such as rapoko, sorghum and millet which serve the same purpose as maize but richer in nutrients.

April Week 3 Report

The classroom block has finally reached the final height in terms of brick and concrete works. This week we managed to purchase all the concrete roof tiles and yesterday we had the first load of 4,500 and the balance of 4,500 will be coming next week. Out order for the roof trusses is still in production and the company that is manufacturing them says they should be ready and delivered next week.

On the other hand, the ground floor is almost ready for skimming and we have already bought the first consignment of the rhinoset that is used to smoothen the interior walls before painting. In a few weeks, the following material will be required on the site :

* Ceiling boards (for the first floor only).
* Glass bricks (for the walls on the stair case).
* Window panes.

We will however first compare the prices between Zimbabwe and Botswana as many items are now being accessible locally and cheaper than outside since companies are now starting again although there are still some items that are still costing way too much.
The situation was like this; when the situation was bad here, many companies were producing only for export to our neighbouring countries and their products were not available locally as they wanted foreign currency but now the situation is improving.

The quotation for the Administration block is not yet ready and we are still waiting for the contractor.

In the foto:

* the ground floor can be seen with all the window frames in place.
* the inside partitions on the first floor are complete.
* the workers are plastering all the partitions onthe first floor.
* all the windows and door frames on the first floor are in place and the corridor is done.

August 2008_Updates

Guest House
Plastering of all the rooms has since been completed and the plumbing work has now commenced. To date all the toilet seats have now been fitted in all the bathrooms and all the drainage pipes outside have since been put in place.


We made a trip to Botswana and purchased all the ceiling boards and the ceiling fittings.


Electricity
We have purchased all the material now for the distribution of the electricity inside the school premises and the holes have already been dug, we just need to go and collect the poles.



Classrooms
We had a meeting with the Engineer and he even came to see the land and he said the land is now ready for construction so the builders will soon start to mark the places where they will dig the foundation and the columns of the school block.

The Engineer is now working on the Structural Design of the proposed school building and we have already signed an agreement and a contract that by Friday the 29th he should be done. We will then order the steel from South Africa as soon as we get the actual sizes and quantities from the Engineer.


In the mean time we are busy gathering the river sand and the three-quarter stones to be used for the concrete footing, with our truck we need a total of 200 loads of each.

Thank you

Oratory Children in Church...!

The Oratory children in church for their last school day before they closed for their holiday on Wednesday.

Africa Oggi organisation

www.africaoggi.it

The visitors from Africa Oggi at the river where we collect river sand.




The boys can be seen watering the new lawn that the visitors from Africa Oggi planted and the other plants can be seen to be doing very well.


The Oratory Children can be seen playing volley ball, under the supervision of the Africa Oggi and one of them being a volley ball coach it was an added advantsge to the children as they had a nice afternoon together sharing their experiences.


Africa Oggi at the Lion's park.

Oratory Children..!

In the foto, some of the Oratory children can be seen doing what they know best, the traditional dance whiles.

They have won several competitions with other schools.





Even the Oratory teachers can dance, as can be seen in the attached foto, Mr Mukono dancing along with the children.







They can act very well also, in the attached foto the girl can be seen in a short play about the Girl Child.

July 2008_Updates

Guest House
All the roofing for the guest house has since been completed and they have started plastering the walls in all the rooms. To date, a total of about nine rooms including the bathrooms have have been plastered already.

Electricity
The transformer was mounted and we are now connected, we have electricity now at the site and the only thing that is left is the internal distribution from the sub-station to the various places as we have on the site plan. On Monday we will buy the material required for the distribution.

Classrooms
As the construction of the guest house is nearing completion, we are busy preparing for the construction of the classromm blocks. We now have the list of materials required to build one block and since Monday we have been busy to put in place mostly river sand and the three-quarter stones that are used to make the concrete for the columns. For the whole block, a total of 800m3of river sand and 800m3 of stones are required.

Water Project
We have purchased all the material requred to fit one bolehole and we are just waiting for the distribution of the internal electricity lines and connect the first borehole.

Text Books Donation
We received a very good donation of more than 100 text books for our school children from the Archbishop's office, a BIG THANK YOU...! This donation will see our children through and curb their difficulties of sharing text books.

Visitors From Italy
Saturday nexy week, 02 August will mark a day when we are going to receive three visitors from Italy from the Africa Oggi organisation. The purpose of the visit is to familiarise with us and to get involved with 'hands-on' the school project. We shall keep you updated on their arrival and stay.

This is one of the trees that was planted on the Ground Breaking Ceremony

June 2008_Updates

Guest House.

The construction of the guest house is going on and the progress is quite good as we are very happy with it. Yesterday the builders started preparing the roof trusses and all the timber required for the roof is now on the site. In this week, they have also built the veranda for the front and the one for the back of the house and all the inside partitions have been completed up to the ceiling level.

Next week Thursday we are planning to go to Botswana to buy the gysers, showers for the guest house and buy some groceries for the house and shopping.

School Registration.

We have began the registration process of the school and we have since completed all the required forms, on Monday we had a meeting with the Director of Education in Harare and he welcomed our project and he appreciated so much. We asked for help from his Ministry and he asked us to put everything in writting and so we have done this, next week we go to submit our requests, the project plans and the completed forms. However he said he will approve the project as there is a serious shortage of schools in the country.

Electricity

We have been to the electricity company and they gave us a quotation for the labour, connection fees and the materials they have to supply. We made the payment and now we will wait for them to start the installation of the new line to our site, which is 1km from the line where they will take the electricity from.

Monday marked the celebration of the Italian day, we went to the Italian Embassy and we had a nice time there with many Italians attending the ceremony and other diplomats from different countries.

Sorry we did not manage to take any fotos as we were busy running around all week as we had a lot of meetings and buying material. We will send you the fotos on Sunday afternoon.

The soccer team

In the foto, there are the boys who work with our truck wearing their new protective clothing (work suits and gum boots).

We have also formed a soccer team, with the builders and the workers and so we play every weekend, Saturdays after work and Sundays after Mass, to try and keep the young boys occupied and to get to socialise and know each other well. Next week we send you the fotos in the play grounds.

May 2008_Updates

Construction Of The Wall.

The greatest news we have is that the construction of the wall has been fully completed today, thus all the 1,2km is now complete. This is a great achievement as the wall is really big and long, things are starting to take shape now.

Guest House.

The construction of the guest house continues, with two sides now complete up to the window level and now the progress will be faster as all the workers are for the mean time going to focus on the guest house only since the wall is now finished.

All the material for the guest house is now in place and next week we are planning to go to Botswana for shopping and to buy just a few fittings left like the door handles, showers, shower handles, electrical cables, lamp holders and electrical sockets and switches.

Land Levelling.

The levelling of the land is at a halt as the bulldozer is still under repairs and also there is still a big dam of water locked from the last rain season in the place where the classroom blocks are marked to be constructed, however we are using this water for the preparation of the mortar for the builders and to water our trees and flowers that we planted.

Material For the School - Classroom Blocks, Administration Offices, etc.

The classroom blocks have two floors as so we need to start buy the deformed steel bars for the reinforcement in the construction of the concrete pillars which are the initial stage. Next week we have a meeting to discuss the way forward with one of the companies that produce them.

Cement.

We had two deliveries totalling to 1,200 bags of cement and our stock levels are quite well as we still have more than 800 bags in store and we have a pending delivery of 620 bags.

Gates.

We are now looking for donors to contribute torwards the purchasing of two sliding gates, one is four metres long and the other is six metres long.

New Developments.

Education is one of the main ministries of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows and the primary missions of our Foundress, Blessed Elisabetta Renzi. With this is mind, we have decided to help our employees who do not have enough Ordinary level subjects by proposing to have a Night School which will be run as follows;

* We shall make use of the same premises for the Oratory children.
* Lessons shall start from 17:30 to 19:30 from Monday to Friday then from 13:00 to 15:00 on Saturdays.
* The Oratory teachers will teach all the subjects as overtime and their renumeration will come from the fees paid by the students.
* The charges shall be very minimal so that everyone can afford to study.

Tree Planting

The first tree was planted by the Archibishop and Sr Antonietta, they planted a palm tree.






The second tree was planted by The Director of Housing and Community Services Mrs Melania Mandeya and Father Mukonori.





The third tree was planted by the Italian Ambassador, he planted a Jacaranda tree.





The fourth tree was planted by the Member of Parliament and Father Gwenya.

Groundbreaking ceremony_12th April 2008

This was the choir which was composed of youths from the Parish





Stage






Parish People





The Director Of Housing and Community Services - Mrs Melania Mandeya




From Left to Right :

* The Nuncio
* The Italian Ambassador and his wife
* Mr Beattie




Sr Luisa Speech




In this foto, the Archbishop was giving his speech





Mr Beattie is a very good friend of ours, he has been of great help in our project as he has provided water, machinery, river sand just to mention a few.

Mother Lina and Mother AnnaMaria met him and his wife when they came to Zimbabwe as we had dinner together.

The Wall_March 2008 Update

Dear All.

The construction of the durawall is now at an advanced stage with only about 220m left and this means they have covered almost 1km in length as the total length of the durawall is 1,2km.

In the attached map, the area in red depicts the area that has been completed and the one in blue depicts the remaining area.

The builders have a target to finish by easter, that is if the rains allow them to work. Today we had a heavy down pour in the afternoon but they had worked all morning and then a bit after the rains had stopped.

Guest House Foundation

The foundation of the guest house is now complete and the Engineers have approved and tomorrow they will begin the construction of the slab.

All the building material of the guest house is now place and this includes :
* Bricks (all have been bought but we still have to collect some)
* Cement
* Sand
* Stones
* Window frames and glasses (now they are fitting the buglar bars for security on all windows)
* Door frames
* Roofing timber
* All the bathroom suites

We still have to buy the roofing tiles and doors.

Groundbreaking Ceremony Invitation!

SPECIAL INVITATION

The Congregation of The Sisters Of Our Lady Of Sorrows would like to invite you to attend the official Groundbreaking ceremony which will launch the mission’s new building effort....!


RE : GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY

Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows Primary School Building

DATE : SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2008

TIME : 09:00 A.M

PLACE: SCHOOL STAND (Directions on the attached documents)

RSVP : sisita@zol.co.zw 00 263 91 2 272 470, 00 263 91 2 399 359

January 2008

A warm welcome into a new year to you all, thank God we all made it.

Just to give you an update of the project progress:

Festive Season:
We had a very good festive season and all the workers were happy as they got some rest and spent some time with their families.

Cement:
We had 600 bags of cement delivered and the remaining 600 we shall advise them when we need it delivered.

Ground Breaking Ceremony:
We are planning to have a Ground Breaking Ceremony on the 12th of April 2008, where the land will be blessed by the Archibishop of Harare. Amongst the invited guests will be The Italian Ambassodor, The Mayor of Chegutu, the Member of Parliament, other local people who are helping in the realisation of the project, the oratory children, their parents and local business representatives. The ceremony will start with Mass, some speeches and tree planting. The end of the ceremony will be marked by a lunch at a local hotel, the owner of this hotel which is the biggest in Chegutu offered the hospitality for free, a big thank you.

Challenges:
The greatest challenge we have had in these days is the rain, we have had so much rainfall such that many areas are flooded.

Besides the teaching

Besides teaching and helping the local parish the two Italian sisters, Sr Antonietta and Sr Luisa, help the poor people living in Chegutu. Their intercom bell at their gate continuosly rings as there are people coming to ask for food, for money, for things they need for the school. Tracy, for example, is a 16 year-old girl in an advanced stage of AIDS that often goes to the mission to ask for food and for the money she needs to buy medicines. Sr Luisa goes every Sunday to the villages near Chegutu to offer assistance and prayer to the inhabitants that live in a situation of extreme poverty and need.

The gift of the Land

Thanks to our arrival, to the 10.000€ we brought and thanks to the fact we were been introduced as a delegation coming from Italy to see the site on which the future school will be built, the town council of Chegutu gave the land to the sisters as a donation rather than to ask them to pay it as they did at the beginning. They indeed realised the importance of our arrival seeing in us a hope for their town.