The organisation I help to run in Zimbabwe urgently needs help to keep our kids in school. Can you help us please?
Fr Nicolas Stebbing CR
Tariro was set up as a UK charity in 2009.
The number of young people cared for by Tariro UK funded projects has risen from 10 in 2009 to 47 in 2021.
Aid organisations in Zimbabwe have typically tended to focus on supporting younger children, who, when they reach their teenage years, are left to fend for themselves in a country with unemployment rates estimated at 80-90%.
Rather than attempt large-scale feeding programmes, or the support of many children for a limited amount of time, the founders of Tariro UK decided to raise money to fund projects supporting individual children in family-like environments, fulfilling their different needs through school and into adulthood, ensuring all young people are cared for until they can care for themselves.
Money is short in Zimbabwe. The Tariro Youth Project (TYP) and the Tariro for Young People (TFYP) project, local charities which cover all the projects we support, are funded in their entirety by us.
The way the money is spent
Rent
For the TYP house in Harare.
School fees
This means also buying school uniforms, books, pens, sports clothes, and providing transport to get the young people to school and college.
Groceries
Local Zimbabwean firms provide some of the food, but money and food supply are short and what we sent pays for grocery shopping.
Solar lamps
Many of the rural children do not have electricity in their homes and so can’t do homework after the sun goes down at 6pm. Solar lamps help them study in the evening.
Basic computer hardware
The money we send buys basic tablets and laptops for the older children and young people in secondary school and university.
Counselling
Paying for an excellent counsellor to work with the children every week.
Support
Paying a small allowance to the Sisters (nuns) who work with and help the local trustees to support the children and young people in the house in Harare.
Investing in projects aimed at teaching the children to become self-supporting
Chickens
Rearing chickens both for eggs and for
eating. There is a good market for this in
Zimbabwe but the profit margin is small and the chickens need to be carefully looked after. It supplements the young people’s diets and gives them a skill they can use later on.
Rearing pigs
With generous funding from the Fellowship of St John we have enabled Tariro Youth Project in Zimbabwe to start a piggery which is now contributing income to support the children.
Growing vegetables
This improves diets and teaches a skill everyone needs in Zimbabwe where prices can be high and food is often not available.
Jewellery
Eunice, at the TYP house, makes beaded jewellery to sell at a small profit.
Please donate, even £10 will make a positive difference.