A dream in the making

Making the most of a school fees scholarship from Educated Horizon, Letwin passed her A Levels with straight A's and is now at the University of Zimbabwe training to become a Doctor.

Coming from deep rural Chipinge in Manicaland Province of Zimbabwe where some poor communities find educating girls an unnecessary luxury, Letwin’s parents were determined to educate their two girls up to University. A few years into high school, Letwin’s parents were simultaneously struck by serious illness - mother diagnosed with cancer and father terminally ill. Evidently, medical bills took priority at the expense of their two girls’ education and in 2008 Letwin had to be sent home as fees had not been paid.

For many Zimbabweans the year 2008-09 reminds both the rich and poor of some hardships the nation faced. It was a year when most people were poor billionaires who could not afford a basic life style due to an astronomical inflation. It was at that time that Educated Horizon Charity was formed with the aim of helping poor Zimbabweans educate their children.

The Charity responded to an ‘SOS’ appeal from her school and the District Education Officer Mr Munemo who at the time, described Letwin’s unfortunate fate as a ‘loss to the nation’. With hindsight, he was right – Letwin will become a Doctor with the much needed skills to help the very poor community she grew up in and the school that made her realise her full potential.

This timely intervention helped to sooth problems being faced by the family as a whole and Educated Horizon managed to pay her school & exam fees for two years while she was doing her A Levels. During her time at Assisi High School in Chivhu, her teachers were full of praise and provided the necessary counselling to help her through.

From a humble rural background to the hospital theatre

“Educated Horizon gave me the financial support that I badly needed, my teachers helped me academically and the rest was up to me.  I only had one wish – to pass and lift the mental torture my parents were going through. Now I’m going to become a doctor.”

Letwin Masirembu

The Charity has already started helping Letwin financially at University and has promised to do so for the next five years. She is just one example of thousands of teenage girls being denied education in Africa for reasons that range from extreme poverty to ridiculous beliefs that education is not for girls. As the co-founder of the charity Herbert Dzinotyiweyi puts it, 'We don't have to wait for the UN to act on its millennium goals, it’s our responsibility to look after our own.'

For more information on what the charity is doing to help girls in rural Zimbabwe, please visit educatedhorizon.org/girls

Project Manager,

Tongai Mushangwe