Supporting Schools and School Attendance
Schoolkids – Support for schoolchildren in eastern Zimbabwe
Since 2010, Birgit Altekamp and Gerd Eggert have been supporting schoolchildren in eastern Zimbabwe. The support programme was launched in 2010 and helps between 10 and 28 schoolchildren each year. Since January 2021, the programme has been working together with the Deutsch-Simbabwische Gesellschaft e.V. (DSG).
The target group is families from the wider area around Musangano Lodge in Odzi and their family networks. A maximum of two applications per family are accepted, and support is granted for attending primary and secondary school for a full school year. Further education such as colleges or university cannot currently be funded.
As a rule, there is no full funding: parents always pay a share themselves, and the programme only provides grants. If parents wish to send their children to more expensive private schools, they must pay the difference in fees themselves.
The number of children supported depends on the donations we receive. Around 10% of the total available is held back for any cases of hardship that may arise. Parents therefore have to pay in advance at the start of the first school term in January. As a rule, the funding is paid out at the beginning of the second term, but then for all three terms.
If you would like to support this work, please donate with the reference: Schoolkids
ELDONAIRE – Making school possible in rural areas
About 30 km south of the famous ruined city of “Great Zimbabwe” in Masvingo District, the new school ELDONAIRE opened its doors for the 2026 school year. ELDONAIRE can be translated as “grace”. “The families and children experience it as grace that they now have a school close to where they live. Small children often cannot attend school because the way to school is too far for little feet. Very few families in this region could afford the cost of boarding at one of the simple boarding schools on top of the school fees. And so the disadvantage of children from rural Zimbabwe begins very early,” says Wickliff Munjanja. He was fortunate enough to attend the school and boarding school at the Catholic Bondolfi Mission.
For decades, the “Kernen-Masvingo-Gesellschaft e.V.” has funded the schools in Bondolfi and also pays individual school fees. This connection enabled Wickliff Munjanja to finish school and go to university. For several years now he has been working as an educator in southern Germany.
“My dream was to enable many children in my home region to go to school. I privately started building a pre-school and a primary school. Donations, for example from the company Kärcher in Winnenden, made it possible to buy two pumps and hoses for a well that I had drilled. With the water, the village community can supply itself with clean water and make the bricks for the school building, and a garden for growing vegetables has been set up. At ELDONAIRE the children get a simple lunch made with the maize and vegetables we grow ourselves,” says the school’s founder happily.
In January 2026, the school opened with 60 children attending the two-year pre-school and the first two grades of the seven-year primary school. Parents have to pay US$45 in school fees every three months. To cover teachers’ salaries of US$200, school uniforms, lunches and teaching materials, Wickliff Munjanja – who saves every cent of his own salary for his dream – and the DSG e.V. ask for your support.
If you would like to support this work, please donate with the reference: ELDONAIRE
Since 2010, Birgit Altekamp and Gerd Eggert have been supporting schoolchildren in eastern Zimbabwe. The support programme was launched in 2010 and helps between 10 and 28 schoolchildren each year. Since January 2021, the programme has been working together with the Deutsch-Simbabwische Gesellschaft e.V. (DSG).
The target group is families from the wider area around Musangano Lodge in Odzi and their family networks. A maximum of two applications per family are accepted, and support is granted for attending primary and secondary school for a full school year. Further education such as colleges or university cannot currently be funded.
As a rule, there is no full funding: parents always pay a share themselves, and the programme only provides grants. If parents wish to send their children to more expensive private schools, they must pay the difference in fees themselves.
The number of children supported depends on the donations we receive. Around 10% of the total available is held back for any cases of hardship that may arise. Parents therefore have to pay in advance at the start of the first school term in January. As a rule, the funding is paid out at the beginning of the second term, but then for all three terms.
If you would like to support this work, please donate with the reference: Schoolkids
ELDONAIRE – Making school possible in rural areas
About 30 km south of the famous ruined city of “Great Zimbabwe” in Masvingo District, the new school ELDONAIRE opened its doors for the 2026 school year. ELDONAIRE can be translated as “grace”. “The families and children experience it as grace that they now have a school close to where they live. Small children often cannot attend school because the way to school is too far for little feet. Very few families in this region could afford the cost of boarding at one of the simple boarding schools on top of the school fees. And so the disadvantage of children from rural Zimbabwe begins very early,” says Wickliff Munjanja. He was fortunate enough to attend the school and boarding school at the Catholic Bondolfi Mission.
For decades, the “Kernen-Masvingo-Gesellschaft e.V.” has funded the schools in Bondolfi and also pays individual school fees. This connection enabled Wickliff Munjanja to finish school and go to university. For several years now he has been working as an educator in southern Germany.
“My dream was to enable many children in my home region to go to school. I privately started building a pre-school and a primary school. Donations, for example from the company Kärcher in Winnenden, made it possible to buy two pumps and hoses for a well that I had drilled. With the water, the village community can supply itself with clean water and make the bricks for the school building, and a garden for growing vegetables has been set up. At ELDONAIRE the children get a simple lunch made with the maize and vegetables we grow ourselves,” says the school’s founder happily.
In January 2026, the school opened with 60 children attending the two-year pre-school and the first two grades of the seven-year primary school. Parents have to pay US$45 in school fees every three months. To cover teachers’ salaries of US$200, school uniforms, lunches and teaching materials, Wickliff Munjanja – who saves every cent of his own salary for his dream – and the DSG e.V. ask for your support.
If you would like to support this work, please donate with the reference: ELDONAIRE