The only such primary school in the southern half of the country

The only secondary school in the whole country offering education to physically disabled children.

The school is a government school with teacher’s salaries paid for by the government. 

The students are mainly physically disabled or hearing impaired and come from all over the country.

318 students                                      20% orphans

(4 to 20 years old)                              80% socially vulnerable

Academic                                         Vocational

Nursery                                              Needlework

Primary School                                 Cookery

Secondary School                            Art         

‘O’ Level exams                                Woodwork

                                                           Welding

                                                           Carpentry

                                                           Building

                                                           Hairdressing & manicures

                                                           Computers

Junior Class practising reading

Special Classes:  For the very little ones we have nursery classes, including one for the little deaf children who need to learn sign language as early as possible.  For the severely disabled we have a ‘Stimulation Class’ where teachers and therapy staff work closely on stimulating all the senses of the children to enhance learning ability. 

Integration  - (30% of our students are non disabled)

Government policy is for integrated education.  However we believe that classes in Zimbabwean schools are too large (often over 40 children per teacher) to allow for individual attention to a disabled child.  Our policy is to integrate inwards ie to bring in some non-disabled children to interact with the majority disabled students.  This has proved to have a positive impact on attitudes of non-disabled students as well as providing competition for the disabled.

Vocational Training

The harsh reality is that our students stand little chance of being employed.  We are now trying to give them the skills to make their own living in the informal sector.  One of our senior deaf girls plans to run a backyard hairdressing business in conjunction with making soft furnishings for sale.  Luckily for her she has the skills to undertake both.  Good paintings have sale value in South Africa while manicures are always in demand even in Zimbabwe.  These are the areas we now have to train our seniors but of course costs of materials for these subjects are always high.  We are also incorporating some computer skills and business management to augment the vocational training.

Fashion & Fabric sample being displayed by deaf student