From Westport to Zimbabwe, the Gift of Learning

From Westport to Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe students are learning with donated, old Westport school system books. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo.

Old Westport school textbooks are now opening doors of learning for an impoverished Zimbabwe village due to the efforts of Westport individuals and organizations, and grateful tribal elders are now asking for more books. 
The project, “Books for Zim,” grew out of a visit by local residents Andrew and Relly Coleman to Mapakomhere, a Lemba village in the Great Zimbabwe area. While there, the Colemans said they saw a school in desperate need of help. Many of the classes are held under trees or in incomplete classrooms, they said.
Books, too, were scarce, they continued.  When they are available at all, the Colemans said, three or more students share one textbook, often in fragile condition. 
“We were very impressed by how happy the students were to be at school and how keen and eager to learn they were,” said Relly Coleman, “as well as how proud the headmaster and the tribe’s elders were of the students’ achievements on national tests.”

Using a wish list for textbooks given to them by the headmaster, “Books for Zim” collected and shipped quality textbooks to Mapakomhere. The project has enlisted the Westport Public Schools, the Westport Congregation for Humanistic Judaism and DHL Global shipping.

Relly Coleman said that Joyce Losen, assistant to Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon, helped to move the project forward.  The Board of Education last spring approved the donation of books that were no longer needed by the schools and about to be discarded. The Congregation for Humanistic Judaism agreed to facilitate the project, and act as the umbrella organization for this effort.

Having acquired books for the school, the next hurdle was to transport them. According to Relly Coleman, Rob Killick, DHL‘s commercial manager for Africa, offered his company’s services of airlifting the books as soon as he learned about the project.

Relly Coleman recently received letters of thanks from both J.S. Madzingo, headmaster of the Mapakomhere Secondary School, and from Jameson Museva, the former headmaster, who is a senior tribal elder in the Lemba village. 

Madzingo’s letter included another wish list for textbooks in sets of 50 for grades six through 12 in the major academic areas.  Anyone interested in helping may make tax deductible donations to: Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, 3 Rippling Brook Lane, Westport, CT 06880.