The Sunday Mail
Veronica Gwaze
AT LEAST 500 Covid-19 orphans across the country are set to receive fully paid primary school educational scholarships, under the China-Zimbabwe Friendship Scholarship starting next year.
Running under the China-Africa Economic and Culture Exchange Research Centre (CAECERC), the program, which is in its inaugural instalment, will be complemented by the Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe and other Chinese non-governmental organisations.
Currently, 50 schools are earmarked across the country’s provinces, with 10 learners from each school meant to benefit.
Mr Steve Zhao, director of the CAECERC, said the programme is targeted at children who dropped out of school or are failing to afford school fees because of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have discovered that there are a lot of children who lost their parents to Covid-19, while some have their parents who lost jobs due to the pandemic as well, so we felt we had to do something and those are the groups that we are targeting,” said Mr Zhao.
“We will work together with the Ministry of Higher and Primary Education, local councils and other partners to identify some of the learners as soon as possible because we are ready to roll out the programme.”
By the end of next year, Mr Zhao said, the programme will be expanded to 100 schools, up from 50, with the Ministry and local municipalities coming in to assist in identifying some of the schools and learners in need.
The scholarship programme was last year also introduced at the University of Zimbabwe, National University of Science and Technology, and Midlands State University.
Each institution had 11 beneficiaries under the programme.
“We paid US$300 for each beneficiary, which is part of their tuition fees per semester and we are continuing with the programme as we strive to promote education for the locals,” Mr Zhao said.
“We are therefore expanding the programme this time, roping in three more Universities to make them six.
“Each of the institutions will provide 10 students, so in total we will fund 60 students across Universities.
“Our major thrust is having more locals benefiting from our programmes.”
