Mwatipedza Scholarship Fund

5 JUNE 2014

I received a call from the DA's office a couple of weeks ago and was informed that my name had now been formally registered with the Government as a Village Head. I was advised that this now entitles me to the monthly Government allowance for a Village Head of $25 per month. We have decided to start a scholarship fund for the benefit of the village using this monthly allowance as the seed / stable income. When we met the village two weeks ago, we advised them that the scholarship will be effective term 1 next year, and recipients will be chosen purely on academic excellence and merit. The average school fees in the area is $17 per term, thus assuming we get no other funding, up to 4 children could benefit with fees for the term + a few extras being catered for. Our wish is that this will inspire our children to work hard at school as they compete for this scholarship ( and that parents will be supportive ! ) This is just a heads up on what has been happening. We are not yet looking for donations to supplement the allowance as there are a few governance structures that we want to put in place first, including :
Creation and registration of a Trust to house the fund - I have been quoted $500 to create this Trust. Are there any registered lawyers out there willing to do this on a pro bono basis ?
Appointment of Trustees - we are searching for highly respectable people in society, from all walks of life and with diverse experiences to appoint as Trustees. Please send me any suggestions you may have for this position
Opening of bank accounts
Appointment of auditors ( on a pro bono basis...)
Once the appropriate structures are in place, we will be seeking your assistance to fundraise for the Trust. I am very confident that if each of us plays their small part, "using what we have", God will honor our efforts and give us results beyond our imaginations! This is an opportunity to change lives positively - please join us in getting excited about it !!!! It turned out that setting up the Trust and bank accounts was going to be more involving and complicated that we had anticipated. We decided to get the ball rolling, using available internal resources from the $25 monthly allowance for the Village Head. We announced the establishment of the scholarship to the village, stressing the fact that this was not a “welfare” scholarship, but a “merit” scholarship to encourage our children to excel academically, and to encourage the parents to support their children’s study efforts. We also stressed that both girls and boys will have an equal chance of winning the scholarship – the only criteria was academic excellence.

We requested names of the top 10 academic students from the two schools in the village. The committee considered the names and recommended that we award the initial scholarships to Tinotenda Zinyau in grade 5 and Kudakwashe Mudungwe in form 4. This was done and the fees were paid on time for the three terms of the 2015 school calendar year. Kuda, the young man who was receiving a scholarship from Mwatipedza Village last year has just called to advise that he has obtained his O Level results : 1 A, 5 Bs and 2 Cs. Well done Kuda !!! Kuda wishes to study Accounts, Mathematics, and Business studies at A level. Fees are $100 per term. Please contact me on this forum, on +263772238890 or on davidmarange@yahoo.com if you would like to help this young man and make a difference not only to his life, but this will impact his immediate and wider family - it only takes one family member to be successful for the blessing to positively impact everyone else in the family

30 NOVEMBER 2014

The Government grant has finally started coming. I have requested headmasters at the primary school and the secondary school to furnish us with details of the top 10 students academically. As the Trustees are not yet in place, I will find a team to help me choose the first recipients of the scholarship / bursary for 2015 ( starting term 1 ). The names of successful students will be announced before schools open next year - hopefully in the 1st two weeks of December. Now that on going funding ( be it at very low levels for now ) is guaranteed, I will now engage lawyers to draft the Trust Deed, following which Trustees will be appointed, and a Trust Bank account opened. The trust will then be geared to accept your generous donations, but we will also appreciate any donations now to fund the Trust Deed costs and augment the awards for term 1 2015 2016 The monthly allowances stopped coming through at the end of 2015, and indications were that receipt of these allowances was not going to be consistent. As this was the only guaranteed source of funding for the scholarship fund, we had to suspend the fund until other guaranteed income was obtained. No scholarship was awarded in 2016 FUTURE With your support, we would like to re-establish the scholarship fund in 2017

15 Feb 2016
Kuda, the young man who was receiving a scholarship from Mwatipedza Village last year has just called to advise that he has obtained his O Level results : 1 A, 5 Bs and 2 Cs. Well done Kuda !!!

3 March 2018
This is Kuda, our Mwatipedza Village 1st recipient of the Village Scholarship fund. Two years ago I posted that Kuda had passed his O Levels. I am overjoyed, excited and humbled to advise that Kuda passed his A levels with 2 As and 1 B !!! What a joy and a blessing it was to meet him this morning.
Kuda's dad is 83 years old and not able to pay for tertiary education. We are thus appealing for help in any form or shape to enable Kuda to pursue his dream of going to university to study either Actuarial Sciences, Accounting or Business Studies and Computer Science.

3 August 2024
UPDATE ON SCHOLARSHIP FUND: The monthly stipends from the Government are now sufficient to fund fees from 6 students. While all 6 students for the year had been identified and fees to date paid for, one of the students has transferred to Harare, thus going into term 3 there will be only 5 students. A new set of beneficiaries will be selected for the 2025 school calendar year.


17 January 2025
With the opening of schools this week we were blessed by one family that wishes to remain anonymous that has committed to sponsoring two grade seven students this year under the scholarship fund. The related school fees for this term have already been sent to me and I have passed on the same to our Village Treasurer. This brings the number of students benefitting under the scholarship fund to 8 this year - 5 in Primary school and 3 in secondary school. Tinotenda Mwari! May God richly bless this family.
For those who may wish to also participate, the doors are open. The objective is to promote academic excellence in the village, thus we focus on the best students academically. The school heads submit a list of deserving potential candidates, then the committee makes the final selection from this list. The Primary school fees are currently USD26 per term while the Secondary school fees are USD50 per term. These amounts may not mean much to you, but they have a significant impact for our village - consider partnering with us in offering these scholarships.


7 September 2025
With schools about to open this week we were blessed by one young lady who wishes to remain anonymous who has committed to sponsoring one students starting this term under the scholarship fund. The related school fees for this term have already been sent to me and I have passed on the same to our Village Treasurer. This brings the number of students benefitting under the scholarship fund to 9 this year - 6 in Primary school and 3 in secondary school. Tinotenda Mwari! May God richly bless you! She mentioned that for her USD26 a term equates to skipping lunch once a month for each of the four months in a term, and she was very happy to be making this sacrifice for the benefit of someone else!!
For those who may wish to also participate, the doors are open. The objective is to promote academic excellence in the village, thus we focus on the best students academically. The school heads submit a list of deserving potential candidates, then the committee makes the final selection from this list. The Primary school fees are currently USD26 per term while the Secondary school fees are USD50 per term. These amounts may not mean much to you, but they have a significant impact for our villagers - consider partnering with us in offering these scholarships.