Overcoming Barriers Project
Murewa, Zimbabwe
In Murewa, Zimbabwe orphans affected by HIV/AIDS lack access to equitable education, experience interrupted school attendance and social stigmas that often perpetuates a cycle of poverty. This Overcoming Barriers Project focuses on supporting children between the ages of eight and 12-year-olds, who have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS related illnesses and are either HIV positive or negative, to become equal contributors in society and to navigate real-world complexities with confidence.
Through the use of interactive, themed youth camps, the Overcoming Barriers Project fosters free expression, curiosity, independent learning, exploration, and experimentation of learned skills. These hands-on opportunities create a mindset shift and help develop essential life skills critical for vulnerable children transitioning into adulthood. The project ensures that the gains are not only realized at an individual level, but in creating a community that is inclusive and safe for all.
The themed camps also draw attention to cultural or societal behaviors in topics of biodiversity loss from superstitious beliefs that have decimated certain species of plants and animals through human activities such as overgrazing and stream-bank cultivation. The children’s contributions are key to the community’s long-term survival as they are becoming active stewards of their environment.
This project has a holistic five-pillar approach where integration is one of the core components. They believe these children should be well-integrated into the community to ensure that their voices are heard and their contribution acknowledged and needed. Through school integration programs, their peers (children ages 6-14) are also positively impacted. Overall, the project equips the children with the necessary skills to not only perform better in formal education set-ups, but contribute to the development of their hard-to-reach community.
The Purpose Earth grant funding supports the Overcoming Barriers Project’s mission for providing ongoing themed camps and opportunities that foster a sense of security, belonging and being able to contribute solutions to life’s challenges. Specifically, this grant will help the project host around 20 students in a number of camps and activities, focused on: living organisms, food literacy, landforms and geography, school integration and an annual fair. The grant also provides the necessary resources to implement these camps, like transportation, activity equipment, food and educational supplies.
“The Overcoming Barriers project addresses the challenge of inequitable education opportunities amongst orphans affected by HIV/AIDS, trapping them in a cycle of vulnerability and poverty. Through the Purpose Earth grant, we change this narrative by providing orphans with learning opportunities that foster the development of mindsets and essential skills, key to their transition to adulthood. Orphans are mukundi (overcomers) living in communities where they are often perceived as less. This project creates opportunities for their integration as capable individuals who strengthen the community towards a more inclusive environment.” - Mutongi Kawara, Project Lead
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