What drives humans to do good? It is “Ubuntu:” the spirit and essence of our humanity. It’s a selfless spirit of living for the betterment of ourselves and others, using our talents and abilities to promote and create a just society.
When I was a young girl, my greatest dreams were achieving an education. Many years later (and a doctorate!), I feel so blessed to have seen my goals come to pass. My heart is to help the young ones in my own community have the same opportunity as I had.
That’s why we’re building a school. It will be in my village, Zvipani, in northeast Zimbabwe. It’s the school I so badly wanted to attend when I was a little girl: The Matau School.
Through our Tinogona t-shirt sales, we were able to sell more than 2,000 t-shirts, raising a whopping US$65,000. Initially the plan was to build a library from the funds generated from the t-shirt sales. However, the greatest need in the village was water. Thankfully, we were able to use the money to build a water pump. Read more here.
Unfortunately we were back where we started. Until a very unexpected gift came from Oprah Winfrey herself in the form of 1.5 million dollars. [Video with Oprah] What a blessing to me and my community.
Please follow my blog as progress is made on the school. In partnership with Oprah, Save the Children is helping us to realize our next dream. If you would like to help, please email me for information on donating and stay in touch through comments on the blog and Facebook.
With everyone’s help, it is achievable!
Thank you! You make the world a better place!
Of course, what a great blog and educative posts, I will bookmark your site.Have an awsome day!
God Bless you with this initiative..as a teacher and professor I would love to develop an international partnership for North Kansas City Students. A letter writing or email campaign would inspire all students.
I am a walden PhD graduate as well..a new book called, “Why Narratives Matter” will be coming soon…I would love to visit with you more.
Malinda–
Thank you for reaching out. I look forward to reading your book. Let me know when the book becomes available!
Sincerely,
Tererai
Hi Dr. Trent,
I’m so inspired by what you’re doing and I’d like to find a way to get involved. I’m the editor of a travel and fashion magazine for Afropolitan women, based in Dallas and we’re looking for a project to get behind and support. We would love to interview you and help promote any community projects in Zimbabwe.
What you are doing is amazing!! I have just watched the Oprah episode and had many tears of joy for the children. I have purchased a few items and will definately be making my local community in Canada aware of this organization! We as Canadians are so fortunate to receive the education we are given. Therefore; I believe that our school systems should get on board for the children who are less fortunate. Your foundation is truly wonderful and I will definately be an advocate!
Our mother,Sister,Daughter and Ambassador of Hurungwe West Constituency we say thank you so much for what you did at Matau Primary School, Zvipani Magunje with people like you on board poverty will be the thing of the past.A million times l say thank you aspiring Member of House of Assembly Douglas Munakira