Reform readers helped Naison Hove provide a well for his village in Zimbabwe. Now he is asking the same for a school where the lack of water is hindering education

Schools across the world face all kinds of challenges, but in Mbirashava Primary School in Zimbabwe education is hampered above all by something as simple as water. The United Reformed Church minister the Revd Naison Hove, who went to the school himself as a child, is raising money for a drilling project. When completed it will provide water for more than 300 children and ten teachers, allowing them to apply themselves to their work.

Mbirashava Primary School was established in 1936 and presently offers education to 157 boys and 143 girls. The headmaster, Fredrick Dube, describes their learning facilities as fair. Their major stumbling block, he says, is the water crisis.

‘The school gets water from a borehole 5km away,’ says Mr Dube, ‘and it is not very reliable. The school and the church community surrounding the school are all facing a huge water crisis. The teaching staff and their families hire transport to bring water to their doorsteps at exorbitant prices. That leads to high staff turnover which negatively affects learner performance.’

Naison, minister of three churches in the Worthing pastorate in West Sussex, heard about the problems facing the school while he was working on another drilling project in the area. Visiting the village of Murambi-Musindo in 2019, he had discovered that six-year-old children had to carry 20l water containers for 5km from the nearest well to obtain water for their family. He responded by raising the money for a borehole with a solar powered pump system for the village, with help from his churches and the wider United Reformed Church. (See ‘Digging deeper’ Reform, March 2021)…

Naison Hove is Minister of Emmanuel United Reformed Church, Worthing; St Andrew’s URC, Rustington; and Littlehampton United Church.

To contribute to the Zimbabwe Well Project, visit littlehamptonunitedchurch.org.uk/donation. Alternatively, cheques can be made out to ‘Emmanuel URC Worthing’ and sent to The Treasurer, Emmanuel URC, St Michael’s Road, Worthing, BN11 4SD

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This is an extract from an article published in the December 2021/January 2022 edition of Reform

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