Courage Chipatiso

English and Accounts Teacher at King George V1 Memorial School in Bulawayo.

Courage Chipatiso teaches English and Accounts at King George V1 Memorial School in Bulawayo. The school specializes in providing education to students with disabilities. Courage has muscular dystrophy, overcoming the challenges of her condition to become a motivated teacher, as well as an award-winning dance and drama coach for her students. Muscular dystrophy is a group of conditions that damage and weaken muscles over time. Muscle weakness decreases mobility, making everyday tasks difficult.

She is loved by her students and colleagues, who see her as an inspiration and rely on her work ethic, dedication to duty, commitment, organizational skills and determination to get things done.

Chipatiso’s English and accounting students have a high pass rate. “From the time I started teaching, I had a belief in my students who are deaf, that they could write an exam, a national exam, and pass the exam like other students who are not deaf,” she says. Chipatiso maintains a high teaching standard by understanding the learning needs of her students, giving them extra time to grasp subjects, and working individually with students.

She is also very active in the life and community of the school. She advocates for the representation of students in decision-making bodies, including the administration and special committees. This ensures good governance of the school, allowing decisions to be reflective of the pupils and any special conditions they may require for their education.

Fundile Nkala

Teacher, counselor, and mental health advocate

Fundile Nkala is a teacher, counselor, and mental health advocate. While she is currently stationed at Sigola Primary School in Matabeleland South, she started her philanthropic work at Sukasihambe Primary School in Filabusi. After seeing that many students attend classes without shoes and some walked long distances, Fundile started an initiative to provide school shoes, clothes, and uniforms to learners.

“Poverty makes people vulnerable, especially young people, who are vulnerable to bullying because of their appearance and background. The school shoe drives school shoes and uniforms to give even marginalized children dignity.”

Fundile is networked with several community-based organizations, including Mothers of Special Heroes (MOSH) and Generation Empowerment Trust to be more effective in her voluntary work. These have been useful in helping increase the reach of her initiatives. Fundile works with MOSH to provide mothers with psychosocial and material support by counseling and sourcing items such as pampers. 

Lincen Masariramba, a Community Development Office at MOSH, says Fundile’s support has been invaluable, “The impact of her intervention has been great. Many mothers are thankful for the support they have received. Some mothers blamed themselves for their children’s condition, especially those who may have two or three children living with a disability. Some saw it as a punishment from God, but she has helped them understand issues and the fact that their children are special.”

Godknows Dembure

Teacher at Makumimavi Primary School

Godknows Dembure is a teacher at Makumimavi Primary School. Previously he worked at Nharira Primary School under the chieftainship of Chief Chivese. He has eight years of experience as a teacher. While teaching at Nharira, Dembure established a chess club to help uplift young girls by improving their critical thinking and maths skills. Dembure learned to play chess as a trainee teacher. 

“I realized that young girls’ problems – such as unwanted pregnancies and child marriages – force them to drop out of school early,” he says. “I seek to change that through chess, which empowers these girls, boosts their confidence to speak up and keeps them safe from male predators in the villages.”

The chess club is called Queens of Chivhu, an homage to the film Queen of Katwe from which Dembure drew inspiration. “I started playing chess for fun until I started participating in tournaments and won some games. After seeing people go far with chess, I introduced it to the girls.”

The Queens of Chivhu have traveled to several local and international tournaments. They rely on donations to meet travel costs, which is not always reliable. In 2018, despite winning the Zimbabwe national championships, the club could not attend the Africa tournament in Egypt.

Tariro Zitsenga

Nurse aide at Parirenyatwa Hospital

Tariro Zitsenga has worked as a nurse aide at Parirenyatwa Hospital since 2009. She is a conscientious and empathetic caregiver who goes beyond her duty to ensure patient care. Tariro has demonstrated deep compassion and kindness towards her patients and co-workers.

For Tariro, integrity means working with a purpose to ensure results. Moreover, she goes above and beyond the call of duty. Her colleague Sister Chikwenejere noted that Tariro works with diligence and empathy towards her patients. She added that Tariro continuously checks on her patients and tidies up the wards before she clocks out of work. 

Tariro says being a nurse aide or caregiver is about providing comfort and reassurance to the patient to help them accept their treatment. Tariro attended to a patient with colon cancer. He had proved difficult for the oncology staff. The patient was in denial and was very provocative, refusing to bathe or adhere to his medications when attended to by other nurses. However, when Tariro attended to and gave him counseling, he began to submit to bathing and taking medication.

Tariro also counsels her co-workers, motivating them to further their studies and embark on income-generating projects outside work to supplement their incomes. While there are cases of nurses soliciting bribes from patients in exchange for good services, Tariro has never asked for bribes. She has established Diligent Nursing Services to give home-based care to patients and provide an avenue for other nurses to make an extra income.

Jobert Ngwenya

Award-winning teacher and champion for the empowerment of girls

Jobert Ngwenya is an award-winning teacher and champion for the empowerment of girls. He teaches entrepreneurship at Eveline High School in Bulawayo and coaches the Junior Achievement Club and the Teach a Man to Fish Program. In the classroom, Ngwenya achieved a 100% pass rate with his students between 2012 and 2019, before the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Under his guidance, Eveline High School relaunched its entrepreneurial education and financial literacy program with Junior Achievement Zimbabwe in September 2016, achieving impressive results. Ngwenya’s learners won the National Company of the Year Prize in 2019 and 2021. Moreover, the school participated in the School Enterprise Challenge, winning the Best Business Idea Award in 2017, Best Digital Business Award in 2018, and a student Enterprise Adventure Prize in 2020.

Ngwenya attributes his success as an educator to his strong personal values anchored on diligence, hard work, and honesty. He derives satisfaction in seeing his learners and alumni achieving personal goals. “I always see myself as a ladder for my learners, and hearing their success stories always gives me something to smile about,” he says.

At the school, Ngwenya has advocated for learner involvement in the school’s running via consultations on decisions that directly affect their welfare. He also encourages student input on school policies before tabling them to the relevant offices.