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Zimbabwe: UK funds Zimbabwe to send 250,000 children to school

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Source: Kenya Daily Nation
Country: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe

By Kitsepile Nyathi

The United Kingdom has given Zimbabwe $10 million to enable the southern African country to send at least 250,000 vulnerable children to school.

This follows revelations that at least one million children could be forced out of school this year after donors pulled out of a government programme to assist orphans and other vulnerable children.

The UK government through Department for International Development (DFID) would target 5,415 primaries and special schools countrywide.

“The funding will contribute to higher attendance and completion rates among orphans and vulnerable children,” the British embassy in Harare said in a statement.

The money was released in response to President Robert Mugabe government’s request to DFID last month to provide support for the Basic Education Assistance Module (Beam).

“The UK is very pleased to be able to provide this additional support which I know will make a huge difference to the lives of the children who will benefit along with their families and wider communities,” the head of the DFID office in Zimbabwe Jane Rintoul said.

President Mugabe often accuses the UK of precipitating Zimbabwe’s economic collapse by imposing sanctions.

However, Zimbabwe’s former coloniser insists the sanctions are not targeted at ordinary people but at the veteran ruler and his inner circle.

The UK remains one of Zimbabwe’s major donors, spending millions of dollars every year in aid.

“The UK through DFID expects to invest some $650 million in the four years between 2011 and 2015 to help ensure that the poorest people in Zimbabwe have access to basic services such as education, health, water and sanitation, of which around $100 million will be in the education sector,” the statement read.


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