by Linda Lauermann, Mission Direct Country Manager:

"It was the ultimate ‘bring and share’ party but without any food! After an ache inducing hour-long climb, we arrived at the location where the school was to be built. We were greeted with shouts of joy and excitement from the locals who had not sat around to wait for us.

They had started working already. Soon after we arrived, the local builders, who were compacting the soil, were joined by a steady stream of women from the village. Balanced on their heads were piles of bricks wrapped in cloth. They had been carrying these parcels uphill for three kilometres. As well as this substantial load, many of the women also had children on their backs.

Each family had been charged with bringing 100 bricks – bricks that had been made in the village in previous weeks and left to bake in the sun. When the women arrived on the newly flattened plateau, they unloaded and a man sat counting up the materials, recording them on a small tally sheet, while the children were let loose to play.

I already knew that the villagers of Ndiadzo were keen to make sure that this project happened – I just hadn’t realised how keen until I saw the building site.

When Mission Direct had visited them earlier in the year, we had told them that we didn’t know how many volunteers or how much money we could provide – a fortnight in Zimbabwe is, after all, a big ‘ask’!

But, this news did not worry the locals – they chatted amongst themselves and then told us that if we were prepared to come and help to build the school then the local builders and other villagers would come alongside the team to work for free.

This school was literally a matter of life-and-death for the villagers - without education children are condemned to a future of poverty, ill health and ultimately an early death. The people of Ndiadzo were desperate not to let a golden opportunity slip away.

Thankfully we were able to gather a small but passionately committed team of Mission Direct volunteers, who, thanks to the generosity of their friends and families, had also raised £10,000 for the school.

So, last summer, for several days in Ndiadzo, our team and more or less the entire village got together to build a school. Volunteers and locals building walls together, women carrying bricks and water, children counting the bricks and running around the site laughing with joy.

I wish you could have been there. The scenes from this trip will always remain etched in my memory. This was not an ‘aid’ operation to passive recipients; it was a beautiful picture of community and real partnership.

On our last day in Ndiadzo the villagers had another meeting. Each family was charged with two tasks: to bring a bucket of stones for the door and window lintels and to bring the equivalent of 80 pence to buy cement for the pit toilets – 80 pence is a day’s wages and not easy to come by.

But they wanted to do this. These lovely, almost – forgotten people wanted to show us that they were as committed to building a school and giving hope to their children as we were – they succeeded."