HARARE - US Embassy staff members recently spent a morning making bricks for Hatcliffe township residents. (Pictured: US Deputy Chief of Mission, David W. Abell (with wheelbarrow) in Hatcliffe on Saturday)
The group of 20 Americans, including school students, and local embassy employees moulded bricks to replace plastic-covered shacks with 4-room family dwellings. The Tichavaka Brick Project, a community-based organization of 11 families, supervised the Americans as they learned to use brick moulds and other equipment donated by their ambassadors Special Self Help Programme.
No one does not want to stay in a house. Since the Americans assisted us, we have managed to complete four houses, and hope to complete three others before the start of the rains in November, said Sarudzayi Mutize, secretary of the Project.
With the support, Mutize, a mother of two school-age children, said her group was able to purchase a twelve-brick moulder, six shovels, 125 bags of cement, three wheel barrows and 55 cubic meters of quarry dust.
Since 1980, the programme has helped improve basic economic or social conditions at the grassroots level through high-impact, quick-implementation activities. In 2010, it received additional funding of $100,000 from the African Development Foundation for small community groups in Zimbabwe. Projects that received funding include the construction of a workshop in Harare, the purchase of garden tools and seeds, the construction of a borehole in the Midlands, and the purchase of peanut butter processing equipment in Manicaland.
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