EVENTS TIMELINE ARCHIVE

30 Years of HIS! 

HIS turned 30 years in 2022. Rather than hold a single event, we held our launch assembly (Please see here) on September 30, 2022.  At this event, we were awed by music and heard wisdom from our longest staying community members.  We truly stand on the shoulders of giants. Thank you, Honourable Haritatos, Mr. Mapheus Mack, Señora Carolina Charsley, and Alex in Grade 12.  And each grade level made contributions to our time capsule - I wonder where we’ll all be in 30 years, in 2052, when HIS celebrates its 60th anniversary!

The next event was a gala dinner for adults only , on October 21, 2022, and the final celebration, our Warthog Family Festival which took place on November 19^th. It featured Jah Prayzah, Ammara Brown, Gemma Griffiths, and Denim Woods. In true HIS warthog spirit, the idea was to give back, to pay forward, to not only be good, but to do good. In early stages of planning these events we discussed which organisation we should support beyond the HIS walls. We chose the Dzikwa Trust. Our relationship with Dzikwa Trust started back in 2008 when an HIS student was inspired to support the Trust, and supported the reforestation programme. In 2009, a group of 152 Dzikwa children participated in an HIS sports day.  Through the ongoing work of the HIS student team affectionately called DZ, under the current guidance of Svodai Zvirawa, this relationship has flourished.  And as part of our 30th anniversary, we are raising funds to support the IT Scratch programming initiative at Dzikwa. 

From one child in 1993, the Trust now supports nearly 400 children from 4 communities, including Dzivarasekwa.  Two thirds of these children are girls, showing its commitment to being a girl child organisation.  During COVID, the Dzikwa Trust extended its primary educational and whole-child focus support, to providing food for the entire local community, resulting in 230,000 hot meals last year alone.  This information provides some insight into the work that the Trust does.  It does not capture, however, the essence and feel of the Centre. HIS representatives met with Priscilla Takawira, the Dzikwa Centre Manager, and Wayne Mucheka, IT Officer, and the Founding Trustees from 29 years ago: Oili Wuolle and Seppo Ainamo, who gave a tour of the learning spaces and lessons in action.  They visited the “forest”, where there is a strong emphasis on honouring the natural environment, where planting of eucalyptus trees is well underway, where vegetable greenhouses and rabbit and chicken coops provide food for the children, where they enjoyed mulberry and tomatillo. So not only is there a strong sense of sustainability and community at the Dzikwa Centre, there is a powerful feeling and focus of responsibility of each community member to be dedicated to their studies, their artistic development, their physical health and their wellbeing.  This is instilled very early on.  So as we celebrate, know that our tickets to the Gala Dinner, to the Warthog Family Festival, contributions to the silent auction and other prizes all supported this worthwhile cause - a new Scratch Programming initiative for these children. 

So our HIS future is bright!  Not only have we come a long way in developing as a school starting with a small letter “s”, an institution of academic learning, we have nurtured our SCHOOL where learning takes place in a myriad of ways, and where we have not only passion, but passion sustained by purpose, and we focus on the impact of our actions.  And that’s reason to celebrate!

Dzikwa Trust

Besides the celebration that comes with 30 years, we have chosen a non-profit organisation to support as part of giving back to our host country.  We have had a long-term relationship with Dzikwa Trust Fund, an educational programme for orphans and vulnerable children in Dzivaresekwa.  The team at Dzikwa Trust envisions an ICT Programming Project for the children and have developed a well-thought out plan of needs to support its launch and implementation.  

Please click here to learn more about the Dzikwa Trust.

Our Sponsors

With appreciation, respect and gratitude, for their support in sponsoring
HIS’ 30th anniversary through the Warthog Family Festival and Dzikwa Trust Fund ICT Programming Project.