Short Summary
Meet the Campaign Director
Serving as campaign director, my name is David Chitate (BA Theology, Masters in Education, MA Sociology, MPhil Medical Sociology, PhD Medical Sociology). I have published three books and the forth book "Where there is no sexologist: A guide for Christian couples" will be launched in May 2015. I have had wide international experience working with United Nations (UN) and have worked in Zimbabwe, Malawi, India, Nepal, Uganda, Kenya, Botswana and South Africa. Recently I accepted an invitation to leave my UN job and serve as Director for Development and Public Relations for Solusi University located on a 3,600 hectare farm 50 kilometres west of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city. The institution is made up of church school, primary school, secondary school and university and students with disabilities are admitted at all levels. A nation-wide comparative survey of all universities by the Government of Zimbabwe commended Solusi for being a safe haven for the girl child.
What a privilege to be able to contribute to a long overdue transformation of this historic institution so that it can meet the basic needs of 21st century students. Back then in 1894, it took Mrs E.G White's intervention to establish Solusi mission. From a small mission station, it latter became the first-four year, Adventist postsecondary program for Africans and went on to earn the title "Mother of Missions in Africa". Most of the "Who is Who" in the history of Adventism in Africa have been products of Solusi. Solusi alumni includes recipients of honorary doctoral degrees such Honourable President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, two of Zimbabwe's vice presidents and several honourable figures. Those whose academic and professional pursuits were shaped by Solusi include General Conference (GC) Vice President (Dr Pardon Mwansa) and several other current and past GC Departmental Heads not to mention dozens who have served as Union Conference presidents all across Africa.
Everyday I am inspired by dozens of missionaries that lie buried in the Solusi cemetery and everywhere on the campus are "FOOT PRINTS" of men and women who have supported the missionary dream. Its such an honour to be one of the stewards over many legacies left on Solusi campus by God-fearing people from all over the world. Solusi is fully accredited by the Adventist Accrediting Association (AAA) and holds a Zimbabwe Government charter to offer internationally recognized undergraduate and graduate degrees.
What is the motivation?
consider myself a committed Christian but have great respect for cultural and religious diversity. My key motivation for undertaking such a campaign is the desire to see change in the quality of student's lives. Its heart rending and a depressing experience to listen and witness what students have to go through due to lack of access to very minimum package of student services. I am convinced that the missionaries who gave their lives to establish this institution, would not have wanted to have these students deprived of basic services to this extend. My experience with UN taught me that the human family respond to worthy causes and there are millions of people out there who share my dream. I have embarked on this campaign as a way of reaching out and partnering with those millions so that together we can touch and change lives of current 2300 university students and many more future Solusi students. Solusi has a diversity of students as it enrols any qualifying students irrespective of their religious background which is why 50% of the Students are non-Adventists.
Campaign goal.
The goal of this campaign is to enable 2300 desperate Solusi University students to have access to a minimum package of student services towards equipping them for exceptional service. The minimum package of student service is comprised of: (i) some form of assistance for extremely desperate students and students with disabilities, (ii) furniture especially chairs and desks, (iii) uninterrupted power supply, (iv) transition to solar power and solar-based hot water in hostel bathrooms, (v) an equipped recreation and sporting facility, (vi) information and communication technologies (ICT) inclusive of computing devices and (vii) at least one free wholesome meal per day for each student. Recently the Government as well as the Adventist Accrediting Association (AAA) have commended Solusi for providing the best environment for students especially the girl-child but also raised concerns over lack of student access to some of the basic student services.
Expected key results.
The expected seven key results of this campaign which are measurable include the following:
a) Reduce the desperation of extremely desperate students especially students with disabilities, including women, girls and orphans by increasing the number of students who can access student financial aid in the form of work-study-program from the current 39 to 350 students. Equipping the resource centers of students with disabilities as well as improving their learning gadgets and hostel living conditions. Increase the current 30,000 university-financed student employment hours by at least 10 times (student work study program is rated at $2 per hour).
b) Restore the comfort and dignity of each one of the 2300 university students by supplying 18 gauge steel chairs, tables and desks to ensure that no student eats while standing for want of a chair or reads in the library while standing, or attend small group worship discussions while standing, or seats on the bed in the hostels, or carries chairs from one class to another. Urgent furniture needs include 2000 classroom chairs, 600 library chairs, 920 hostel chairs, 2700 church chairs, 1500 cafeteria chairs, 175 Student Centre chairs, 689 Office chairs, 79 executive desks, 344 cafeteria tables and 55 computer training tables.
c) Stop subjecting students to frequent and long power interruptions due to national load shading by installing a 770 kVA diesel generator thereby eliminating very frequent loss of student production time and being cut off from internet and mobile phone services at times for more than two days due to power cut off.
d) Stop subjecting more than 90% of university students to cold water even during winter and avoid passing on to students the high cost of electricity and maintenance of electric water geysers by installing 270 solar water geysers. Also improve student security at night by installing 250 solar street lights and 150 solar inverters.
e) Stop denying students access to recreation and sports by providing a fully equipped recreation and sporting facility instead of the one football ground, one basketball pitch and few old pieces of gym equipment currently available for 2300 students. This requires making available a wide variety of gym equipment, indoor and outdoor sporting equipment and construction of 3 basket ball pitches, one additional football ground, 2 tennis courts. This will be in full compliance to the Adventist Philosophy of Education that puts an equal emphasis on student recreation and sports as part of addressing the physical, spiritual, mental and social faculties.
f) Enable all 2300 students to have full access to e-learning platforms, e-library resources and cheap communication technologies by adding more computing devices to reduce the current computer-student ratio of one computer to 27 students to one computer to 5 students, making the whole campus wifi “hot spot” to enable students to access internet from anywhere on the campus including hostels, installing a campus-wide free telecommunications system to address the current embarrassing and expensive situation where mobile phones are the only means of distant communication among students on campus and between students and lecturers on the same campus.
g) Stop students from starving thereby contributing to future health problems of students due to lack of sufficient, nutritional food at a critical phase of their life by purchasing raw food materials to enable each student to be served with at least one free wholesome meal per day. This will address the current situation where some students are failing to afford even one heavily subsidized meal per day (each meal costs $1). This needs to be done as a temporal measure until the national economy has improved and household incomes improve to allow parents to finance student meals as part of meal plans that get factored into the fees structure.
Reasons why the situation has been so bad.
As Campaign Director I can confirm that the situation faced by students is unacceptable but the reasons why students have ended up in this situation are very understandable. The University Administrators have been doing their very best to improve the situation and that is why the University has received commendation from the Government as best practice in providing enabling student environment. Below are some of the reasons that have contributed to the situation:
(1) Historically Solusi was established in 1894 as a small mission station and has experienced the metamorphosis from primary to secondary school to college and finally to a chartered university in 1994. The university inherited primary and secondary school infrastructure and due to Zimbabwe's historic economic meltdown the existing infrastructure at Solusi rapidly deteriorated leading to deterioration of most student services and plans for major developments never took off due to the economic meltdown.
(2) Since 1994 enrollment has rapidly increased from less than 300 students to the current 2,300 (over 700% increase) but basic infrastructure and the capacity of the university to provide basic student services has barely increased.
(3) Solusi belives that “God does not create junk and that every young person has great potential for leadership” and this makes Solusi a preferred institution by parents and students who value private Christian education and yet come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds including those with orphan hood backgrounds. Because of its philosophy, Solusi serves the underprivileged making it impossible to increase fees.
(4) Over the last few years the University has experienced budget deficits. The Director of Finance has continued to narrow down the deficit through implementing au steric measures that require the University to live within its means. Under such a financial situation it is not possible to finance minimum package of student services out of the operations budget without significantly raising fees and causing most of the struggling students to drop from university.
Will my donation be safe?
Because transparency and accountability are key and achievable, this campaign has been authorized to use the General Conference (GC) Headquarters of the Seventh Day Adventist Church's United States of America 501 (c) (03) Department of Internal Revenue tax status. All donations made on this platform will be channelled directly into the GC bank account. This means that all donors for this campaign will receive a tax deductible receipt from General Conference effectively subjecting all donations to the rigorous USA, GC and Solusi University accounting procedures. Within the GC and Solusi accounting system financial disbursements are not made to individuals and all donations are subjected to internal and external audits.
What We Need & What You Get
This campaign seeks to increase student access to a minimum package of basic student services for 2300 university students at a cost of $2,419,808 broken down as follows:
$1,040,354 to support extremely desparate students and those with disabilities
$160,347 to support student access to chairs and desks
$164,000 to support student access to uninterrupted power
$240,600 to support student access to hot water in bath rooms
$179,873 to support student access to recreation and sporting facility
$416,595 to support student access to ICT and free campus telecommunications
$255,038 to support student access to one free wholesome meal per day
(1) Access to student assistance for extremely desperate and disabled students.
This campaign seeks to raise $1,040,354 to increase the number of needy students accessing student aid from 39 to 350 students. Your donation of $10 will cover five hours employment for one student (The donation will be accessible to the student through work study program).
In order to discourage students from developing a culture of free handouts and to
develop their assertiveness, income generation skills and employability, Solusi runs a unique student aid scheme referred to as student work study program. Worthy and needy students submit applications to the Work Study Committee chaired by the Director for Student Affairs in which the Student Representative Council (SRC)
are represented. The number of students accepted depends on the funds availlable to support the program. The scheme pays students at the rate of $2 per hour. A student working 20 hours per week is paid $40 amounting to $160 per month and $580 per semester out of full tuition of $1,100 per semester. Students on work program have the option of working up to 200 hours during the four months summer break earning $1,600. During regular semester, the student’s grades and study load determine the number of hours authorized. Every semester we come across many students who get stranded on the campus because of lack of bus fare. We also find many girls who become desperate because they lack a couple of dollars to buy necessities dictated by their biology. A flexible campus employment program becomes handy to avoid extreme desperation and this is extended to students with disabilities. This campaign seeks to increase student access to campus student employment scheme by increasing funded employment hours from current 30,000 to over 300,000 hours which will finance 350 students from the current 39 students.
(2) Access to critical furniture especially chairs.
This campaign seeks to raise $160,347 to ensure that all 2300 students have access to appropriate furniture in every facility on campus including hostel rooms and worship venues. A total of 4,800 steel chairs with 10 years minimum guarantee are required, 800 steel classroom chairs with tablet arm, 600 steel library chairs, 1500 steel cafeteria chairs, 920 steel hostel chairs and 2000 steel church chairs, In addition 344 cafeteria tables, 30 library tables, 10 computer workstation desks and 45 computer training desks are also required.
$35 of your donation will buy one student a steel chair with minimum 10 years guarantee and save the student from having to carry own chair or carry out educational assignments while standing.
$200 of your donation will buy a table to sit 12 students in the library or cafeteria.
(3) Access to uninterrupted power.
This campaign seeks to raise $164,000 to ensure that all the 2300 students have
access to uninterrupted power while on campus. A 700kVA Cummings diesel
generator will be installed as power back up. In order to import and install the generator a levy of $25 dollars per student would be required over a period of 3 years but unfortunately the students are unable to raise the levy due to current economic situation.
$25 of your donation will benefit one student to have uninterrupted power for the whole year. The $25 will pay the power levy of one student for one year towards installing the generator which will be a lifetime investment to benefit thousands of current and future students.
(4) Transition to solar power and access to hot water in the hostel bathrooms.
This campaign will raise $240,600 to ensure that 2300 students have access to hot
water in all hostel bathrooms. Two hundred and seventy 300-litre solar water heaters will be installed in all student bathrooms to ensure student access to hot water at very low cost. 250 solar street lights and 150 solar inverters will also be installed around the campus. The initial capital for installing solar geysers and solar street lights require a one time levy of $100 per student which the students can not afford
$100 of your donation will enable one student to access hot water and enjoy solar-powered street lights at night. This will become a lifetime investment that will benefit thousands of current and future students.
(5) Access to fully equipped recreation and sporting facility.
This campaign seeks to raise $179,873 to facilitate student access to recreation and sporting facility. A wide variety of gym equipment as well as wide variety of indoor and outdoor sporting equipment will be procured. In addition 3 basket ball pitch and 2 tennis courts will be constructed. A recreational facility levy of $50 per student over 2-years will enable the setting up of a world-class recreational activity fully equipped. However the students are currently unable to pay such levy.
$50 of your donation can pay one year sports levy for one student and enable the student to play Basketball, tennis and fully equipped gym and also access a variety of various indoor and outdoor sports. Your donation will become a lifetime investment that will benefit current and future students.
(6) Access to 21st century information and communication technologies.
This campaign seeks to raise $416,595 to increase student access to ICT by reducing the high computer student ratio of one computer to 27 students to one computer to 10 students. The campaign will also make available through the library, 100 tablets and 100 kindles for use by students who have limited access to library e-resources due to lack of gadgets. Furthermore the campaign will install a campus-wide telecommunication system which is currently absent and also transform the whole campus into “hot zone for free unlimited internet access ” including the hostels. An ICT and internet infrastructure levy of $$90 per student for two years will increase access to computing devices, introduce free telecommunications across campus and access to internet on the campus.
$90 of your donation can pay for one year ICT levy that will install ICT and free campus-wide telecommunications infrastructure for use by all students.
(7) Access to one basic wholesome meal per day.
This campaign seeks to raise $255,038 to enable access to one free basic and
wholesome meal per day to each student. The University staff including some of the students on work study program will provide the required labour to ensure that this will be the most nutritious meal of the day.
$30 of your donation can pay for one free meal everyday for one student for the whole month (30 days) and there are 6 months that make up one academic year for each student (each student would require $180 for food to cover the whole academic year).
What about perks?
Every donor will receive a USA 501(c) (3) receipt. As a way of saying “thank you” every donor will receive a minimum of three perks. Different donation levels qualify for various types of perks which include: (i) USA 501(c) (3) tax deductible receipt, (ii) naming opportunity for some Solusi infrastructure, student service etc. (iii) qualification to participate in April-May 2016 donor 10-day Zimbabwe tour including Solusi, Victoria Falls, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe ruins etc., (iv) donor's name permanently engraved on either the copper, silver, bronze, gold, platinum, or diamond side of the donor recognition monument to be constructed in the main University Park on campus, (v) Inspiring book on the history of Solusi, (vi) Personalized Certificate of appreciation signed by the President of the University (Vice Chancellor). (vii) special pictorial edition of Solusi News highlighting impact of donations on improving student welfare.
What happens if goal is not reached?
In the rare event of failing to reach the goal donations will be distributed as follows:
Free meals will be top priority and power back up diesel generator will be second priority. Any remaining amount will be apportioned to the rest of the components of the minimum package of student services on the basis of their respective budgets.
What happens if the goal is exceeded?
In the event of more funds being raised above the budget the Campaign Director shall meet with the Solusi University Council sub-committee on Development and also consult with Student Representative Council to come up with recommendations for the best use of extra funding besides what has been detailed in the approved proposal for this crowdfunding project.
The Impact
This campaign presents an opportunity to touch the lives of over 2300 university students a rewarding experience with great satisfaction of mission accomplished. It is a great privilege to be able to give donors great opportunities to make a difference. Provision of a full package of basic student services is going to result in life changing experience for 2300 desperate and frustrated students. I can not wait for that moment when we will be rewarded by expression of satisfaction and gratitude on the faces of the young students. Their lives forever changed and not only them but also the lives of thousands other students who will come after them.
