Veronicah's Letters

Letters from Veronicah Nyoni, Headmistress
St. Werburg's School, Mutare, Zimbabwe

Carbon Quest sent three parcels of basic school supplies to Veronicah for the 1000 children including the pencils, wide ruled notebook paper, pencil sharpener, ruler, protractor, chalk, colored paper and colored pencils, with a set of books for teaching basic skills in reading, math, writing and science.

Additional school supplies are sent each fall to support the children's education, and throughout the year. Never before had the children used white notebook paper and the luxury of basic books and school supplies inspired everyone working on this project.

We also sent Dr. Jane Goodall's signed books from our meeting in Seattle, and a application to join Roots and Shoots.

These are Veronicah's letters in response:

Dear Peggy:

Thank you so much for the books and all the parcels. The pupils and teachers were so grateful of the materials. The white papers are very useful for my assignments. If you get some they have been so handy. We will start more projects when we get open.

I read the books on chimpanzees. I have enclosed the form and a letter to Jane.

I am hoping to get a grant to complete my masters degree. Do you know of any places I can apply? It will cost $400.00 US.

Thank you so much for the books and the money. The children love the pencils, colored pencils and paper. As you know, they had nothing and so this is a very special gift. It means everything to us and having chalk is such a help to the teachers. They are all overjoyed.

Love to all of you. As you know Carbon Quest has changed our lives.

Veronicah Nyoni

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Veronicah's letter to Dr. Jane Goodall:

Dear Jane:

I hope Peggy did tell you about me. My name is Veronicah Nyoni and I am the principal of St. Werburg's Primary school in Mutare, Zimbabwe, some 19 km from Mutare.

The school has 900 students grade 1 through 7. We are engaged in hydroponics where we are growing herbs and vegetables.

Most of our pupils are from rural backgrounds with a few from the local farm compounds. Others suffer from malnutrition so the growth of vegetables is helping greatly. We are to follow through the project to the community where pupils will grow their own vegetables at their homes.

We love so much to take care of the various crops, seeing how they grow, learning about possible diseases and how to control them. The teacher who is in charge of the project is a very good farmer and practices intensive farming with hydroponics at his rural home.

We got your books on chimpanzees. I liked reading them as well as the teachers and the children too. Your experience in Tanzania was fascinating to read. We look forward to your acceptance of us as a Roots and Shoots group.

Our school is in the Vumba mountains where there are a lot of monkey family animals that look like chimpanzees.

It is wet and hot here year round with very good scenic views of vleis, mountains and thick forests and a lot of resort places. One of the best hotels in Africa, the Leopard Rock, is walking distance from our school. You can watch leopards as they bask in the sun. There are also tourists here doing bird watching.

We have for the past two years hosted Global Roots students who came here from the US on a cultural exchange program.

Thank you again for the books and your work,

Veronicah Nyoni

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