Higherlife Foundation: Difference between revisions

Higherlife Foundation is a philanthropic organisation with a mission to provide a platform for people to fulfill their God given purpose. It was founded in 1996 by Strive and Tsitsi Masiyiwa. Since inception, Higherlife Foundation has been creating empowerment opportunities for thousands of orphaned and vulnerable children in Africa through education and material support. Education support has been provided through the Capernaum Scholarship for orphaned and vulnerable children and the Joshua Nkomo Scholarship for highly gifted children. Other than Education support, Higherlife Foundation supports beneficiaries of its two main education programmes with Guardianship and Pastoral Care. In the communities it serves, Higherlife Foundation partners with healthcare and crisis response institutions and agencies through its Health and Crisis support programme, to deliver timely healthcare relief in times of crises and epidemics.

Founded in 1996 by Strive and Tsitsi Masiyiwa Higherlife foundation operated as Capernaum Trust, offering primary, secondary and University scholarships to orphaned and vulnerable children.

In 1998 Higherlife Foundation ventured into health and crisis relief through launching the National Health Care Trust following growing concerns about the state of Zimbabwe's healthcare delivery system and the emergence of a health crisis worsened by an unprecedented cholera epidemic. That same year 200 scholarships we awarded to the junior doctor’s medical school to help beef up manpower which was desperately needed to improve Zimbabwe’s health situation. In 2005 the Joshua Nkomo Scholarship fund for the talented and gifted was launched to cater for highly gifted students that did not fall into the orphaned and vulnerable category. The first group of scholarships were awarded in 2006 and 1000 scholarships have been awarded to-date. 2006 ushered in a new era of spirituality in the foundation when the Christian Community Partnership Trust was launched to help transform lives in local communities through the gospel of Jesus Christ. In 2008 the Waterford Kamhlaba scholarship was launched to offer first class education to beneficiaries of the Joshua Nkoma Scholarship. This scholarship kicked off by taking 7 beneficiaries to learn at the prestigious Waterford Kamhlaba College in Swaziland. In 2010 the foundation spread its footprint to Lesotho and Burundi, in response to a rising HIV/Aids prevalence in Lesotho and growing civil unrest in Burundi. In the period 2010- 2014 the foundation really experienced exponential growth and milestones to note include:

• A $6.4 million investment made to sponsor 40 international scholarships at Morehouse and Spelmen College in Atlanta, Georgia.
• The launch of 30 learning hubs in Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Burundi, equipped with state of the art computers and furniture.
• The birth of the Ruzivo learning platform; an online learning platform, which seeks to improve access to quality education through online technologies.
• The launch of a Technology hub and idea incubation center called Muzinda.
• Partnership with Econet Wireless to distribute vaccines in rural areas through The Energize The Chain initiative.
• Providing food, shelter and medical supplies to thousands of people displaced in the Tokwe Mukosi dam crisis.
• Drilling of community boreholes benefiting 35 000 people at inception.
• Facilitating mobile clinics that provided FREE access to health care for 8564 men, women and children.

In 2015 Higherlife Foundation repositioned itself to focus on education. This led to the merging of all four Trusts into one foundation. With this new direction the foundation partnered with Yale University in a 1.6 million partnership, which will take 900 African students to Ivy League Universities in the United States of America and plans to impact 2 million children by 2020.

The Higherlife Foundation Basic Education programme is delivered through the Capernaum Scholarship, a scholarship targeted at orphaned and vulnerable children between the ages of 5 and 18 years. The scholarship includes fees and tuition from early childhood to high school and has been running for the past 19 years. Higherlife foundations biggest programmes are currently running in Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Burundi. In Zimbabwe the scholarship supports eligible children in Grade 1 to Form 4. In Lesotho it offers scholarships to eligible children in Form A to Form D, while in Burundi the scholarship covers eligible children from Grade 1 to Grade 10. Along with the academic education, the Basic Education programme incorporates mentorship, life skills training and specialized psychosocial support led by the Foundation’s Guardianship and Pastoral Care unit, in collaboration with expert partners.

The scholarship program covers tuition, management levies, examination fees and other support materials. Currently, there are 19 000 children under Basic Education and, working with over 1 977 primary and secondary schools.

Capernaum Scholars in dire need of food are supplied with food hampers. In addition, scholars with chronic ailments and those who fall sick/ill receive supplies of medication and visit Hospitals/Clinics. Currently, 2053 food hampers are distributed each quarter, with an average of 6 members per household, our indirect reach is 12 318 family members.

The Higherlife Foundation Talent Development programme is delivered through the merit-based Joshua Nkomo Scholarship. The programme, now in its 10th year, focuses on identifying young African talent through a rigorous selection process and creating the opportunity for them to get the best and most relevant education at world-class local and overseas tertiary learning institutions.

The programme includes leadership training and mentorship through internships, community involvement and life-long engagement through an active alumni network. The Joshua Nkomo scholarships are offered to the best students in the final 2 to 3 years of high school, and top university and college students in their first and straight Masters degrees. The Higherlife Foundation Talent Development programme currently offers merit scholarships to gifted students in several African countries, including Zimbabwe, Burundi, Lesotho, Rwanda and Ghana, with hundreds of students studying at local and overseas Ivy League colleges and universities. Other than scholarship support, Talent Development also offers professional trainings through Mentorships, Workshops, Talent Tracking and Development and various Community Engagements.  

The Higherlife foundation Health and Crisis support programme works with partners in health to address health issues that would negatively affect beneficiaries’ health and their ability to access quality education. It works to alleviate and prevent epidemics and disease outbreaks that affect children. It partners with relevant public and private partners to mitigate the impact of health crises and natural disasters on communities in which Higherlife Foundation's beneficiaries live.

The Higherlife Foundation Guardianship and Pastoral Care programme addresses the social issues that affect its beneficiaries’ ability to learn, excel and lead normal lives. It focuses on empowering the children served by the foundation with psychosocial support and essential life skills needed to overcome the stigma and emotional and psychological challenges of growing up as an orphaned child. The Guardianship and Pastoral Care programme also works in collaboration with expert partners, governments and policy makers to ensure the protection of the fundamental rights of children in general, and the rights of the girl child in particular. Pastoral Cares’ focus areas are:

Offering a parental role to vulnerable children so that their basic needs are met until they complete tertiary education.

Adopting a casework model to provide regular counseling and coaching sessions to ensure that beneficiaries have a robust safety and support net.

Facilitating food and medical aid support for identified children.

Provision of skills and knowledge to staff, guardians, volunteers and teachers on best ways to provide pastoral support and leadership development to all children. Regular monitoring and tracking of children to ensure timely and responsive interventions for all children on the program to propose and recommend improved services.