Star of Zimbabwe: James Bayanai Helping Zimbabwe's Rural Schools

Born in the rural community of Chirumanzu in 1983, James has proved to be a bright star casting light on the lives of many children in his rural home and neighbouring communities by establishing the Zimbabwe Youth Development Foundation Trust (ZYDFT).

James Bayanai studied law at the University of Zimbabwe and also holds a Diploma in Labour resources (IPMZ), a Certificate in Security Investigations as well as a Certificate in Social Enterprise from Elois Institute Brazil.

Through ZYDFT, James is currently involved in a programme codenamed Zuva Rapuda/Sunrise. This project has seen James acquiring donations of over 60 000 reading books, which have been handed over to needy schools in Chirumanzu and surrounding areas.

His organisation has broadened its horizons by expanding and extending its operations into other rural areas such as Hurungwe in Mashonaland West and Nyanga in Manicalands, where it has donated materials to at least 40 schools.

He said that his main goal is to eventually reach out to all rural folk countrywide, a development that is currently being hindered lack of resources.

“Our operations have stretched from Chirumanzu to Hurungwe West and Nyanga. It is hard for us to say the exact number of children, who have benefitted from our programme, but we have worked with over 40 schools and we are currently targeting 48 schools in Hurungwe West, 8 of which have benefitted already.

“Matabeleland has always been on my mind, as there is a great need there more than in any other part of the country. Matabeleland is a marginalised area and they surely need help. However we are not in a position to assist there as it is further afar from Harare and we do not even have a truck to transport books,” said James.

Through networking with ZDDT and other like-minded organisations, James is in the process of identifying rural schools to benefit from the Tutudesks Foundation programme of distributing lapdesks.

“I met the Tutudesks Foundation guys at a congress in Switzerland. I kept contact with them and we have been corresponding. Finally, they have said that they will be able to assist and have tasked me to identify about 40 to 50 rural schools which will get lapdesks,” he said.



James emphasized on the importance of establishing a partnership between ZDDT and ZYDFT in order for the organisations to help each other in the realisation of their goals, as they share the same values and principles of community empowerment at from a grassroots level.

“There is a great need for ZDDT and ZYDFT to partner in some projects that are of special interest to us. Somehow we are advocating for almost the same thing and I have a lot to learn from you guys as you have a lot of experience in this field. Therefore it would be good to partner in a number of ways,” James said.

This wonderful journey, which has materialised into such great fruition, began when James was working for an Internet Service Provider in Cape Town, South Africa.

He read in the Cape Argus about young South Africans who were making a difference in supporting upholding the lives of less privileged in their communities and decided to be part of the Young Global Change Makers. (This is in CAPS because it is a name and that is how it is written)

Inspired by the story, he felt challenged and took it upon himself to initiate a project to promote literacy in Zimbabwean rural communities through provision of basic educational materials.

The project also sought the establishment of community libraries in areas where the student-book ratio was as low as 1 book per 36 students and most of the schools did not have computers.

He then had a golden opportunity to market and “sell” his ideas and project to the international community when he was invited to participate in the World Youth Congress in Istanbul, Turkey in 2010, where he exhibited the project to the admiration of other participants from the world over.

“While in Cape Town, I read an article about young people who were making a lot of difference in their communities and I liked what they were doing. I thought that I would do the same; that is how I came up with this idea. After deciding to venture into supporting the education sector, I put in my proposal and it was accepted for exhibition in Istanbul, Turkey.



“While there, I met a lot of people who were keen to work with me. These included people from USA, Switzerland and Austria. After meeting with those people, I came back home and started correspondence with them and this led to assistance in the form of donations of thousands of reading books,” said James.

James notes that the Youth Congress opened a multitude of networking opportunities for him and that he utilised them for the betterment of the education sector in the areas in which his organisation operates.

“With the assistance of the US embassy, some guys from Hawaii sent us lots of books. We also entered into a partnership with the Bisila Bokoko African Literacy Project through online correspondence. We also established a scholarship that we named after the project’s director, Bisila Bokoko that is benefiting 25 children in Chirumanzu. We are also in the process of establishing a community library with the assistance of the Bisila Bokoko African Literacy Project.

“Networking has been the key to the success of our organisation. Ever since my trip to Turkey, I have been establishing partnerships with like-minded people and I have been building on these partnerships. ,” he said.

Since that life changing congress in Istanbul, James has managed to travel to a number of countries promoting his organisation and looking assistance to augment Zimbabwe’s education sector, especially in the rural areas.

James was invited to share project Zuva Rabuda/Sunrise with other youth from around the globe at the International Student Week Festival (ISWI)   in Ilmenau, Germany.

In June of 2011, James Bayanai was instrumental in organising a Zim-Austria Youth Co-operation forum. This was organised in collaboration with youth from the small Austrian town of Murzuschlag. The main purpose of the forum was to find ways in which the youth from Austria could assist school going children in Zimbabwe.

In October of 2011, James Bayanai left for Zurich and Geneva in Switzerland to attend a One Young World Summit, which is a global platform for young people to make their voices heard on a global stage.

For his active involvement in International Advocacy, James Bayanai was invited to take part at the Warriors Without Weapons Programme in Santos, Brazil. Warriors Without Weapons is an experimental leadership and social entrepreneurship program created to propel a movement of transforming the world into a better place.

James also travelled to Vienna July of 2012 to participate at the WIEN Afrika Festival. This is a platform where Africans are given the opportunity to exhibit African Art and he used it as a platform to sell African crafts as a way of fundraising for his social and educational projects in Zimbabwe. This was made possible by James’ collaboration with Austrian Youth.

Furthermore, James Bayanai’s organisation participated at the IYAF 2012 in London. Its exhibition was entitled Africa Reflections which was an exhibition of ethnic jewellery from African natural seeds. The jewellery was made with the help of Zimbabwean rural students who regard it as a source of their destiny. The proceeds of the sale of the Jewellery were directed towards the provision of school fees and proper educational resources such as reading books for children in rural communities.

James Bayanai’s commitment, to empowering thousands of local young people, was again recognised internationally when he was selected to be part of the upcoming 2013 Young Leaders Unite Forum.

Bayanai was chosen for his role in international youth advocacy and for spearheading social projects in Zimbabwe.

In conclusion, James urged other youths to take challenges head on in pursuit of their dreams and goals.

“Just go for it. It only takes passion; if you are passionate you can do anything. The second key is to establish and nurture partnerships with like-minded people and do not discriminate because you do not know who will help you with what. Some partnerships take a long time to bear results, but always nurture them as you will eventually benefit one way or another,” he wrapped up.