Zimbabwean businessman Carlton Mhene has established a charitable foundation to fund the education of 15 pupils at a junior school in Chitungwiza.
The recently established Mhene Foundation says its inaugural scholarship bursary programme will provide comprehensive support to pupils across different grade levels at Simbarashe Junior School. They have been chosen for their academic achievement and their sporting development.
Mr Mhene is group chief executive of Horizon Equity Group, a Zimbabwe-headquartered business group that reports commercial interests in Zimbabwe, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
From Mufakose to the boardroom
Mr Mhene was raised in Mufakose, a suburb of Harare, and his career has been rooted in Zimbabwe while taking in wider regional and international business.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from the University of South Africa (Unisa) and has specialist training in gemology, the study of gemstones.
His business interests span mining and minerals, energy, real estate, technology, aviation and private security. At Horizon Equity Group, he is involved in strategic leadership, business development and the pursuit of investment opportunities across those sectors.
He describes his philanthropy as part of a wider vision of sustainable development and social impact – one that extends beyond commercial success.
What the scholarship offers
The programme is designed to do more than cover the cost of attending school. By supporting sport alongside academic work, it aims to nurture talent in different forms.
The 15 pupils come from different grade levels, meaning that support begins at several stages of a child’s junior education rather than at a single entry point.
The foundation says its wider goals are to advance access to education and to help young people realise their potential.
How scholarships help students
Education agencies, including the United Nations children’s agency, Unicef, have long identified the cost of schooling as a barrier to learning in many low- and middle-income countries. Fees are only part of the picture: uniforms, stationery, textbooks and transport can add up for families on tight budgets.
Scholarships and bursaries can help in several ways.
They keep children in class. When fees and associated costs are covered, families are less likely to have to pull a child out of school because of money worries. Continuity matters, because gaps in attendance can be hard to recover from.
They ease pressure on families. A scholarship can free up household income for food, health care and other essentials, so its effect often reaches beyond the pupil who receives it.
They reward effort. Selecting pupils for achievement can encourage children to see hard work as a route to opportunity, and signals that talent is being noticed.
They recognise sport as part of learning. Team sports are widely associated with discipline, teamwork and confidence. Supporting sporting development alongside academic work acknowledges that not every child’s strengths show up in a classroom test.
They can shape longer-term prospects. Support at junior level can help pupils build the foundations they need to progress to secondary school and beyond.
A modest start
Support for 15 pupils is a small number set against the size of the education challenge in Zimbabwe and across the region. Scholarship schemes are not a substitute for public investment in schools, teachers and learning materials, and their impact is usually judged over years rather than months.
But targeted private giving can complement state provision, and it can make a decisive difference to the individual children who receive it. Many such programmes also start small before growing as they gain funding and experience.
For Mr Mhene, whose own business career began in a Harare suburb, the foundation represents an attempt to widen the opportunities available to children in communities such as Chitungwiza.
