Help Team Zimbabwe Attend the Olympics of High School Debate

In 2023, the Zimbabwe National Debate Team made history by ranking as the 8th best team in the world, after a spirited run that ended in tightly contested loss in the quarterfinal of the World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC), the Olympics of High School Debating. This was after two years of major competitive success including being crowned International Champions at the South African National Schools Debating Championships, bowing out of the Octofinals at WSDC 2022, an all-Zimbabwe final at the 2023 African Schools Debating Championships, the runners-up trophy at the Pan-African Schools Debating Championships, and being named the Best African Debate Team in 2021, 2022, and 2023. This year, Zimbabwe is returning to the World Championships more energized than ever before. We need your support to get us there.

We are 5 high school students from around Zimbabwe who are passionate about competitive debating and about changing the world. We have, combined, over 15 years of debating experience and have undergone nearly 6 months of rigorous training and competition. We have team and speaker breaks at tournaments that include the Indo-Pacific World Schools Debate Open, Western Worlds, and most recently, Princeton Worlds Schools Debating Championships. We are hoping to apply what we have learnt to bid for gold at the Olympics of high school debating. Below are some of our stories:

Davisha Chapfika is a 6th form student at Dominican Convent, Harare whose heart beats for filmmaking. In addition to spending her weekends competing and practicing her debating, she spends time filming and editing away, spinning stories with her camera. Davisha has been a part of 2 other national teams - Public Speaking and Gymnastics.

Dean Femayi is a 6th form student at St Patrick's Christian Brothers' College, Bulawayo. Dean is obsessed with political theory, and when he is not debating at national level - Dean represented Zimbabwe at the Oxford/Cambridge Schools Debating Finals Days - he spends his time reading Marx and Rousseau and finding ways to spin them into debate arguments.

Lesley Machimbidza is a final year student at Star Leadership Academy in Harare, Zimbabwe. Our resident hermit, Lesley's life is evenly split between his debating and his coding. Nothing gives him more joy than spending endless hours debugging lines of Python and finally getting his code to work. Lesley is also an incoming freshman at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire.

Lethukuthula Ngwenya is a gap year student who recently graduated from Gifford High School in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Lethu is an avid gym rat and when he is not debating, spends his time in the gym challenging himself with increasingly bigger deadlift records. He is also a passionate scientist and the next Neil deGrasse Tyson - he was very upset about missing the recent solar eclipse.

Our team captain, Tanatswa Moyo, is a Form 4 student at St Johns' College, Harare. Despite being the youngest member of the team, Tanatswa is a force to be reckoned with inside and outside the debating room. When he is not debating, Tanatswa spends time perfecting his skills in board games - Ask him about his recently developed winning Monopoly strategy.

This year's edition of the World Schools Debating Championship will be hosted in Belgrade, Serbia. We have undertaken substantial funding efforts amongst our families and communities. However, the cost of attending the World Championships and the current economic situation in Zimbabwe poses a significant hurdle to our participation.

We are requesting your support, by donating to or sharing this fundraiser, to help us raise US$4000 in the next 30 days to help us go for gold. We hope you will help make our dreams come true.