It was in 1959 when Fr Gerald Hughes, C.Ss.R, who was the Provincial Superior of the Redemptorists in London, got a request from Archbishop Framcis Markall SJ to come and work in the Archdiocese of Harare.

When the request came the Redemptorists who were already in South Africa, began to plan to come to Zimbabwe.

The Redemptorists at the time where very much interested in coming to work in Harare precisely because they felt that through living and working in this place they would be very close to fulfilling the very reason why the Congregation was founded – service of the marginalised poor.

Therefore, the Redemptorists were the first to put up makeshift schools for these children and to teach them formal education in the parish of St Gerard's.

This was eventually stopped by the Smith regime, the white government at that time putting an end the Redemptorist's desire to spread the good news through the ministry of education.