SEARCH
The community approached Gemfields (our charity partners and the biggest Emerald mining company in Zambia) and us for assistance and recently we have been heavily involved with providing labour. This enables the community to have ownership and a duty of care to the school and feel they are part of the improvement of the community.
The nine hundred children who come in two shifts (7am -11.30am/12.30pm-5pm) are crowded; this will be exacerbated by the community’s will for the school to be graded to a higher school.
Currently classes 1- 9 attend, it is hoped in the near future that the school will include all grades up to 12. Funding was given to create a new block to accommodate the high volumes of children, however before work commenced it was considered a higher priority to renovate the current building, which was collapsing. Using the foundations of the building constructed in 1935, a new block has been developed providing three big classrooms and two offices, which will accommodate the teachers who currently work “under the tree”.
The Teachers board agreed to the renovation, in which all damaged walls have been removed, along with the roof, which has been raised to ensure over crowding of the classrooms does not result in an over heated and unhealthy environment of work. Old parts have been removed and many pieces have been recycled and given to the community to improve their standard of shelter (homes), this includes wooden beams and corrugated iron sheets.
Of the twenty eight teachers, who are all Government teachers and therefore paid; only a quarter can be adequately accommodated. Those coming from Kitwe cannot rely on transport in a specified time frame and may not reach the school in time for the children, who have walked up to 7km to get there. Ideally there will be the construction of more staff accommodation on site; this will be reliant on us providing more funding, time and labour.
All materials: Timber, Iron sheets, plaster etc. have been paid for and as well as labour from the community, contractors have been paid. Once the renovation of the old building is complete, there is still the previous funding, which is hoped to assist in a new construction of two classroom blocks.
Work has also commenced on the landscape, in order for the school to “look habitable” and encourage the pupils to come. Previously the ground has been levelled and poor landscape removed. Once the rain season arrives (approximately late Oct-March) it is hoped that flowers can be introduced.
