LearnAsOne

Being shown updates from some of the schools Response Network facilitate

Really good day. Very positive second half of the meeting with Response Network, followed up by a few drinks to swap ideas with Evelyn and Brett from Jungle Junction who are raising money to fund a school near the Botswana border.

Self-help

The Response Network model is very interesting and I learnt a huge amount from their team today.

They start by visiting a rural village and holding a motivation and information meeting on how the community can start their own Self-Help activities, using their own human and material resources. The key thing Response Network do is help the community to understand that they have the ability to solve most of their own problems.

It’s then the community who decide what they need first. It could be a community school, a women’s club, some skills training, a health club, advice on organic vegetable growing, the list goes on. Response Network provides free Self-Help Educational Resources on the chosen area which contains key information that is not easily available from other sources. It’s then over to the community to take the next steps.

If they want a school

Should the community want a school the relevant Self-Help manual guides them how to get one off the ground. For example by constructing a temporary shelter or borrowing a disused building and asking some of the elders in the village to work as volunteer teachers.

As part of this process a member of the community is made a Response Network volunteer and one of their roles is to keep the field team up-to-date on how the project is processing.

When does LearnAsOne get involved?

Before Response Network will even consider talking to a charity like LearnAsOne the community must have the temporary school operating successfully. This is a serious undertaking in itself and demonstrates a strong commitment to the provision of education.

It’s a step many organisations don’t take, but is one that makes a huge amount of sense.

What would our role be?

In this model our role would be to meet a community who Response Network believe are ready for a more permanent school and listen to what they need. Then share the community’s stories with you and ask for your help to raise the funding.
Whatever the need (classroom, borehole, sanitation, teacher’s house) the main cost is likely to be the provision of building materials, which will make up about 75% of the value of the project.

The other 25% is made up by the community. It consists of sourcing and remunerating an approved builder (usually found in the community), providing unskilled labour and collecting stone and sand which they make into bricks.

Before the community get started on building the school the builder must be approved and the community must agree to work to the plans Response Network provide. Building is the sole responsibility of the community and an agreement is signed to this effect before the materials are handed over.

The building materials (e.g. timber, cement, roofing sheets) are then delivered into the community and they have 6 months to turn them into a school. If they do not the agreement states that Response Network are allowed to take the materials and deliver them to another community who need a school. So far they have facilitated 10 schools and never invoked this clause.

What does a school consist of?

In the first instance a school can be as basic as classroom and small office. It doesn’t even need to have running water or sanitation to become recognised as a school (although these are of course desirable). The key thing I learnt today is not to do too much too soon as the community can only contribute so much time and labour in one go. And there is always time for expansions in the future (should the community want to of course!)

We have been invited up to Kalomo next week (120kms north of Livingstone) to meet some of the communities and document their stories.

Thanks go to the head office team of Mwaziona, Frayor, Caleb, Mutukwa and Haakon for spending the whole of Tuesday taking me through everything from how the Response Network model works, to example updates from the field, procurement procedures and finances.