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“Thank you very much. We appreciate your hard work.”
The text I received from Headmaster George earlier today.
A few hours ago my phone buzzed. It was a text message from George, the Headmaster at Simakakata Community School.
“Thank you very much. We appliciate your hard work.”
Given today’s general levels of excitement at LearnAsOne and in Southern Zambia I’m sure we can all forgive his spelling. Mine is often equally as bad!
Let me rewind 24 hours
Yesterday I received a cheque from Shaun Connell following his Sky dive in late September. This brought us to within £170.24 of the fundraising target for the first classroom. I posted messages on twitter and Facebook to this effect and our supporters took over. Within 24 hours the target had been reached!
I’d like to thank Claire, Adam, Simon, Nina, Gloria, Rachel, Cathryn, Maurice, Zac, Scuff and Laura for their donations which nudged the totaliser over the target. And of course to all the rest of you who have donated your time, skills and money to make this all possible.
So what happens next?
As soon as your doantions reach us from Just Giving (7-10 days) we’ll transfer the money for the first classroom to our partner Response Network in Zambia.
In the meantime they will finalise the costs of the raw materials such as cement, doors, windows and roofing sheets. And a document of understanding will be drawn up with the community at Simakakata giving them 6 months to build the classroom once the raw materials are delivered.
We’ll also work out the best way to keep you updated during the build and, after a little celebration tonight, continue fundraising for the remaining classrooms, teacher’s houses and water that the community needs.
A message from the kids
To sign off this post I’ll hand you over to the children of Simakakata.
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£15.24 away from the first classroom!
Hole in the wall: The learning conditions in the current school are far from ideal.
I have good news. Thanks to your efforts the first classroom at Simakakata is now just £170.24 £15.24 away fully funded!
Thanks to the recent efforts of 13 students and a dog at the very first WalkAsOne, Nina Preece and her eBay exploits, the sky diving Shaun Connell, the Chearsley WI cake sale team, New Era and many others the £5,200 target is now within touching distance.
Edit: Thanks to Claire, Adam, Simon, Nina, Gloria, Rachel, Cathryn, Maurice, Zac, Scuff and Laura for their donations since I shared this post on twitter and Facebook.
Below you can see the site for the new classroom. A previous donor laid the foundations and the community have made all the bricks you see by hand.
This is where the first classroom will be built.
The money raised will pay for all the other raw materials needed to build a classroom. Timber, roofing sheets, doors, glass for windows, more cement. All things the community cannot afford themselves.
The community at Simakakata have agreed to contribute by donating both skilled and unskilled labour for free. They are ready to get started as soon as the final £170.24 has been raised the funds have been transferred to our partner in Zambia and the raw materials have been purchased. We’ll provide updates throughout the build on this blog so you can see your money action.
If you would like to make a donation you can do so via this link. Thank you.