Blog
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End of year catch-up with Simakakata (including a brilliant surprise!)
Yesterday Volunteer Adam caught up with Headmaster George on the phone. Here’s your update on what’s being going on at Simakakata recently and how your money is being put to use.
Work has already begun at Simakatata. Here you can see Headmaster George being interviewed on a Flip camera. We hope this will be available to share in early 2010.
“Merry Christmas from Zambia,” says George, the headmaster of Simakakata Community School, “And we wish you all the best for a prosperous 2010!”
His pupils and staff are off enjoying the Christmas holidays, but George has been cycling into work every day this week. He’d rather be spending time with his family, but there’s a lot to do.
The last few weeks have been eventful for the children of Simakakata. It started with good news: as well as receiving the funding for a new classroom thanks to your efforts in 2009, the school has also been awarded a grant by leading international aid agency CARE International to fully fund an entire classroom block. In total, money for four new classrooms began to arrive at the beginning of December, and George hasn’t waited to put it to work.
Meeting up with a CARE International representative in May 2009. At that point they didn't think they would have any spare funds to help Simakakata this year.
“We’re already up to window level on the first building,” he laughs, “We’re going very quickly, and the community is doing the vast majority of the building work. We’re hoping that we’ll have this first building completed by the end of January.”
No time to waste
Although George has the money and materials at his disposal to start work on the new school building, he doesn’t have the luxury of time. Right now the 230 children enrolled at Simkakata are taught in an old farmhouse, which has no lighting, no water and, for the most part, no windows either. It’s a hugely inappropriate building, but they may not even have that for much longer.
“The lease on our current building runs out in January,” explains George, “If the children are moved out of that building they’ll have nowhere to learn from. We’re very worried and trying to organise things. We hope to work fast, but we’re asking for a grace period of three months or so, so that we can get the roof on and complete the building.”
As a result, says George, he’s decided the priority is to press on with building the second classroom block before work starts on any teachers’ housing.
“The first block can accommodate five classes teaching on a shift rota,” he explains, “But we still need two more classrooms if we are to accommodate the whole school properly.”
A new borehole
There is more good news, though. Thanks to the commitment shown by George, his staff and the community of Simakakata, the local council has agreed to fund a borehole at the new school site so that the pupils can finally have access to clean water.
“The borehole has been drilled by the council, but they haven’t fixed a pump yet,” says George, “So we’re still without water. The pipes are in the ground, but they’re not working yet. But we hope they soon will be.”
And what of our star pupil, ten-year-old orphan Saviour? She walks 14km a day without food or water to get to school, hoping that her education will be her escape from poverty.
Saviour is performing well at school. Notice the lack of windows in her current classroom.
“She’s is doing very well,” George tells us, “In fact, her results are much better than last year. In her last exams she came top of the class!”
The next few months will see Simakakata Community School transformed beyond recognition from the dark, dilapidated stop gap we visited in May. With new buildings and a borehole, it will be much better equipped to give Savour and her friends the education that they deserve. There’s still more to do before its future is assured.
Help us to raise money for the fifth classroom and the vital 5 teachers’ houses by making a donation today.
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Nerys and Chris both win 2-month work placements with LearnAsOne!
Nerys and Chris: Our two Vodafone World of Difference winners.
A few months ago I wrote a post about the Vodafone World of Difference scheme. They were offering 500 people the opportunity to undertake 2-month work placements with a charity of their choice.
Last Tuesday I received 2 emails from Vodafone telling me that 2 people had been accepted onto the scheme to work for LearnAsOne. I’ve been sworn to secrecy ever since. But Vodafone have now had their press day and I’m allowed to share the great news with you all.
So without further ado I can reveal that our two winners are Nerys Evans and Chris Thompson.
You may remember Nerys from our Zambia trip in May. She shot 9 hours of video as a self-funded volunteer. This grant gives her the chance to edit the video and share stories from the Simakakata community.
Chris will help to kick-start our 2010 WalkAsOne fundraising campaign. He’ll work closely with schools, universities, and walking groups to help them organise 14km sponsored walks which replicate Saviour’s daily journey to school. The current school is a borrowed farmhouse which the owner needs back.
Massive thanks go to Vodafone for making this possible. I can’t wait to start sharing Nerys’ video with you and see you all walking in 2010!
If you would like to organise a walk in your community please send an email to [email protected]. Thank you!