Kawaza Primary School Needs Your Help

Kawaza Primary School is in a remote and very rural community in the Luangwa Valley of Zambia. The School has 750 pupils. There are no amenities provided by a council - no water, no power, no sewage. The government has little and mostly no money for desks, books, buildings or equipment. The schools in Zambia have been told to work in partnership with the community, find their own sponsorship, and basically "make a plan".

Some years ago they were told to find a way to provide water for the children or be closed down. It is in these difficult conditions that the inspiring Headmaster, David Mwewa, runs the most dedicated team of teachers. The school buildings and the teachers' houses are basic and in need of a total overhaul, there are too few desks, the textbooks are in short supply. But the children are so enthusiastic, they are so hard working and they love their day at school.

Robin Pope Safaris has worked with the school for 18 years. Over that time we have put in a borehole for the children as well as the local community, built 8 children's toilets with septic tanks, renovated the school and teachers' buildings to some extent. However, we have done this with a small budget each year. It is time for a large building programme to lift the level of the classrooms and basic conditions beyond the level our budget can sustain. It is virtually impossible that any funds will be forthcoming from Government

In 2004 we received a very large donation from Romilly's Foundation and we set about building a new classroom block. We soon realized that we had the potential to think big and rebuild the school and expand the number of classrooms. We have also built two new teacher's houses at the degrading Nsefu Basic School and have built a new classroom block there as well. The changes at the two schools are amazing!

We have also helped to establish a library, educational video club (run off solar panels), provided many games (Scrabble is the favourite), and given many visual teaching aids. The children now have an art department with paper, crayons, paint and we have discovered many budding artists in the school! The school now has a pre-school class of 40 younger kids, 6 extra teachers, evening classes for adult education, all from the support and sponsorship from Robin Pope Safaris and their clients.

Kawaza Basic School would be so grateful if you would consider making a donation to help preserve the school in these very trying economic times. The children and the local community will be eternally grateful for this financial support.

Robin Pope Safaris will monitor the spending of any donation, and ensure the standard of the building is suitable. All donated money is spent on the school – no administration costs.


KAWAZA SCHOOL FUND PROJECT

In addition to Kawaza Basic School, we are now working to improve and expand 3 other schools in the Nsefu area, Nsefu Basic School, Kapita Community School, Katapilla Community School (opening for Grade 1 in January 2008). We have expanded our efforts to help to curb the overcrowding of Kawaza and Nsefu Basic Schools and also to have a full school system from Grades 1-12 in the Nsefu area, so that children to not have to attend expensive boarding schools to finish their education.

In 2007 we launched an extensive 5-year building plan to try and meet this goal. We hope to build new classroom blocks, refurbish old blocks, and build new teacher housing. The five year plan includes:

Kawaza

• 2007
  • 2 Teacher's Houses
• 2008
  • 2 Teacher's Houses
  • 1 Classroom Block + Office
    
• 2009
  • 2 Teacher's Houses
  • 1 Science Building
• 2010
  • 1 Teacher's House
  • 1 Classroom Block + Office
    
• 2011
  • 1 Teacher's House
    

Nsefu School

• 2007
  • 2 Teacher's Houses
  • 1 Classroom Block + Office
• 2008
  • 2 Teacher's Houses
  • 1 Classroom Block
  • 1 Classroom Renovation
• 2009
  • 1 Teacher's House
    
• 2010
  • 1 Teacher's House
  • 1 Classroom Block + Office
    
• 2011
  • 1 Teacher's House
    
    

Kapita Community School

• 2007
  • 1 Classroom Block
• 2008
  • 2 Teacher's Houses
• 2009
  • 2 Teacher's Houses
  • 1 Classroom Block + Office
• 2010
  • 2 Teacher's Houses
• 2011
  • 1 Teacher's House
  • 1 Classroom Block
    
    

Katapilla Community School

• 2008
  • 1 Storeroom
• 2009
  • 1 Teacher's House
• 2010
  • 1 Teacher's House
  • 1 Classroom Block
• 2011
  • 2 Teacher's Houses
  • 1 Classroom Block + Office
    

In addition to the above building projects we also continue to subsidize teacher's salaries at the 4 schools to help reduce the student to teacher ratio and also offer student sponsorships for exceptional students and orphaned students who are offered a place at a boarding school after they have passed out of Kawaza, and cannot afford the tuition and boarding fees.
This is clearly an ambitious project but we are fully confident that we will meet the targets.

For more information on the Kawaza School Fund and how you can help, please visit our new website: www.kawaza.org

UPDATED 7/2007