Education Zambia Project #15314

Help Complete Zambezi Sawmills Community School

by The African Impact Foundation

Project Report | Jan 20, 2016
Zambezi Sawmills School Oct-Dec 2015

By Hayley Willis | THAF Intern

All phases of the Zambezi Sawmills Project

Zambezi Sawmills Update

During the last three months of 2015 a total of $716 was raised towards the renovation of Zambezi Sawmills Community School.

The classroom block phase of the project is still ongoing. The foundations have been laid and the walls have been built up to roof level. We did raise enough for the roof but the cost of the steel sheets suddenly rose and so we had to continue fundraising to make up the difference. Through additional fundraising on the ground here in Livingstone we have been able to top-up this money. In December we did a Christmas fundraiser in Livingstone, having a Christmas Market and Carols by Candlelight. This was well received by the community and raised $396. The African Impact volunteers also raised some money by doing an auction of challenges. We are nearly there and should be able to resume the building of the classroom block in the coming weeks.

In further fundraising for other phases of the project we achieved enough money to finish the borehole earlier in the year, but the money was only transferred to us in December so this will allow us to complete the borehole within the next few weeks.

As it is the end of the year it is nice to re-cap what happened over the course of 2015. The security wall was built over January and February, the bore-hole was drilled in May, the classroom block was built up to roof level in July, and the food garden was created in July. In July the tag-rugby team repaired the damage by vandals who drove into and smashed the security wall and broke classroom windows in May. There are future plans to provide a wooden barrier in front of the wall to act as a defense against cars to prevent this happening again.

In 2015 we raised $13,966.35 in total, $9,999 of which was received through GlobalGiving, which is amazing. It has got us half-way in our project. Now we have to complete the classroom and build the teachers house, which we plan to do before the end of 2016.

Links:

Website

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Oct 22, 2015
Half way there

By Vicky Copeland | Intern

Students picking the vegetables

Since our last update our progress has slowed down considerably at Zambezi Sawmills Community School while we continue to fundraise to complete the project. We are more than halfway through the build with the security wall fence being completed and the classroom block being built to roof level.

However, that doesn’t mean that Zambezi Sawmills Community School has been sitting idle! The school has been totally transformed in the last year thanks to the security wall. The food garden that was completed earlier this year is thriving. The school is growing tomato, chinese cabbage and english rape amongst other things and the crops will be ready to sell in a few weeks’ time bringing the school their first income. The vegetables are not the only way of making money though, members of the community are also asking to use the garden as a venue to hold meetings which will be another source of income for the school. The combination of these incomes will be re invested to make the garden become a sustainable business for the school and provide a much needed year round income.

As well as all of this, the garden and fruit trees have improved the school surrounding, the children are learning new skills and are taking responsibility for the garden, even coming to school through the school holidays to water the vegetables! None of these things would have been possible if it wasn’t for the security wall fence. So thank you to everyone who donated and made it happen.

However, we still need to build the roof structure of the classroom block, connect the classroom to electricity as well as plaster and paint the classroom and build a teachers house within the school grounds. Please help us continue the great work that is happening at Zambezi Sawmills Community School and visit www.globalgiving.org/projects/complete-a-school-in-zambia/ to donate and receive quarterly reports on the progress of the project

Tomato plants

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Jul 24, 2015
Working together

By By Vicky Copeland | THAF- Intern

Zambezi Sawmills Community School has been a hub of activity the last few months! So many great things have been happening there, and – with the help of two great partners – progress is really being made towards giving the school a brighter and more sustainable future.

Enough funds have now been raised to start building the classroom block up to roof level, and the building started two weeks ago. The school is so full it’s bursting, and a new classroom will give them more space to house the 495 students that are already enrolled at the school and potentially enable them to accept more children to attend the school. This year alone, they turned away over 100 children who wanted to join.

In other news, the council graded and flattened the school grounds, which means now the wall fence is complete. With the school finally being secure, we were able to start an income generating activity there. The school will have a food garden where they’ll grow their own fruit and vegetables and sell them at the local market, which will allow them to raise much needed income. In the future, they hope to use some of the vegetables and income to start a feeding program for some of the most vulnerable students. This has been an idea for some time, but access to water and being able to pay the water bills has been an issue. This is where Pocklington School from the UK stepped into the picture. They had been fundraising at home before coming out to volunteer with us and have made most of this possible. They donated the funds needed to build a borehole at the school, equipment and seeds for the garden as well as the manpower to build it. The Tag Rugby Trust UK has also been involved, and again they kicked off the planning and digging of the garden as well as the planting of chinese cabbage, rape, impwa, green pepper and spinach. After the Tag Rugby Trust UK group left, Pocklington School arrived and took over to complete the garden and tree nursery. They brought with them shade netting, bananas, lemons, oranges, limes, naartje, grenadillas, mangos and guava trees in addition to seeds of tomatoes, onions, sugar loaf, impwa, cabbage and cucumber. The generous donations and time spent by these two organisations, as well as our other donors and on the ground fundraising, has given the school an opportunity to become self-sufficient – providing extra funding for their school, which relies on sporadic and minimal financial support from the government. We are currently fundraising to complete the classroom block, Please visit www.globalgiving.org/projects/complete-a-school-in-zambia/ to donate and receive quarterly reports on the progress of the project.

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