Background
The Government of Zambia has made significant progress in providing educational facilities and formulating policies aimed at improving education for children. Zambia committed itself to providing Universal Basic Education and meeting basic learning needs for all children. These needs include free and compulsory education, increased primary school enrolment, constructing new schools to reduce walking distance to a maximum of five kilometers. Effective implementation and practical realization of the policies, however, remains slow, particularly in rural areas. Some of the key drawbacks are the lack of sufficient educational facilities, lack of awareness of the right to an education and the importance of girls’ education.
The importance of education in any society and the benefits it brings to individuals, such as economic empowerment, better living standards, improved health standards and reduced infant mortality in communities cannot be understated.
Rationale
This project targets primary children, especially girls in a rural area. In rural areas, girls face challenges in entering or remaining in the school system. One of the main challenges to children entering school is safe access to schools, compounded by high poverty levels in families which plays a pivotal role in low enrolment of the girls and also in the high drop-out rates. Girls are most likely to drop out of school to support family farming activities, forced early marriage or are pushed into the labour market to bring in extra income to support families.
Chikwasha Village, in Chisamba district, is situated 44 kilometres from Chongwe town off the main Great East Road. The community is made up of pastoralists and farmers, growing mainly maize and groundnuts and subsidizing their cash income by burning charcoal. The village has one main government co-ed school, Mupelekese School, which goes up to Grade 9, with the nearest full girls secondary being at Chipembi Secondary School. Mupelekese has 244 pupils with 85 being girls. Any student that attains Grade 9, has to seek a school outside the district to get to Grade 10 up to Grade 12. As this would entail going to a boarding school, as well involve costs of travel, new uniforms, and other attendant fees, therefore many students drop-out at this stage. The level of child marriages and teenage pregnancies, in this community, is high. There is no record of any girl going to secondary school in the recent past.
A international NGO had built a classroom block which was not used for long before it collapsed. The local headman who donated the land to the community is keen to see the school reconstructed.
Project Strategy
Gracious Hands a non-profit organization working to uplift the lives of vulnerable individuals, will lead the project in Chikwasha Village by:
a) Continuing to engage the community at different levels – traditional leaders, educational authorities, parents and children themselves, to foster interest in school enrolment through community awareness;
b) Overseeing the reconstruction of three classroom blocks with water and sanitation facilities and the construction of an early childhood learning center in the village.
c) Longer term progression into construction of a basic school with annual additions of classrooms.
d) The project will also lobby for the training of locals as pre-school teachers, to ensure community support and sustainability.
Partnership and sustainability
GRACIOUS HANDS will be responsible for the planning and implementation of the project in close coordination with the community of Chikwasha Village through their leadership and parental participation.
This proposal by Gracious Hands, seeks to promote long term social transformation by improving school enrolment and retention. The project seeks a grant to implement the project in Chikwasha village, as a pilot project. The project will be carried in phases. Activities of Phase 1 will be the construction of three classrooms block, 2 toilets and one teachers/administration office. Phase two will be the addition of a classroom annually. The project will in the long term seek resources to support the training of two local individuals as teachers and community awareness and engagement will continue throughout the phases.
Work has begun with a small donation from GRACIOUS HANDS and the picture below shows community mothers moving bricks on the building site
Contact us to find out how you can support this project by submitting the form on the home page.
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