As the sign says, there’s a set of photos up taken at Good Hope school near Simakakata, and all you need to do is click on the pic to see them.
Good Hope is where George, the headmaster at Simakakata, used to work and where his wife, Linda, still does. It’s an amazing place – proof of what’s possible in development. Even further from the main road than Simakakata, it was started about 15 years ago by a Christian mission with German funding, and is now an incredible establishment for 7-15(ish) year olds. It’s remarkably well equipped, has running water and a brilliant staff. One day, Simakakata will look like this.
Sonia in the old schoolhouse
Sonia in the old schoolhouse still, originally uploaded by nisuspi.
I do love this shot of Sonia, still teaching in the old schoolhouse. She had her third child last year, who is suffering from measles at the moment, yet she still walks the 7km commute to Kalomo everyday.
More photos up…
Bisca’s class, Grade 4, originally uploaded by nisuspi.
This time processed using Lightroom on Windows, rather than Bibble on Linux. Can’t say I’m as happy with the results, may reprocess them at some point.
George, the headmaster
Just as I was leaving, George asked if I could take a photo that he’d be able to hang on the wall as a permanent reminder of the school’s founder. He was embarrassed by the question, but it meant a lot to him. This is one of the set I came up with. Because there’s no electricity at the new school, his office is still quite dark – especially when it’s raining outside. This shot is a little noisy for my taste, but I do like the lighting effect – provided by a simple GorillaPod LED torch.
Turning a table
Hand made quality, that is.
In Ancient Greece, Plato used the idea of a table to discuss the philosophical notion of form. This table, however, is much more practical – it was built by Grade 8 students at Good Hope, a school in rural Zambia that George used to teach in. Makes my Garfield penholder I made at a similar age look a bit rubbish, doesn’t it?
The thing is, most of these children are from families of subsistence farmers who are mostly illiterate. Giving them a real skill like this to fall back on is incredibly important – there’ll always be a demand for skilled carpenters.
This is what George is trying to achieve in Simakakata – it’s the simplest, most clear expression of his vision there is.
How my wife started a nursery school in Zambia
Kids at Simakakata on the first day of term. Now with added windows.
A chance encounter with an administrator from Care International today resulted in my wife opening a nursery for the people rural of Simakakata in Kalomo District, Southern Zambia.
She doesn’t know about it yet, so let me explain.
Today was my first day back at Simakakata Community School, finding out what’s changed over the year and a half since I last visited. I’ll share more thoughts about that here and on the LearnAsOne site, but just as I was leaving, Boyd from the Kalomo Care office arrived – also to check on the progress the school has been making (excellent, in case you asked. Since last year, the Grade 7 pass rate has doubled).
Boyd asked George, the headmaster, if he’d be interested in a project to build a pre-school playground using locally sourced materials and recycled tyres. It wouldn’t cost much, and Boyd believed he may have some funding left over from a similar project further north that he could use.
“Not at the moment,” replied George, “We had a nursery school, but the teachers were recruited from the community and had no training, so they left. We have a room and equipment at the church hall, but it is not being used right now.”
I asked George why a pre-school was important, when building the primary seemed to be the priority.
“One of the big problems we have is that when children start Grade 1, they are not ready,” he explained. “They speak no English (the lingua franca in Zambia) and don’t know what school is for. Often they struggle from an early age, and then they stop coming. With a pre-school, we can help the children and the parents as well to understand what school is for and how they will benefit in the long run, and the children won’t start Grade 1 already behind those from urban areas.”
No pics of the nursery yet - I'll visit tomorrow. So here's one of the classroom LearnAsOne has funded being built.
In order to make the pre-school work, George is convinced that he needs to hire a professionally trained and committed specialist teacher. He’s done the sums, and reckons he would have to charge families around 45,000kwacha (£6) per term, but because the local subsistence farmers don’t understand the benefit, they are unwilling to pay.
“It will cost us a million kwacha per term to hire a teacher,” he said, “If we could just get it going and people see the benefit, I’m sure enough children would come.”
By a happy and strange co-incidence, just before I left for Zambia my wife gave me £200 to pass on to George. She had an unforeseen windfall last year, and wanted to give some of the money to Simakakata. After buying some Christmas presents for the children there (shoes for some of the ones who had to walk in the rain barefoot), there was about £150 left over – which is almost exactly one million kwacha.
I’m not going to ask George to dedicate the new nursery to Tamsin, although it’s certainly a thought, but the money will subsidise it for at least the first two terms by supplementing the fees of those who can pay until the whole community sees why it’s a good idea. That’s the plan, at least – if it works, it’ll show how a little really can go a long way in development.
Back to Simakakata
I'll be making a fool of myself in a bigger classroom
Here’s the post I’ve written for LearnAsOne explaining the next few days.
“Season’s greetings and a happy new year. For those of our supporters who’ve been stuck in northern Europe’s coldest winter for decades, my commiserations. I’ve been away in South Africa visiting relatives for the festive period, and have been slowly baking away in a hot, muggy climate for the last couple of weeks.
“I will atone for my good fortune, though. Since I’m in this part of the world anyway, I couldn’t resist treating myself to an extra present – a plane ticket to Zambia and a journey to visit our friends at Simakakata.
“It’s been nearly 19 months since Steve, Nerys, Brenda and I first went to see George and his staff at Simakakata Community School, which is just outside the historical capital of Zambia, Kalomo. Then, over 200 children were receiving a basic education in a derelict farmhouse. They had no access to clean water on site, little in the way of classroom furniture and got by largely thanks to the dedication and passion of their teachers.
“New term begins
“I can’t wait to be there when term starts on 9th January. I’ve spoken to George by phone several times over the last year and a half, so I know that thanks to funding from LearnAsOne and Care International a new schoolhouse has been builtand is slowly being equipped up to standard. I know local government has begun work on a borehole for the site, and that several new members of staff have joined George, Sonia and Edwin.
“Thanks to supporters of LearnAsOne, who have read, watched and listened to the community telling us what they want, rather than simply sending what we think they need, the people of Simakakata have started on an exciting journey of development. Their children will receive a proper, high standard education from which the whole community will reap the economic benefits. With just a little bit more help from us, and you, this chapter in their history will be finished and they’ll be well on the way to self-sustainable development for the future.
“I’m really looking forward to meeting George and his team again, and finding out how much has changed and what still needs to be done. There will be lessons for all of us to learn from the work of the last 19 months and, as ever, I’ll be posting updates with photos throughout my trip and when I get back to the UK later in January.”
Which I think says it all.
Supporting the students
That’s all of them – not just the ones in the UK right now.
I feel utterly remiss that the two biggest stories of the year – Wikileaks and the student protests – are going on while I’ve been either preparing for a long trip abroad or while I’m on it. I’ve all the protests in person, but here’s my thoughts about yesterday’s demo.
Higher education may not be a basic human right, but any country that has a system like the one the UK had 20 years ago should be bloody proud of itself. The fact that successive governments of all flavours – Tory, Labour and Coalition – have finally taken it apart is a matter of national shame.
University fees aren’t an economic argument – there’s a convincing school of thought that says any state investment in higher education is more than returned through the tax remmitances of the enhanced earning potential a degree offers. It works for Scotland. This is about the perception of a subsidy to more of the ‘underserving poor’, in this case students.
Free and universal education to degree level is about creating a better society. About saying that we, en masse, value the benefits that learning brings. It’s about saying i doesn’t matter whether or not your degree turns into a career and a massive paycheck (mine didn’t), rather that there are some things about the value of learning which can’t be measured financially.
It’s not a coincidence that the introduction of tuition fees – along with a raft of other Labour policies – marked the beginning of an era which many commentators felt was all about personal avarice and understanding the ‘price of everything and valu of nothing’.
Discovering, when I was 18 and about to leave school, that people from modest or poor backgrounds to decide – without considering the finances – that they’d ‘like to’ go to university, rather than ‘need to’ or ‘can’t afford’ to was one of the valuable, inspiration and life changing experiences of my life. It set the stage (literally, I studied English & Drama) for everything that happened afterwards, and while I don’t work in theatre, it has enriched my world more than that 18 year old boy’s imagination deemed possible.
Anyone had the opportunity I had. It was one of the few things that straddled the class divide. That my daughter will not be able to make that decision with the same freedom breaks my heart.
She will have the opportunity, because I am certain I will be able to provide it for her – but only because my own education was free.
Education is a subject close to my heart. In three weeks I’ll be going back to Zambia to visit Simakakata primary school and see what effect 18 months of help from Care International and LearnAsOne has produced. Not because I work for a charity or because I’m being paid to write about it, but because I believe the best way to help people out of poverty – like the people at Simakakata I’m proud to call friends – is to help them build a good school – and I want to see if I’m right.
Back to Simakakata
The new school is well underway - it will change the kids' lives forever.
This morning, as I was getting ready for work, my wife and I were talking about plans for January. We’re going to South Africa for three weeks over Christmas to see family in Johannesburg, and I’m planning to make my way up to Simakakata in Zambia while we’re there to see George and the school and find out how things have changed in the last year and a bit.
The only question was whether I’d try and squeeze it in for a few days before Christmas, or arrange to stay on for an extra week or so after Tamsin and Tabby go home. On the one hand, doing the latter gives me more time to visit Good Hope as well and shoot lots of video for a story I’m putting together, on the other I’m terrified about spending six weeks out of the office. Especially as that time of the year is usually quite busy for freelance journalists, filling in while everyone else takes the holiday off.
As we were talking about it, I got a text from Sonia – perhaps the woman I admire most in the world. I haven’t spoken to Sonia since last May – I’ve only got George’s mobile phone number and she’s not been at school when I’ve called. A simple text, just to let me know her number. I’m not a believer in signs and all that, but the coincidence has made my mind up. I’m calling to change my flights to the later one today.
Only one question remains. I want to make sure that I’m not going back empty handed, so plan on doing some fundraising for LearnAsOne before I go.
Saviour - the eight year old AIDS orphan who's now top of her class. There won't be any computers in the new school though - running water will be the first priority before power.
So far, three classrooms have been built using bricks made by the community and extra building materials bought with donated cash. It’s been absolutely life changing – Saviour is now top of the class and well on her way to achieving her ambition of becoming a teacher. The government has agreed to send more teachers, and there’s even an unfinished borehole been sunk. In order to improve the quality of teaching and take more children from the community beyond grade six, more classrooms and teachers’ houses are needed. George still needs more help running adult education programs and maintaining his HIV/AIDs health outreach volunteers. The community are desperate to build the school and throwing all their weight behind it – they’ve seen how, in nearby Good Hope, an entire town has built up around the school turning an improverished, disparate community into a developmental success. They want to repeat that in Simakakata, but need just a bit more cash to buy things like windows, roofing timber and desks that they can’t build themselves.
I was trying to think of something simple that I can do – like a sponsored write-at-thon or something – but came to the conclusion that that isn’t really the point. So if anyone any ideas for a good challenge that will raise money for the next vital classroom block at Simakakata, please get in touch…
Calling Zambia
I’ve got a call booked with George at Simakakata school for first thing tomorrow morning. The subject – my impending return to the country. Looking forward to that a lot.