Kawama Community School
Since 2011 Cranleigh School has been partnering with Beyond Ourselves to offer quality education to orphans and vulnerable children in the Copperbelt region of Zambia. In particular Cranleigh has a long lasting and meaningful relationship with Kawama Community School in Kitwe. Over this time, the generous support from the Cranleigh community has provided the building and maintenance of six classrooms, a toilet block and kitchen, and given nearly a 1000 children access to a high standard primary education. The District Education Board cite Kawama Community School as an ‘excellent example of practice for other Community Schools in the Copperbelt’. Many of our students have had the opportunity to visit Kawama and the impact of those visits is significant.
COVID-19 Update
This year has obviously been challenging and the schools in Zambia were shut from March to mid-September. Despite not being able to visit schools, the Beyond Ourselves team have been busy. Click here to visit the Beyond Ourselves facebook page to watch a video about what they have been up to.
Jolly Phonics
Jolly Phonics is a fun, contextually appropriate programme that enables and enthuses teachers to deliver high quality literacy tuition. Despite delays to rolling out the programme across The Copperbelt, the team are on target to train 1500 teachers by April 2021, impacting over 60,0000 students.
Reflections from a visit
“It is safe to say that the Zambia trip was a life-changing experience. You don’t quite realise the extent of the impact prior to the trip. The contrast in everything from Zambia to England; their jobs, their daily routines, their happiness in the simplest things and perhaps most importantly, their education. Their eagerness and willingness to learn and to develop who they are is just incredible and we should take a leaf out of their book in our attitude. We visited Kamatipa School, which is eight years behind Kawama in its development. The school had one large room with four teachers teaching fives classes of varying ages. It was clear to see the fantastic job Beyond Oursleves has done with Kawama but it is also important to recognise the inequalities in opportunities.” Ollie Corbett, Zambia Team 2018.
Nsobe Trust School
Community Schools like Kamatipa are now able to partner with Beyond Ourselves and apply for funding and professional support that will help them provide essentials such as teacher salaries, a feeding programme, professional development and improved infrastructure. Cranleigh students also visit Nsobe Trust School as part of their trip, and this school has recently benefitted from the funding.
Fiona Tomlinson from the school said: “Being in a remote rural area we have to provide accommodation, and without decent accommodation we cannot hope to attract and retain quality teachers. Thank you for helping us by providing funding to make housing possible for our teachers, helping us not only build staff accommodation, but to build up a teaching family and vital role models on campus for our vulnerable children.”
The Bakery Project
The Bakery at Kamfinsa (a rural area about 10 miles from the city of Ndola) has been going well, but the current situation with COVID-19, and recent bad weather that has led to damage to the roof, has made things more challenging. Naomi Voice who oversees the project visited recently and was pleased to see that the roof was being repaired, and the Bakers were diversifying to sell drinks and household basics to the local community. They have also begun a chicken project to help pay for their local teachers who have not been paid due to the pandemic. It goes without saying that the situation in Zambia has been very challenging for many.