The old schoolhouse is still in use, but for how long can the classes stay there?

We’re just back from a visit to the primary school at Simakakata, a rural community in Kalomo district, Zambia. The school was set up by the community three years ago. Before it began, there was nowhere for the children of the 600 families living in the area to study. The nearest government schools are in Kalomo (7km away), which is simply too far for children as young as six to walk every day.

Simakakata is very poor. Most people here are subsistence farmers, and when they do manage to grow enough extra crops to sell, they are often ripped off by grain merchants and left with no food or money for the winter.

George, the headmaster at Simakakata, has a dream. He wants to create a permanent, government supported school here, with modern classrooms and facilities which will give both the children and adults of Simakakata a chance to gain a basic education. If George’s vision can be accomplished, the entire area will benefit: educated children can earn more money to help raise their families from poverty; primary educated mothers have better cared for chidren; and educated farmers can learn new growing techniques and get a better price for their crops.

Grade 2 children learning maths

It’s estimated that the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Simakakata is between 15-20%, and many children here – no one really knows how many – are orphans as a result. A good education will significantly reduce the chance that the pupils of Simakakata will contract HIV. There are many other health benefits, infants learn through drama exercises the importance of washing their hands and boiling water before drinking it.

Over the last year, three classrooms have been built at Simakakata, with a fourth underway. As a direct result, the government has sent three new teachers along with text books and learning materials, and the pass rate for Grade 7 pupils has already doubled. 50% of the pupils with a 600 or higher mark in their Grade 7 exams last year were girls.

You can tell how happy the people here are with their school – not only is enrolment up year on year, nearly all the children are wearing uniforms this year. That’s a clear sign that their parents have been convinced to invest what little they have in their children’s schooling, an attitude change that cannot be underestimated.

It’s not enough.

Edwin teaches English to the Grade 7 class in the new classroom block.

Two classes are still being taught in the dirty, dilapidated old farmhouse LearnAsOne found George in last year. The owners have written another letter to the school, telling them that they must vacate the premises by the end of the month. George is pleading for more time, but what he urgently needs is two more classrooms.

With those buildings, Simakakata school will be able to take pupils up to Grade 8 and the end of their primary education. Many pupils drop out of school at the end of Grade 7, because their parents cannot afford to send them to Kalomo.

As the school becomes more successful, it will attract more investment from the government and the community will be able to support and develop it themselves. What they need next is just under £3,800 to buy the raw materials for the fifth classroom.

Please help LearnAsOne to realise George’s dream.

Children at the pre-school in Good Hope.

This is the second post written by Adam Oxford following his recent trip to Simakakata.

Thanks to a chance encounter with an administrator from Care International last Monday, my wife, Tamsin, opened a nursery for the people rural of Simakakata in Kalomo District, Southern Zambia.

It my first day back at Simakakata Community School, finding out what’s changed over the year and a half since I last visited. Classes were quiet – the children spent most of the day clearing the dust and overgrowth that had built up over Christmas – and I spent much of the day catching up with Headmaster George and learning about the problems he still faces. Just as I was leaving, a man called Boyd from Care 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 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 didn’t really know what they were doing and eventually 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 (at age 6), they are not ready,” he explained. “They speak no English (the lingua franca in Zambia) and don’t know what school is for. Many of them have never held a pencil before, and cry when we tell them how to hold it. 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.”

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.”

The church building that will house the new nursery at Simakakata.

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, but the money will subsidise it for at least the first two terms by supplementing the fees of those who can pay to send their children here. George is convinced that after two terms, the whole community will understand why the pre-school is important, and be more willing to contribute some of their slim funds towards it. That’s the plan, at least – if it works, it’ll show how a little really can go a long way in this kind of development.

Tamsin has set up a fundraising campaign to raise more money the nursery, as well as the fifth classroom at the main school. If you’d like to help the children of Simakakata please make a donation using the button below.

Sports and education go hand in hand.

The connection between football and the power of education to pull communities out of poverty may seem frivolous, but it’s at the heart of an important conference being held in South Africa today to tie-in with the last week of the World Cup.

The 1Goal campaign, co-ordinated by Global Campaign for Education, has been running all year with the specific aim of using the World Cup to raise awareness about the importance of education. Supporters include Mick Jagger, Bono, Clive Owen and just about every footballer on the planet, including Gary Lineker, Pele, Thierry Henry and more.

The objective of 1Goal is simple. It’s not a fundraising campaign, rather it’s just about getting the message across to world leaders about where to spend their money. If you want to get people out of poverty, give them an education. It’s the single most effective way of increasing wages, reducing maternal and infant mortality, improving agriculture and trade and giving people the chance to stand on their own two feet and not rely on food handouts for the rest of their lives.

The playing field at Simakakata.

It works both ways, too.  Football isn’t just a tool for raising the profile of education, sports are a key part of the curriculum at Simakakata Community School in Zambia.

“Children who don’t perform well in class may be much better at sports,” says Edwin, the PE teacher, “It’s a great way of motivating them and increasing their confidence.”

Sports classes take place on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons in a field behind the school, and although they only have a few balls to play with and no kit, Edwin tries to organise football matches against other schools as often as he can.

“It’s very important for the children to be exposed to other communities through sport,” he says, “And when we don’t win, it teaches them to try harder and work together as a team to improve themselves.”

As well as keeping the children fit, Edwin explains, sports provides an outlet for later in life. As in most impoverished areas, alcoholism and drug abuse aren’t uncommon in rural Zambia.

It's not just about football, either.

Last week the children of Simakakata took part in a regional competition against 14 other schools from the Kalomo area. Headmaster George says that a farmer from his home in Good Hope lent them a truck to make the journey.

“We didn’t win anything,” he laughs, “But taking part was very exciting for the children. It gave us something to reflect upon in class.”

Our NGO partner in Zambia, Response Network, values sport as one of the most important methods of community cohesion.

“’Let`s start our own sports club’ was one of the first manuals we wrote,” says country director Håkon Spigseth, “We encourage communities to start sport clubs as it is both healthy and participants learn organisational skills. It’s also fun and for youth, a good alternative to drinking and more negative social hobbies.”

We’re currently raising funds for the final classroom block at Simakakata school, to help secure its future and make sure the children of the community have every opportunity possible. Giving a child an education is the single most important thing you can do to help. LearnAsOne is a unique charity that creates a transparent link between donors and those who need help. You can donate to LearnAsOne or get involved and help us fundraise through this site, and we’ll show you where every penny is spent.