The children are currently on holiday until early January, but work on the fourth classroom will continue through the festive period.

So far the raw materials – which your money purchased – have been delivered. The initial foundations have been dug and the first bags of cement have been laid. The community have also made thousands of bricks by hand, which you can see in the final photo below.

The progress so far

We’ll keep you updated on progress as the classroom is built. Meanwhile fundraising continues for the fifth classroom at the school. At the time of writing a further £3,792 is needed to buy all the raw materials. If you would like to make a donation please click here.

Thank you, and happy new year!

All photos provided by our partner Response Network.

In November we shared some photos of the new classroom block at Simakakata. Now we are really excited that we take you inside the classroom for the first time. See below.

The new block consists of three individual classrooms. A fourth classroom is currently being built. Please check back tomorrow for a progress report.

The dry season is now at an end, but the community school at Simakakata is going to stay thirsty for a while. The local authorities in nearby Kalomo paid to have a borehole sunk outside the new classrooms almost a year ago, but there’s still no pump mechanism to actually draw water from it.

Meanwhile the school continues to share a pump with the local disabled community. Water is scarse and the pump is closed to the children between 10am and 1pm to conserve supply. It’s also about a mile from the new classrooms.

“We’ve been told that the parts for the handpump have been delayed at sea,” says headmaster George, “And so we’ve been waiting for several months now to use the new pump. We were told it would be done by the end of August, but we haven’t heard anything recently.”

When it’s finished, the borehole will be the only source of water for the new school. Without it, the children and teachers have little to drink during the day, and nowhere to wash their hands or maintain basic hygiene. It’s no wonder so many are often off ill with abdominal pain and diarrhoea. Easily preventable water borne diseases kill 5000 children a day across the developing world.

We will keep you updated with progress on the borehole. Our focus will (for now) remain on fundraising for the final two classrooms.

We have some great news to share. The first classroom block at Simakakata is now complete! The new buildings are quite a change from the old schoolhouse. There’s no running water yet, but what a start!

It was funded by Care International, with your funds being used to buy the raw materials for the fourth classroom. Work has begun on the foundations of the new classroom and we’re hoping to have some pictures to share later this month.

In the meantime here is a brief update from Simakakata. Words by Volunteer Adam, following a recent phone conversation with Headmaster George.

An update from Simakakata

I’ll be visiting Simakakata again in January, to see what the new classrooms look like up close and find out more about how the community has changed over the last 18 months, but I couldn’t resist giving George a call beforehand to find out about the new building.

George told me that first classroom block has been finished and work is underway on the fourth classroom. He is hoping to get the roof completed on the second, smaller, building by the time the children return from their Christmas holidays. The school will be closed from 3^rd December to 9^th January 2011.

“I want to be able to teach children up to grade 8 by 2012,” says George, “So that they don’t have to travel 7km to Kalomo to finish their primary education. But to do that we’ll need two more classrooms. Six in total.”

When the children graduate George’s school, they currently have to go to the nearby town of Kalamo to finish their primary education, if they can afford it. The community has to rent rooms in the town for the children to live during term time. There are no adults living with them. At the moment, there are 230 children enrolled at Simakakata, and few of them will be able to go to Kalomo.

That’s why George has decided it’s so important to build six classrooms, rather than the five the community initially hoped for. Our goal is to help as many children complete their education as possible and will support George’s vision for Simakakata in every way we can.

And what about Saviour? She’s still regularly coming top of her class.

Check back in December for a progress report on the fourth classroom which was funded thanks to the generosity of our supporters.

The camera often struggles to show how dark it really is inside the classrooms at Simakakata. This shot was taken on a day when there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

Image by Brenda Veldtman.

There is a community of 10 disabled families who live in Simakakata. The school is their lifeline.

Learn more through the story of Shabby Aongola, an active member of the community and a key part of the Parent Teacher Association at the school.

Image by Brenda Veldtman.

In the farmhouse, any seat is a good seat. But with just one more classroom needed, photos like this will soon be a thing of the past.

Image by Brenda Veldtman.

Image by Brenda Veldtman.

Last week I was on holiday in sunny Dorset so I apologise for not posting a ‘Photo of the Week’. I’ll post two this week to make up for it.

The child in the photo above is called Sonet. Click here to learn about the dreams of her classmates.

Image by Brenda Veldtman.