Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit in June

Key People:  Isaac Ngambi and Racheal Shipopa

Recent Events

Leadership

The current leader of the school programs for OM is Racheal Shipopa and she has been in the role for the last two years. Isaac Ngambi is the OM base director overseeing the work that Racheal does.

The head teacher is Mr Pearson Kunda who has been at the school for the past year. He has been teaching for 22 years and heard about the OM Nakoli School through his church, “The church family mission”, and wanted to be involved to make a difference. Because he is fully qualified his salary is paid by the government. 

The School

The role for the school has increased significantly, with now over 300 pupils enrolled. However there are many more children in the community that need to go to school, they think that they need to increase to over 600 before demand is met. Driving through the Nakoli compound you can see many children sitting around in the streets not at school.

They teach pre-reception, Grade 1 and Grade 2 from 07:00 hours to 12:00 hours, then other teachers take over to teach Grade 3 to 5 from 12:00 to 16:00. The school would like to teach higher grades at some stage but at present there is no room for this.

The level of teaching at the school is still very high, mainly due to the teachers actually having obvious care for the children. Also OM has volunteers who come to help out and encourage and input into the teachers.

Some of the hand writing we saw from the Grade 1 and 2 children was very neat and tidy (although any hand writing is much better than the Zambia Partnership Facilitator's!). 

Manna Project

Each day the students are given lunch. They either have nshima and beans or porridge depending on the day. Grades 3 to 5 eat from 11:30 to 12:00 and then Grades 1 and 2 eat from 12:00 to 12:30. 

The teachers say that this program is very important as in some cases it is the only time the children eat, and without full stomachs they cannot concentrate at school.

Personal Stories

Mrs Chilufya (left)

Mrs Chilufya teaches the Grade 1 pupils in the mornings. She has been at the school for the past three years.

She says she likes to teach the pupils as it will help them with their education later in life if they are able to read and write well.

She has children of her own that she has seen benefit from a good education.

Mr Isaac Tembo (right)

Isaac completed the Discipleship Course at OM in 2008, then went on to become an associate pastor of a church in Kabwe. He is still a pastor at the church but wanted to help children in education so completed the OM Teachers Training Course in 2013 and has been working at the school since then.

Partnership's Influence within the Community

Community response has been good although many parents (approximately 100 families) are not paying the 60 kwacha ($10) per year fees meaning their children cannot attend the school.

Current Issues and Challenges

The government has taken a lot of interest even in mission schools, coming in to set standards for schools. Nakoli needs to be upgraded to meet those standards, in terms of the buildings and water source for the toilets. 

The buildings are too small to be legal classrooms so the government has asked them to reconstruct them although currently there is no time frame. Grace Church has offered to donate 21,000 kwacha (US$2,800) to help with the building upgrade.

After meeting with the parents, they offered to build some bricks for the upgrade but so far there have been very few made.

Currently they have to draw water from the local village well. 

One good thing from the government is that if a teacher is qualified from an accredited institution they will pay for the salary. All the teachers at the school are currently doing distance learning and eventually will be paid by the government. Also the OM teaching course is currently applying to become an accredited three year course. 

Prayer and Praise Points

• Praise for the quality of the teachers and volunteers who continue to help encourage them
• Prayer for what to do about the school buildings

Other Comments

The flat that BHW funded and which was built by Impact Multiplied (branch of OM) is still receiving rent that goes towards this school project. 

The school is definitely meeting a community need, the teachers really care about the children and the kids are obviously doing well.