Schools for the Poorest
“Give a child a fish and you feed her for a day: give her a fishing rod and you feed her for life.”
This paraphrase of the well-known saying sums up what we feel about our charity. For a very small amount of money, a village primary school can be built and provide education for up to 500 children in rural areas. As our schools have a life expectancy of 50 years, this means that literally thousands of children will have access to an education in each village in future.
Progress So Far...
The benefits of education go way beyond the obvious advantages of improving life chances. In Africa, as in most developing countries, life can be very precarious and education can be the key to a person’s very survival, and a route out of poverty. In our travels we have seen many severely disadvantaged communities. Getting the means to provide sustainable help for them can be very difficult. However, we are able to send funds directly to our partner NGO ‘Strategic Humanitarian Services’ in the certain knowledge that the money goes solely to the building of specified schools.
In just a few months in 2007, Action for Poverty raised the money to rebuild the school at Karamoja region, Uganda. This was opened in November 2007.
We have experienced such great support in the past two years, we are proud to say that we have been able to fund all the projects listed below.
Four new classrooms, a toilet block and a piped drinking water supply at the Government School (G.S.) Nkhata Bay district,Malawi - funded by the Liz Earle Beauty Company. This school was opened in June 2008 and since that time the number of pupils attending has risen from 330 to 640. Additional classroom/office accommodation is under construction now - again funded by Liz Earle - and, such is the enormous difference that these classrooms have made to the community, the school now anticipates getting its pupils through the government exams for the first time ever.
Three new classrooms, and a toilet block at G.S. Gitarama Province, Rwanda and opened in June 2008. The village of Gitarama is small and remote with very poor access by road. This made the construction of these new classrooms a difficult project to undertake. The village is delighted with its new school and the number of children attending has more than doubled this academic year. The next major project to be completed here will be the supply of clean drinking water: again this is difficult because of the remote location of the village.
Three new classrooms, a water supply and a toilet block at the Islamic Primary School in the village of Wollo district, Ethiopia. Action for Poverty is continuing its support and is currently fundraising to refurbish three of the original dilapidated classrooms to the same high standard as the new ones.
Four new classrooms, an office, a toilet block and a well at G.S. Pwani, Tanzania - funded by a corporate donation from a large company in London which has requested no publicity, and opened in October 2008.The entire community at Pwani is thrilled with their new school, as indicated by the Head Teacher's comment: "I am indeed very proud to stand here today because this campus has been transformed from a sham or even a piggery into a wonderful complex. We are bent on carrying on this success to the end i.e. when our pupils succeed in end-of-course exams."
The following schools were completed in June 2009 and are being used by the children. They will be formally opened in September2009. Seven classrooms, an office and toilet block at Catholic School (C.S) Tanga, Tanzania. Work is already well underway with this project. Three classrooms, a toilet block and water supply at G.S. Chikwawa, Malawi - to replace the current classrooms shown below.
Three classrooms, a toilet block and water supply at G.S. Kuria East district. - To replace the current accommodation, shown below. Three classrooms, a toilet block and water supply at G.S. Masaba district. The present school accommodation is one large room in which classes 1 - 4 are held (a total of 140 children) with just two teachers. The community has worked hard to assist this project and it is now complete. It just needs painting before the official opening in September.
Six large classrooms and an office for the Government Bi-Lingual Secondary School at Kitgum District, Uganda. This is the first secondary school we have undertaken to fund and will provide education for up to 500 children who never had access to education over the age of 12 before.
Three new classrooms, a toilet block and water supply at G.S. Suba district, Kenya. The old school was in a desperate state with part of its old accommodation burnt to the ground and the remaining classroom reduced to three walls and half a roof. This project has now been completed and will be opened officially in September.
Every individual or company which donates money for the rebuilding of one of these schools has access to a full feasibility study of the project, together with a complete breakdown of the costs involved and the level of community participation that has been promised. Each year, the trustees of Action for Poverty travel to these villages to see the schools which have been built and to collect information about other schools which need our help. We provide feedback to our donors in the form of a report illustrated with photographs of the schools which they have funded and the village in which it is located.
Action for Poverty works closely with the communities where these schools are rebuilt. They ensure that each community commits to the project by providing whatever local materials (such as sand, stone and planks) as are available. They must also make all the necessary mud bricks (approx 2,000 per classroom) and provide all the unskilled labour for the project. In this way the cost of the project to the donor is kept as low as possible and the community have a real sense of ownership of their new school.