The school will be completed in yearly stages.
We therefore need your help to:
Drill and line more boreholes
Construct further classrooms, more dormitories and ablution blocks and a kitchen
Install solar lighting
Undertake a hydrology report on the agricultural land and then plan how best to use the land for grazing, growing and harvesting produce and planting trees.
Build a science laboratory
Obtain equipment, such as library books, pencils, blackboards, desks, chairs, etc.
Develop and improve agriculture in order to give girls life skills for the future. The sale of produce grown on the land owned by the school will help sustain the school.
Improve healthcare for the school and the community.
Please
help us by making a donation.
Your support would be much
valued in helping to bring about this change for the better in this far-flung community. We would be happy to hear from you, if you would like to discuss any aspect of the school in more detail. All donors will be kept up-to-date on progress throughout via annual e-newsletters.
Please
contact
Please
help us to make this school possible.
This first block of 4 classrooms, 4 teachers' studies and 2 administrative offices is now completed. This is drone footage was taken in late 2021 just after the roof was raised. All the windows, doors, glass panes, grill bars, hard-wearing flooring, plastering and rendering has been done. We are just waiting until the end of the rains in April when it can be inspected and passed by the authorities. It will open to local girls initially and then once the main dormitory is constructed it will open to girls from further afield.
This first block of 4 classrooms, 4 teacher's studies and 2 administrative offices is now completed and awaiting inspection by the Ministry of Education. We are hoping this will happen as soon as the rains have finished and the roads in the district reopen.
The local community commitment and investment in this school ensures long-term sustainability for the school.
Add to this the Zambian government will be providing all the teachers, paying their salaries and paying for their accommodation once the school opens.
The local Chief has donated 750 hectares of land
to the school which will become a substantial community asset and help
with practical education on managing agriculture for the girls.
Food grown, cattle grazed and trees planted on this land will enable the staff and pupils to have a well-balanced diet. It will give pupils the opportunity to learn how best to grow and harvest food and any surplus can be sold locally. All of this will help sustain the school long-term.
We are commissioning a hydrology expert to undertake a study on where underground aquafers and rivers are located.
This will enable our agricultural consultant to identify the best sites for more boreholes, a dam, irrigation, where to plant trees, graze animals, sow crops and create a kitchen garden for the school.
Local villagers have volunteered to make and fire all the bricks needed for the school. They work hard during the dry season stockpiling bricks ready for the next construction phase.
To date, they must have made over 400,000 bricks.
Their investment in The Chama Project is vitally important for the long-term sustainability of the school.
The rains in Chama this year were abundant, causing a great deal of flood damage. Roads were impassable. But this didn't deter a group of strong volunteers from the villages from walking their bicycles to the riverbank where bricks had been stocked piled. They stacked them on their bikes and slowly walked the five miles through the deep mud and puddles all the way back to the school so that the construction of the ablution blocks could be finished.
Two ablution blocks are ready and waiting for the first intake of pupils and staff. These consist of eight showers and WCs for pupils and four for staff.
In 2014 a group of 14 pupils from St Mary's School Calne girls came out to make a start on construction. These girls gave up their half-term holiday in the UK to come out to Zambia and work in 45º October heat– not only did they work hard and achieve a lot, but they returned home with the benefit of having learned a huge amount about a very different culture and way of live to their own back in the UK.
A second contribution in 2014 came from the Diocese of Edinburgh, which raised £10,000 through their Bishop's 2013 Lent Appeal. This paid for a borehole to supply fresh water for the very first time to Tembwe and replaced the small, deep and very muddy well, which had been the only source of water in the district and for the new school. Remaining funding went towards a building equipment and materials, ensuring a strong start to the construction phase I.
The Grassmarket Community Project volunteers and friends, led by Tommy Steel held a sleepout outside their community centre in the heart of Edinburgh's Old Town to raise funds for their trip to Chama. It was a cold, wet winter's night following the Scotland vs Wales Rugby International. They raised a lot of money, with one young man donating a massive £7,500.
