Zamcog Newsletter Winter 2010

Incredibly a year has past since our Winter Newsletter 2009! I am pleased to write

about the successes and pleased that some of our challenges are behind us. The

past year was a year of growth in every way imaginable: our new science lab, the

expansion of our kitchen, the tiling of the ablution block for our girls dormitory,

our fantastic mega size cooking pot to help feed and nourish 260 students and

62 staff and the plan to build a Gr 10 - 12 Secondary School in 2012! But the

most amazing growth we have seen is in the hopes, the dreams and the smiles of

our students. Our school is comprised of two hundred and sixty boys and girls,

the majority being street kids, orphans, and children from destitute families, but

to see them at work in the classroom and interacting in their community, you

would never know the obstacles they have overcome. Their growth has been truly

phenomenal!

Shitima continues to not only grow in infrastructure but in its goals, and there-

fore thankfully, its supporters! A group of 21 brave souls (over half new support-

ers of Zamcog), rode Enduro bikes across the Wild Coast of Africa to raise much

needed funds. Thanks to them and to all our generous donors and volunteers for

your continued support.

Our newsletter is a window into some of our activities and accomplishments over

the past year. To say we are proud would be an understatement! Our thanks and

gratitude seems a frail statement to communicate to each of you how much we

need and appreciate all that you do……..please don’t stop!

Julie Anne Uggla

Founder

The Stone Foundation

Zamcog is pleased to announce that a £50,000 grant was awarded from the Stone Family

Foundation in June, 2010. This generous donation has allowed Zamcog to fund a host of

urgent projects including the much needed repair of both our school bus and the primary

school vehicle, our (usually) trusty blue pick-up truck. In addition a new electric cooking

pot has been purchased which will allow our cooks to more efficiently prepare the meals

for our ever-expanding population of students and staff. A kitchen extension, allowing

for outdoor cooking during the frequent power outages, new store rooms, and a cleaning

up/sink area will be underway shortly, along with a guard house. In addition much

needed repair and maintenance for the entire Shitima facility was funded, additional

blankets for our resident students were purchased and furniture was provided for our staff

room and some offices. Additional teaching materials were also funded.

We are extremely grateful to the Stone Family Foundation for its generous contribution.

It is often difficult to find donors for these less glamorous items, but keeping the roof

from leaking and the truck running are as critical to our mission as the next dormitory

building!

Our heartfelt thanks to all our generous donors!

Our ethos

The Millennium Development Goals are a set of targets aimed at reducing global poverty

by 2015. Zamcog strives to reach this goal by providing education and support to young

people in Zambia. Investing in the world’s most disadvantaged children and communities

can save millions of lives. Investing in education not only reduces poverty but also

reduces the reliance of third world countries on a continual stream of aid. In Sub Saharan

Africa 33% of children have never attended school and yet an education is perhaps a

child’s strongest barrier against poverty, especially for girls.

Education not only provides children and families with a pathway out of poverty, it can

also yield even bigger returns for the world’s poorest countries through its impact on areas

such as health and the economy. Research indicates that investment in education, with a

focus on girls, may be one of the highest yield investments in the developing world. By

equipping a child with necessary knowledge and skills, education delivers society-wide

development returns.

Moreover, education is one of the central building blocks of a strong, cohesive society.

This is the main mandate of Shitima School, to ensure that when our children leave us

that they are equipped with the tools that will assure an independent future, not one

relying on aid.

Prisca Chileshe’ Mixed paint and clay

on found wood 2010 79 x 75 cm

On Thursday 9th September Matt Small’s latest exhibition ‘That I May See’ opened at the

Black Rat Press, Shoreditch. The title referred to the motto of the Robert Shitima School

in Zambia.

Recently Matt Small, Mike Snelle , Callie Curry and

Mike Rushmore (RJ) took a trip to Shitima School and

led workshops for all of our 260 plus students! Activities

ranged from printmaking with lino blocks to portrait

making collages with coloured paper. Art is not a regular

part of the Zambian curriculum due to the scarcity of art

supplies and so it was a rare treat for the kids to express

themselves with the guidance and encouragement of

professional artists.

It was an amazing experience and Matt produced a beautiful new

body of work based on his experience there.

The show consisted of portraits of the children from the school

and 40% of the proceeds from the sale of works (over £10,000)

has been donated to support the great work being done at the

school.

Art Exhibitions 2010

Two art exhibits, in London and St. Albans, were hosted by Zamcog this year, raising

nearly £30,000 for Shitima. The exhibitions featured artwork created by the kids from

Shitima School and photographs by Adam Dickens chronicling the hopes and struggles

of both the children of Shitima School and of street kids living on the peripheral of the

school.

The photographs are expressive portraits of the children and the community in which

they live. They symbolise both the hope and the despair that these children wake up to

every day.

Through the photographs on display we gave a glimpse into the daily lives of the students

at Shitima Community School in Kabwe, Zambia, and through their artwork, a glimpse

into their souls.

Markit generously purchased an entire wall of photos and artwork which is displayed at

their London offices.

Volunteer Profile - Cluny MacPherson

My name is Cluny MacPherson, and I am a 27 year old from Montreal, Canada. I

have recently completed my studies in Political Theory and Liberal Arts at Concordia

University, and am excited to be a part of the essential work that is being done at the

Robert Shitima Basic School. For the past three and a half years I have been a Program

Coordinator at The Priory School, an elementary school in Montreal, and I have a strong

interest in program development for children.

The projects at the school range from continued improvements of the property, in

particular the students’ dormitory facilities and the school gardens, to an ongoing

development of the organisational structure of all “outside the classroom” facets of the

school, which will allow us to offer the children of Shitima School the best educational

experience we possibly can.

At the moment we are working with a Ministry of Agriculture specialist to expand the

Shitima School garden in the interest of saving on our food costs, while maintaining the

varied diet that the School is committed to offering students. We are also developing a

“continuing education” program that is designed to ensure that our students do not stop

at Grade 12, but are able to get the post-secondary education or skills training that they

need to successfully enter the workforce.

The new year, in January, will see even more extra-curricular programs at Shitima School,

such as reading, carving, jewellery making, dancing, art, and sports such as football,

basketball and volleyball.

Other projects for the coming year include the erection of a workshop, to save on

maintenance costs and train older students in the basics of wood-working and carpentry,

the introduction of an Agricultural Sciences class to our curriculum, and the creation of a

market-stand that would be run, in part, by students, teaching them the fundamentals of

good business practices.

Shitima School is a safe haven to the many children who attend, and the positive atmo-

sphere that this promotes is truly contagious. I am, once again, thrilled to be on board,

and look forward to working with each of you to do the best that we can for the most

vulnerable children of Kabwe.

Finola McManus - Trip to Zambia

I became a supporter of Zamcog and Shitima Basic School over a year ago and was

inspired by how the school had grown from 3 children to its current size of 260 students.

In October, I had the opportunity to visit the school first hand and see what a difference

our donations had made in reality to the orphans and street children attending Shitima.

It is one thing to donate and support and quite another to actually experience the school

and meet the children who are being given a helping hand and a future. My real question

was ‘Were we really making a difference?’

My question was readily answered as soon as I stepped onto the school ground! The

children ran to greet us and I couldn’t believe how happy and smartly dressed they looked.

The school itself was clean and tidy and it was clearly visible that both children and staff

at Shitima value their school as a very special place indeed.

Over the next few days I was able to spend time with the children. Every child told a

quiet story of life without parents or family and how hard their lives had been until

they came to Shitima. Now they said they were happy because they felt loved, cared for

and above all had a chance to be educated. I couldn’t believe how even the youngest of

children knew exactly what they wanted to be when they grew up and how they planned

their future. Without Shitima they would have been left on the street with no hope or

future. Our support really is making a huge difference and changing lives for a future

generation.

Garden expansion at Shitima

The Shitima School garden is undergoing a facelift. While our garden has been producing vegetables for

our kids for years, we have begun the process of transforming it into a beautiful and productive segment of

our property that will not only help feed our students, but will yield an excess that will help the school in a

variety of ways. Best of all, the bulk of the work is being done by our older students, who have proven to be

a motivated and efficient work-force, while they learn the ins and outs of a wide array of local agricultural

practices and earn some pocket money as well.

Working with the help of crop-husbandry officer Mary Mungabo, from the Ministry of Agriculture, our

garden team is putting together a comprehensive plan that will include crop rotation over a several year cycle.

Though the Zambian soil is renowned for its fertility, our team is learning and applying the principles of

Conservation Farming to ensure that our soil retains its fertility for years to come. What was once a quaint

vegetable patch is growing into a powerful and well-structured agricultural enterprise that stands to benefit

Shitima and its community for years to come.

Our goal is to produce more than we consume so that we might take advantage of the residential expansion

occurring around the school walls. The new guard house at Shitima is to be equipped with a store and we

intend to sell our own produce to the neighbouring community. By including students in this venture, our

pupils will be given the chance to try their hand at business and learn the essentials in a field that many of

them will undoubtedly enter upon the completion for their studies. The profit will be used to off-set the

substantial cost of feeding the students and staff of the school, as Shitima works towards a higher level of

self-sufficiency.

What Shitma students have been up to

Dance4LifeOn Saturday, November 27th, 56 of our tremendously excited students attended the

National Event of “Dance4Life”. This event was put on by UK-based Restless Develop-

ment at the Olympic Youth Development Centre in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, in

preparation for World Aids Day. A live satellite feed connected our students with youths

around the world at similar events, all dancing to raise awareness and fight for an end

to the HIV/Aids pandemic that is so devastating to Zambia and Africa as a whole. Our

students did Shitima School proud, and many were in the front row and facing the

cameras when it was Zambia’s turn to be live to the world! This was a special day for our

students who are living with HIV, as they realized they aren’t alone. They danced with

others from around the country, full of energy and life, smiles beaming, as they supported

a cause that they could understand so well. Their strength in dealing with this illness is so

inspiring. And here is what a few of our students had to say about it:

Goffrey Zuze, grade 5: “My experience in that event was very positive. I enjoyed the

dancing and I felt it was interesting. I would like to be there again, in Lusaka. I enjoyed

eating supper and sleeping in the stadium. It was good that they gave us t-shirts too!”

Kasimair Nshimbi, grade 6: “My experience was positive because I had fun with other

people who were there from other schools. And I made friends with other pupils from

other schools. What makes me feel positive was there in Lusaka I saw new things I haven’t

seen in my life. For example, I saw a toilet where you press a button and water comes out!

It was my first time to see the Olympic Centre (Olympic Youth Development Centre). I

was happy to see the basketball courts and the football pitch there. They were very nice!”

Kabwe District Inter-School Football TournamentThis year our boys football team took to the pitch in the district tournament, featuring teams from

14 regional basic schools, and came away champions! The Final was played at Mine School, and our

boys secured a 1-0 victory on a goal by Lackson Ngulube. The trophy is now on proud display in

the Head-Mistress’s office, and you can bet that our team will be ready to defend its title when the

2011 tournament gets under way.

Lackson Chibangu, grade 7: “I’m a defender and I wear the number 2. In the second half [of the

final] I was getting very tired. My heart was pumping. We wanted very much to win the trophy.

At the end I was happy because we got a trophy. I was very proud as captain of the Shitima School

team.”

Kabwe District Inter-School Athletics CompetitionLikewise, our school prevailed in the district athletics meet, topping a field of 5 local basic schools.

Makululu stadium was the venue for the triumph that now has our Head-Mistress’s shelf becoming

a bit crowded!

Daniel Muma, grade 4: “I was very happy to see the teachers give us books and pens. I came number

three, and the top three got prizes.”

Student Partnership Worldwide (now Restless Development) Quiz ChallengeSPW put on a Quiz Challenge this year and invited us to send a team. The topics ranged from New

Life (information for new parents) and HIV/Aids prevention to Religious Education and Science/

Mathematics. Shitima School sent a team of students from grades 7 to 9 to Ben Kapufi School, in

the neighbouring compound of Bwacha, and came away with the first prize.

Edgar Chabinga, grade 8: “I felt very happy because we won something. Our school became more

famous because of us pupils. I did well in all the topics except maths (laughs), but Gladys is very

strong in Mathematics.”

Zamcog Enduro Africa

In August 2010 with trepidation, excitement, fear and huge anticipation twenty people from, England, Canada and the USA set off for the Wild Coast of Africa to raise money for Shitima School. The trip far exceeded our expectations and we came back filled with pride, an enormous sense of accomplishment, new friendships and most importantly the knowledge that our adventure helped to improve the lives of the children of Shitima School, by raising over £70,000 !

It costs £650 to educate, clothe and feed one child for 1 year. That’s £55 a month, £1.75 a day

You can help in one of 2 ways:

1. A Single Gift2. Regular Gift by Standing Order

Your valuable donation will go towards the cost of feeding, educating and clothing a child at Shitima School

You will be aiding Zamcog in its goal to establish a self-sustaining route, through education, for children who can transform themselves from being those who have no hope, to being those who are the hope for Zambia’s future.

Please fill in BOTH SIDES of the form opposite, detach and send to Zamcog

ZamcogWatling House8 King Harry LaneSt. Albans, Hertfordshire AL3 4AW

www.zamcog.org.uk Charity No. 1136086

Bank use only: please pay into Zamcog, account no.92228157, HSBC Bank - St. Albans Branch (sort code 40-40-01). Please quote our reference:

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“Please treat all donations I make on or after the date of this declaration as Gift Aid donations until I notify you otherwise.”

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