Elisha

This young man is the son of a watchman. He was able to attend first year of secondary after a long wait at home, but dropped out for lack of fees to continue. He has sat at home with no work and no education since 2012 and he is now 21.Thanks to donations to Tembo for job training we can send him to the polytechnic to study motor mechanics in a two year programme.
For about $250 a year plus a few shillings for supplies he will become self sufficient and contribute to his family and his community. There are thousands of young men and women in this situation with very few organisations that can help them.

Finishing Read for the Top

We are concluding our grant from Better World Books for Read for the Top. Three schools (one primary, two secondary) were unable to complete in 2015 for a number of reasons, but mainly because of a month long teacher strike in September and an early start to National exams in November.

On Monday we were in Emwatsi primary. The teachers usually shake their heads and tell us their children have difficulty, they are 'slow'. Of course this is not true. They have a normal distribution of intelligence. Where they lack is parental support and resources in the school. Once again the teachers were amazed at the way their children responded to the contest and shone with their commitment and comprehension. They all received school bags marked Read for the Top, and the winning teams received their own 'story book'. While we were doing the closing remarks those children were already deep into their new story.

Itumbu Secondary new toilet blocks

On Monday we handed over the two new sanitation blocks for a rural secondary school. The principal told us that we had saved them from closure by the Public Health Service for lack of sufficient latrines. Three hundred students followed the training video with close attention.

.

New toilets at Kayila primary

We handed over the toilets on Wednesday. Unfortunately we had a problem with the camera, so are not able to  show the training session and handover. But we have shots of the final toilet blocks.

Handover Shiduha well

Now the Christmas break is over, we begin the handover of water and sanitation projects to the communities. Today we were in a secondary school which has long suffered from lack of available clean water. Not only were rivers far away, but the students and community suffered from many water borne diseases.
we thank Renaissance Ministries f or the funding and Nixon Ifeda our contractor for his usual efficient job. The community was effusive in their thanks and gave us gifts from their farms: eggs, papaya, bananas, pumpkins and avocado.
We signed the contract, unlocked the pump and the water flowed welcomed by cheers. As we sat  with the students, staff and teachers, more and more containers brought by women in the community took a place in the queue and were borne off on the heads of their smiling owners.

many gifts

including maize

we cut the ribbons

turned the pump

and water flowed

the contract for upkeep was signed