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Current Newsletter - November 2009
FCIA SETS FOOT ON ZAMBIAN SOIL
FCIA's vision is to find small rural schools in South Africa all the
way from Cape Town up to Kenya via Namibia and covering all the
countries in between. In January we set foot into Mozambique by
assisting Ibo Eco School on Ibo Island in Northern Mozambique.

In October, we have broken ground into Zambia. I was
looking to partner with a fellow organization that shared our vision of
uplifting rural schools and communities. We have partnered with
Village of Hope in Zambia run by Paul and Marinette van Coller under
the wing of AOG Table View.

I visited Mongu, a small town, situated on the flood plains in
Western Zambia. It is a seven hour bus trip from Lusaka mainly on
bumpy pot holed riddled roads. Mongu is a town which is poverty
stricken and is home to many orphans as the HIV/Aids epidemic is
rife. According to statistics in 2001/2002 16% of the 4 million
population had HIV/Aids. At the 2007 statistics, this has
decreased to 14.6% due to education. The mortality rate of many
Zambians is age 35 years. Due to this there is a common norm of
child headed families whereby children are rearing children in
appalling conditions or alternatively families where grandmothers raise
their grandchildren.

FCIA visited Village of Hope School in the Mutoya Village.
Village of Hope School consists of 24 children aged 4-7 years and 18 of
these children are orphans or come from a vulnerable background.
A substantial donation of stationery was donated to assist them in
their learning. A special thanks goes to Anja Zeugner-Kimbrey,
Tracy Kimbrey, Durrel Gibson, Zurika Nabbi, Nadja Josephy, the Yola
team, Melanie Bates, Gill & Lee Clarke, Angelique Pretorius,
Manfred Karner, Linnith & Clyde Davids, Elmarie & Alan Waltman
and LindsayTurnbull for their kind donations of stationery. I had
enough to fill two suitcases, however, due to baggage constraints could
only take one suitcase with me. This stationery has been enough
to assist three schools in the Mongu area. The excess stationery will
be donated to these schools on our next trip in April/May 2010.

The first outreach at Village of Hope School consisted of a puppet
show teaching the children the differences between 'Day & Night'
as this is what was in the curriculum for the week that I spent
there. After teaching them, an art session was conducted whereby
the children learnt about different shapes and colours.

The second outreach at Village of Hope School consisted of another
puppet show teaching the children about sustainable gardening and how
one needs to care and have patience when starting a garden. After
the show, the children with the help of the teachers and FCIA prepared
and planted their first garden. At each school we have been to
and have planted a garden, the most common feedback has been that the
children have enjoyed themselves and have learnt a new skill and the
teachers enjoy our input as they are so focused on educating the
children that they do not have time for extra activities. To
round off this outreach, the children were given new paints to paint a
picture of the garden they had just planted.

Two community schools were also visited. A school consisting
of 162 children in Maunyamo Community has an urgent need for
pencils and paper. Shontell Fiet who does community development within
this area will be dropping off some of the stationery that was
donated. The school has two sessions each day with the older
children (grade 3-5) attending class in the mornings and the younger
children (grade R-2) in the afternoon. This school is run by two
voluntary teachers who are passionate about the children’s education
and are not concerned about their wellbeing. Upon speaking to
them, they have initiated a poultry and gardening idea and are waiting
on funding. These two initiatives will bring in an income for the
school to assist with paying teacher’s salaries, purchasing food for
the children and enabling the children to have the basic education
requirements.

Another school that FCIA visited was in the Namashukende area.
This school consists of 22 children having lessons in a mud and thatch
building with no desks. The children sit on tree stumps as their
chairs and the ground is soil. I loved this school as there is so
much potential for development and upliftment here. Stationery
such as pencils, sharpeners, erasers, chalk and crayons were handed out
to the children and it was heartbreaking to see how something so little
made such an impression on them. This school is run by Sam, a
young teacher, who has enthusiasm for the further education of these
children. Upon doing research, most children at community schools
(rural schools) only attain grade 5. Upon talking to some of the
villagers and volunteers, many children do not attend school due to
lack of funds for school fees or due to travel constraints. These
are the types of schools that FCIA would like to assist in
Africa. The ones that the greater outside world does not even
know exist.

The trip was successful in identifying community schools that need
our assistance and starting to build relationships with these
communities. It was also a blessing to stay with Paul &
Marinette and their boys and to learn about the culture of the
Zambian people.
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