ZamScotEd launches crowdfunding appeal
In January 2020, Mid Argyll charity ZamScotEd’s school in Zambia will open the fourth and final classroom block – but help is needed to complete the project.
The classroom at St Columba’s will be for Grade 12 pupils – the equivalent of S5/6 – and for the first time since the project began, pupils will graduate from the school with their equivalent of Highers.
Since the school opened with just one classroom block in January 2016, children in Zambia, who otherwise would not have been able to access secondary education, have been moving up through the school. This new block will give those who started back then the status of senior students heading for a bright future.
Nearing completion, the classroom block still needs desks, white boards, some textbooks, and all the furnishings essential to any classroom. The gas also needs to be connected up to the bunsen burners in the science lab.
A crowdfunding page has been launched in hope of raising the necessary funds, with a target of £6,000 to be reached in 28 days.
Crowdfunding ZamScotEd founder Marian Pallister said: ‘We have wonderful support in Mid Argyll, but our crowdfunding project will hopefully reach out to the wider community and help us give those youngsters moving up to Grade 12 the classrooms they need and deserve.
‘We are hugely grateful to everyone for all their help.
‘We will go on paying the fees of the Mthunzi children and other vulnerable kids identified by head teacher Sr Veronica Nyoni, but this project for desks and other fixtures and fittings will mean our first Grade 12 pupils will have the chance to work towards their big exams as they should – and local carpenters will also benefit from the jobs this is creating for them.’
The charity has been supporting the education of children in Zambia since the 1990s through the Mthunzi Children’s Programme, giving them the opportunity
to attend secondary schools around the country. It was quickly realised how many other children living around the Mthunzi centre were unable to go to secondary school, and that is when the idea of building a school was born.
Generous
With the help of Mission Scotland and Spanish organisations, as well as generous individuals and trusts, things have moved rapidly for the charity.
If anyone would like to support ZamScotEd with the final phase they can donate through its crowdfunder page: www.crowdfunder. co.uk/desks-for-st-columbas