I wasn't prepared for how Kawama would grab a place in my heart back in 2011 when I first visited in the October of my second year teaching at Cranleigh, nor how hard it would be to say goodbye at the end of Cranleigh's 10th and my 4th - and final - trip, respectively.
I don't consider myself particularly sentimental - places mean far less to me than people - but there is something about Africa that has been in my blood from my own Sixth Form trip to Namibia, now 13 years ago. Flying over the very flat and often brown landscape of sub-Saharan Africa cannot fail to impress upon you a sense of the sheer expanse of space coupled with some promise of unlocked potential. It is a kind of bittersweet emotion (both exciting and frustrating) that I have come to experience during my times in Zambia.
My 2003 Sixth Form trip to Namibia was brilliant: it combined just enough time (5 days) painting a school in Windhoek with a longer period of trekking and R&R to justify the modern description of the expedition as 'voluntourism' - we even made it into the local newspaper for our 'altruistic' efforts. But I couldn't even tell you now the name of the school in Windhoek, nor why it was chosen, let alone what became of the children and staff after our murals faded. We flew in, made a difference to the aesthetics of the school, and moved on to the rest of our '3rd world adventure'. Looking back, I'm not really sure what I learnt from that experience of what life is like for a Namibian, what they are like as people, their hopes and fears, and the similarities (and differences) with my own life. On reflection, the trip was more about dipping our toes into a new and unfamiliar environment and taking some good holiday snaps...
The essence of Beyond Cranleigh is a millions miles away from this experience. At its heart is the understanding that at our core, Cranleighans and those living in Kawama (or whichever community you might be comparing) are the same. We are all born into this world with the same capacity for hopes and dreams, and we are united by a common human nature. It is interesting to see how many of our Cranleigh students get this. I will always remember one student, a certain Cathy Hobbs (who was inspired by her visit in her Lower Sixth to spend 3 months of her Gap Year back working with Beyond Ourselves) saying on her final morning of the school trip that it was simply chance that meant that she had been born into an affluent Surrey family (with all the privilege and opportunity that afforded) and not a family in Kawama... How easily it could have been the other way round. It was a sobering statement, but it reinforced the realisation for me that none of us at Cranleigh has earned a right to privilege. We have all benefitted from opportunities given to us, and to our parents and the generations before them; but others around the world have not had such opportunities. If we enter a community like Kawama and make the mistake of only seeing differences or (which is even worse) passing moral judgment on the situation that people have found themselves in, then we are guilty of a self-righteous arrogance that will never be able to move on from a culture of 'us' and 'them'.
Cranleigh's partnership with Kawama leaves no room for this way of thinking. Over the last 5 years, Kawama Community School has come to be known as Cranleigh's sister school - not in a 'big sister, little sister' way, rather it is more like a twinning. Each has its own infrastructure and culture, but each is made stronger through the partnership. Crucially, the sheer existence of Kawama Community School is the brainchild of the Kawama community itself; it was started by volunteer teachers who lived in the community and saw a need to reach those who were most at risk of not receiving any kind of formal education. These teachers and the community leaders were the visionaries, and the school remains under their leadership and governance. Being invested in a community means that you want it to succeed. Some of these teachers grew up as orphans and had to teach themselves; others will soon have their own children go through the school. Each of them knows the power of education to open doors, to provide opportunities, and to allow for the possibility of individuals to flourish. Isn't that just the same ethos that runs through the veins of Cranleigh?
Over the last 5 years of partnership with Kawama, new classrooms have been built, the church has been renovated, a toilet block with flushing loos has been built, a dedicated kitchen area has been established to feed the children each day at school, and a bore hole to provide fresh water for the local community has been dug. Cranleigh has lent a hand with some of this, but it is certainly not Cranleigh's 'baby'. Have we exhausted our support for Kawama and done what we set out to do? No. Cranleigh committed to a 20 year partnership with Beyond Ourselves to specifically support Kawama Community School, but the 'exit strategy' is as important (if not more so) than the foundations that have been laid so far. The school is flourishing in terms of pupil numbers, the training of its teachers and the quality of education provided (- it is considered a beacon school in the area), but the job is not yet done. Cranleigh has still not managed to make good on its promise to sponsor the 225 children that was agreed at the start of the partnership - 5 years later, we are close but still only at 205. Annual fundraising meets the shortfall, but that is not a sustainable form of financial support. Moreover, what is the long-term goal for Kawama? The pupils get a good primary education there, but what of secondary and tertiary education? What of the dreams that so many of the children have to become doctors, bankers, pilots, policemen and women? How can the children be given the opportunity to realise their potential and gain access to the jobs that could impact their community in a positive way for the future? These are not short-term questions and there are no short-term fixes.
One of the questions I sometimes ask our students (and myself) is why do we keep organising trips to Kawama? £1600 per Cranleigh student is a lot of money, plus we certainly shake up the day-to-day routines a bit when we descend as a group into Kawama. Is it worth it? I still believe it is. On one level, we bring with us English as our mother-tongue, and the opportunities to support the teachers in educating the pupils in English is invaluable. But I believe that we also bring much more with us than that - we are a symbol of hope. Our twice-yearly visits are a reminder to Kawama (and to us) that we are in a committed, long-term, long-distance relationship. We care about what happens in the community and the school and want to see them flourish. Equally, they care about us and enjoy the time spent together as fellow educators and also in friendship. That is something that money cannot buy. And I also believe that what Cranleigh gains in return is invaluable, for we gain a perspective that says that our neighbour can be on the other side of the fence or the other side of the world, but they are still our neighbour.
Written by Miss Laura Sturdee. (Laura has been a teacher at Cranleigh School for several years and has been integral in the development of Beyond Cranleigh. We are sad to see her leave Cranleigh this summer, but are so thankful for all she has contributed over the years and wish her well in her new adventures! No doubt we will see her back in Zambia one day in the not too distant future)
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