Cranleigh School's Recent Visit To Kawama

We were really impressed when we visited Kawama School due to the progression that has occurred in the last few years.

Whilst we were out there, as well as visiting people in their homes, bartering in the market, doing work experience and many other valuable lessons, we visited a school called Kamatipa.

This school is what Kawama School was like when we first started partnering a few years ago. One room, 60 pupils, all half our age, with one teacher. After setting some work to do on the chalkboard, he would go to another corner of the room to teach another year group. Children would sit and wait to be taught. How different this is from a primary school here in the UK?

School can’t take place if it is raining as the rain is deafening on the metal roof, so children can’t hear what the teacher is saying. There are so many challenges that seem to hinder a vital education.

Kawama School now has four classrooms, a staff room, a tap in their compound, flushing toilets, a church (where Reception are taught), security fencing and most importantly the feeding program which gives the children a meal every day. For some children this may be their only meal of the day. 

 
This feeding program could not have occurred at all if it wasn’t for all the sponsorships that have taken place by all those connected with Cranleigh School.

Sponsorship is currently £12.50 a month or £150 a year. That is less than some of our possessions; our jackets, shoes, sunglasses and speakers; we could probably take a phone contract that was £12.50 a month cheaper and not even notice! Of course, the reality is we can have those fantastic shoes and provide a child with an education.

We are committed as a school to sponsoring 225 children, but there are about 360 students at Kawama School - the little we give makes a phenomenal difference. Having seen the impact we can make, some of us have committed to sponsor a child. In terms of a return on your money there is probably no better investment out there.

In Zambia we met people who lived a simple life and in some respects they live with contentment and values that we, in our developed world, should perhaps pause to consider what it is that truly brings happiness.

In a world where Malaria, poverty, AIDS and famine cause so much pain and sorrow, we as a team discovered the reality of this anguish. As we saw with a nine-year-old girl; when we interviewed her, she told us that last year she lost both her mother and grandmother to malaria and her father to malnutrition. The trip to Zambia opened our eyes and our hearts to our friends in Kawama.