Reflections From Cranleigh Students

As an introduction to Kawama Community School, we observed a Grade 5 class, taught by Barbara. The children were learning irregular verbs in English, and they were very enthusiastic. Every child participated and thoroughly engaged in the lesson. They showed great respect towards Barbara, and impressive determination. One girl achieved 10/10 on the verbs exercise, and it was inspiring to see her pride in this. We moved on to Grade 1 for their printing class, which is part of their national curriculum. Their energy was great, whilst also being rather chaotic! The teacher, Doreen, kept control of the situation, and remained a calm presence in the room. After lunch, we had the opportunity to interview the school director, Pastor Cephas, and two of the school cooks. We learnt more about them individually, in addition to Zambian life in general. Cephas explained that people’s approach towards education has been improving over the past few years and the Kawama community are beginning to appreciate the work the school is doing.

On Saturday, we went to “Mechanics for Africa”, an organisation that trains mechanics over a 2 year course, at the end of which they achieve a City & Guilds accredited Diploma. We met Jason, who runs the charity, and he helped us understand the aims and objectives of the project. After a short safety briefing we learnt the basic principles of how to service a car and the excellent tuition by MFA mechanics meant that everyone was confident on how to change a tyre, check and replace the oil, clean the air filter and check battery voltage. We found it interesting to speak with the mechanics as they all had aspirations of opening their own garage in the future. 

A statement from Jason stayed with many of us: “Africa doesn’t need help, it needs opportunities.” This really made us reflect on sustainability and how ‘charity’ is more about giving people the opportunity to earn their own source of reliable income.