Posted: 10th July 2019
Mission Direct has worked for many years in Lusaka Zambia, with a focus on supporting projects that work with street children and schools – mainly in the compounds and shanty towns in and around the city that receive little or no funding.
When Mission Direct first encountered Crown of Life School in 2009, there were 300 children meeting in a small church hall, covering primary grades from 1 to 7. With substantial funding from a UK church, Mission Direct volunteers helped to build a new school between 2010 and 2012, on a green field site on the edge of Lusaka. In recent years, the school has added lower secondary grades 8 & 9. Today, there are over 370 pupils, in Grades 1 to 9 (ages 6 to 16), outgrowing the current facilities.
In 2016 our teams built a new classroom at an estimated cost of about £8,000, enabling the start of Grade 10 classes in 2017.
School fees are about £5 a month for primary grades and £10 for secondary, but many parents cannot afford to pay. In fact, about a third of the pupils at the school do not pay fees and some pupils are supported through sponsorship schemes.
Many of our past volunteers would have worked at and/or visited Crown of Life School, with some providing further classrooms just last year (2018) to help alleviate overcrowding. All of these volunteers would have met Dorothy who gives all of her time and energy into running the school and providing education for the next generation. Thanks to a generous donation, Dorothy has been able to start providing lunch at Crown of Life School for 100 of the most vulnerable children. The nutritious High Energy Protein Supplement (HEPS) will help them concentrate better in class.
Hearts are stirred when you meet our partners and witness their projects and donations such as this help to bring change and improve future prospects. A 2-week trip really isn’t about just bricks and mortar…
