Building a Brighter Future For Orphans And Vulnerable Children Of Chilanga
ST. PATRICK COMMUNITY SCHOOL
St. Patrick Community School is managed by the Sisters of Mercy of St Charles of Borromeo in Chilanga, Zambia. The school has classes for children from Pre-school to Grade 7.
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The school opened in 2006 and was operated in a small church called St. Patrick. The church represented a small Christian Community of the Catholic Parish in Chilanga.
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It was established to offer free education to orphans who have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, and also other vulnerable children in the communities and district of Chilanga.
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In 2007 the school moved to two acre land, which was donated by a local Christian family. Later in 2010 the school was awarded a Constituency Development Fund, allowing the school to build an ablution block, as well as a dining area for providing the children with meals.
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The school is headed by two government teachers (both female), and is run by the community, the church and by donors. There are nine teachers in total – three male and six female.
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There are currently 440 children in total, with eight different classes within the school.
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Current Needs
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
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Recently the Zambian Ministry of Education has promoted a new curriculum, which includes ICT (Information, Communication Technology). The majority of schools in Zambia, including St. Patrick Community School, were not prepared for this as computers are not so common here. Thankfully, we were kindly donated two computers by Mission Scotland. Later two volunteers working with Mother of Mercy hospice and the two schools connected, fundraised for this cause. They created a Facebook campaign, and got many very generous donations which helped them to provide the school with another 10 computers. These advancements give the children the ability to learn new and modern skills for the future.
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The success of this campaign is greatly celebrated at St Patrick Community School as the children enjoy new classes including ICT and Computer Coding, however we still have many more improvements to make. Your kind donations help us to improve the standard of teaching at the school, the quality of the surroundings that the children learn in, and also improve the variety of subjects and skills that are taught at school.
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The school is pleased to have a feeding program, which offers every child one meal per day. One cook is employed, who provides all 440 children with lunch every school day. In the future we would like to have sufficient funding to provide two meals per day to each child, offering them lunch, and also breakfast in the morning, to help them remain engaged during classes.
The salary of teachers is something we struggle with here at Guardian Angels Community School. Sponsorship for teacher’s salary would help us to ensure each teacher receives their expected salary each month.
We are lucky to be able to provide education for so many children here at St Patrick Community School, however many are unable to progress after grade 7, as they don’t have the money to fund further education. Sponsorship for the Grade 7 children at St. Patrick Community School, would give them a chance to advance their education even further.
We would love to have transport for the children of St. Patrick Community School. At the moment we have no way of taking the children out for events, as we have no transport to do this. In the future we would love to have a bus to give our children the opportunity to experience learning outside of the classroom, and to visit other places.
One of the main challenges the school faces is its precarious water system and the provision of safe water, sanitation and the improvement of health and well-being of the children. The school is in need of a tank/pump to help improve the water system issues.
PHOTO GALLERY
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