Project description
In the countryside of Zambia more than 50 per cent of the population is illiterate. Those who cannot read have difficulty finding a job. Christian Education Ministry (CEM) believes that education is an important means of breaking that vicious cycle of poverty. That is why CEM supports some 20 schools in the Petauke area that were started by the village communities themselves. Volunteers receive training in teaching skills from CEM. This enables them to teach their own children in the local language.
Why this project?
Marjanne Hendriksen was sent to Zambia by the Nunspeet church in 2007. She works there for the organisation Covenant College Trust Zambia, which focuses on gospel proclamation, agricultural training and education. In 2015, Marjanne appealed to deputations diaconate with a request for financial support of the education project. Village communities wishing to establish a school may call on the expertise of Marjanne's team. The team provides training and education packages.
Impact
The project has now helped set up 35 little schools. Sometimes a school has to stop because parents do not contribute. New schools are added regularly. It is not only the children who benefit from education. When a community works together for a school, the whole village benefits. Fortunately, the project runs on mostly well-motivated teachers. This is very important because they get paid little to nothing for their work. They have to provide their own income.
What can we learn?
Winter (our summer) is used for in-service training for teachers. What motivation! Last winter, over 55 people attended this who were trained in:
- the importance of preschool education - practical examples had been filmed at their own schools and were discussed with a particular focus on the fundamentals of beginning reading and arithmetic;
- What makes a school child-friendly? Consider lessons on the teacher as a role model, classroom management, involving parents in the school etc;
- world view, human view and God view explained at the level of children;
- 'Farming God's Way' - precisely because educators have to provide for themselves.
