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Now, thanks to the help of many friends
and relations, Got Matar Secondary School has the core
infrastructure for 600 students in place – a remarkable
achievement in less than 4 years. This means that the
Community Development Group is starting an exciting new
phase in its support for education, based on two pillars.
The first pillar consists of
improving educational quality and opportunities at the
secondary school. This means putting up additional
buildings, broadening the range of topics that can be
studied, and improving the quality of education on offer. It
also means sustaining the bursary programme, that now
benefits 173 children, mainly orphans. Eventually, it may
also imply further improvements to the facilities at the 10
primary schools that “feed” the secondary school.
The second pillar is to create new
educational opportunities for people, including school
leavers, in the community as a whole. The aim is to enable
them to acquire knowledge and practical skills that can
ultimately enhance their incomes and improve their quality
of life and that of other members of the community.
These two pillars are well illustrated by
the activities that the Community is taking on this year:
Secondary School Development
This year, funds have already been used
for purchase of equipment for the science laboratory;
acquiring books for the library; construction of an extra
latrine block for girls, and financing of bursaries.
The immediate priorities for funding are
to construct a girls’ dormitory and to provide 20 computers
and ancillary equipment, powered by photovoltaic generating
panels, to be used for training pupils in computer literacy.
Institute of Technology
The underlying philosophy is that the
Institute should offer training in practical skills and
that, as a by-product of this, it should generate income
through product sales. Successful students would be awarded
national certificates after 2 years’ attendance. Income
would be used to defray operating costs and to ensure local
funding for the secondary school bursary programme, reducing
its donor dependence.
The idea of such a skills training
programme was born at the beginning of the school-building
project. Only now, however, has sufficient funding been
collected to enable the first course – on clothing
manufacture – to begin for 10 young people.
The next developments include a Women’s
Centre to assist victims of household violence to become
more self-reliant and aware of their rights. Funding is also
sought this year for a small computer centre for the
Community, as well as to set up a training/income generation
programme on building skills (carpentry, masonry, plumbing,
electrification).
Funding
Until now, the programme has been financed
mainly by individual donations. Now the Community has
started to seek funds from trusts and private foundations.
Many thanks to The Besom for its
grant of £2000 towards equipment for the clothes-making
facility.
Applications for financing the computer
training facilities have been made to DFID’s development
innovation fund, and my eldest brother, George, is also
raising funds for this. The Australian NGO, Bricks and
Cartwheels, has committed itself to help in the development
of the girl’ dormitory; and, finally, an application has
been made to the Collison Trust for assisting in
construction of the women’s centre.
The combination of the new Secondary
School and the emergent Institute of Technology is bound to
have a huge impact on the welfare of young people around Got
Matar.
Results
Hopefully the many people who are
skeptical about funding programmes in Africa will be
encouraged by what the Community has achieved since
September 2006. Their success is due both to a strong sense
of local “ownership” and their considerable management
abilities. They have shown that, with quite modest
resources, it is possible make a huge difference to the
prospects facing hundreds of young people in a very deprived
community that has been devastated by AIDS.
Please keep helping! |
