Author Archives: wendyk

2.6 challenge

Category : News

Raise money for us

The London Marathon is cancelled this year. It was due to take place on 26th April. A lot of small charities benefit from the runners raising money for them.

This year instead you are invited to support the charity of your choice by undertaking the 2.6 challenge. Could you get people to sponsor you and donate the money to Giakonda Solar Schools?

www.giakonda.org.uk/donations

All on a 2.6 or 26 theme.

Ideas:

Run 2.6KM

Keep a ball in the air for 26 keepie-uppies.

Walk twenty six times around the garden

Hula hoop 26 times or for 2.6 minutes

26 pressups

Dance for 26 minutes

Jump up and down 26 times on trampoline.

Do 26 star jumps

Send us your video clips please.

Let’s see who has the craziest idea.

NAQEZ letter

Category : News

We are honoured to have received endorsement letter from NAQEZ, the organisation of educational professionals that seeks to improve standards in Zambia.

NAQEZ endorsement

 

They’re the Bees Knees

Tags :

Category : zambia

We’re pleased to report back on the success of our Bees Knees project. We hope this will be a sustainable environment-friendly way of providing some income for the Women’s Group and the four schools that are taking part.

It allPhillip with top bar hives started in 2018 when we liaised with Phillip Nsakilwa  (a beekeeping trainer in Monze) to go down to Siavonga for three days to train interested parties from Bbakasa, Kabbila, Kawila and Matuwa schools and the Miyombo Womens Cooperative.

Phillip doing bee keeping training

Everyone was very enthusiastic if a little nervous at first. He showed them the whole process of setting up and looking after hives. He also demonstrated how to extract the honey from the honeycomb.

We provided each group with two top bar hives and bee suits.

on site at Miso lodge

hive at Kawila school

Phillip returned in August to check how they were getting on. There were some teething problems but he gave them advice on overcoming these.

At Kawila they gave one of the hives to community members to look after and kept the other for the school. This year they are finally seeing the benefits.

The Womens Cooperative reported a lot of bees around their hives.Miyombo womens coop have bees around he hives They looked to see if there was any honey and filled three large buckets with the honeycomb. They have started to extract the honey. They have 30 litres so far. They also have people eager to buy it from them.

 

 

honeycomb from womens coopbucket of honey from womens coop

NAQEZ

Category : News , zambia

We are proud to have received the following notification from NAQEZ. This stands for  National Action for Quality Education in Zambia.

From our Executive Director Mr Aron Chansa, both of you from today hence, become HONORARY Members of NAQEZ (National Action for Quality Education in Zambia) for being instrumental in Uplifting the standards of ICT in Siavonga rural schools, through your able organization GIAKONDA.

It’s good to be appreciated.

Developing solar power at Bbakasa School

Category : solarpower , sponsors , zambia

Wales and Africa Logo

 

 

 

Thanks to Welsh Government’s  Wales and Africa Grant Scheme, we are developing the solar power capability of Bbakasa School in Siavonga District. We first visited this remote school on the Lower Zambezi River, in 2015. We put up a very basic solar panel and battery for them and they have used it well to run two Raspberry Pi PCs and to charge teacher laptops. We also provided a Raspberry Pi server which acts as a wifi hotspot to deliver learning resources RACHEL (Remote Area Community Hotspot for Education and Learning).
The school has now become a Junior Secondary School and has more extensive needs. We have therefore supplied four large panels and four batteries to power a hub of Raspberry Pi computers, teacher laptops and a large screen to use for class teaching.placing roof panelssolar equipment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our suppliers Muhunya Solar of Lusaka make a very professional job of the installation.

Training on using Raspberry PI PC

Category : News , zambia

Raspberry Pi in VESA mountOur Zambian colleague, Joel, held a training session for us in Lusaka. He demonstrated the use of a Raspberry Pi as a fully functioning PC which can be mounted neatly on the back of its monitor .Thanks to VOTS school for letting us use their building for training. A total of fourteen teachers

RACHEL

attended and all were impressed with the power and versatility of this tiny computer.They also used the Raspberry Pi to connect to a server delivering RACHEL learning resources.

 

We are setting up a hub of Raspberry Pi computers at Bbakasa School thanks to Welsh Government’s  Wales and Africa Scheme.
Wales and Africa Logo

 

Sharing and Learning with Hub Cymru Africa

Category : News

This week we have been busy with events organised by Hub Cymru Africa.

On Wednesday we attended a meeting in Swansea based around the International Charter for Health Partnerships. We shared our experiences of building strong local partnerships and using them to help us address local educational needs in Siavonga Zambia.

Howard sharing experiences of working with local partners

Yesterday it was a Meet The Funders event. Grants and donations are what allow us to function. So it is vital to understand how best to make an application. There were opportunities to speak to individual funding organisations and chances to network.

So today I’m all fired up to start bid-writing!

Making partnerships

Category : News

This month we have been busy meeting several other Wales based charities working in Zambia. We offer advice on setting up solar panels and Raspberry Pi servers with the learning resources of RACHEL and Kolibri.

Giakonda Solar Schools helps Friends of Monze by installing solar power in the schools they build and supplying refurbished laptops and the learning resources. We met with them recently to discuss their future needs.

Howard has refurbished some laptops and added Kolibri resources to them for Elizabeth Rhodes who works with orphans and others in Zambia.

We are looking forward to a second meeting with Hands Around the World to discuss how they might proceed with their two projects in Zambia. They are particularly interested in the health resources on the Hesperian Health Guides which is part of RACHEL.

At the end of the month, we are sharing details of our project at an event organised by Hub Cymru Africa.

Meeting with Health Help International

Category : solarpower , zambia

Yesterday we met up with trustees of Health Help International to discuss how we will help them with their project in Nanga Special School, Zambia.

Nanga Special school sign

They intend to turn a large hall into an area which the boarders can use for cross curricular IT lessons, evening study and extra curricular activities. We will install solar power for them to enable this to be self sustainable. As well as LED lighting, they will have a small suite of Raspberry Pi computers and a Raspberry Pi server. This will enable staff and pupils to access a vast number of videos, articles and lessons off-line.

Howard demonstrated the hardware and software. He explained how we would train staff and members of the local community to install and maintain the solar panels and batteries. We will also offer training to all schools in the area on using the off-line learning resources.

RACHEL training

Category : News , sponsors

Daniel demonstrating on smartphoneThanks to Daniel Mangwende of Dibbwi Primary School for carrying out RACHEL training for us at Siavonga Teachers’ Resource Centre on Monday 9th December. He showed a group of seventeen teachers how to access the RACHEL learning resources on a Raspberry Pi server using laptops or smartphones. He explained how his teachers make use of it for lesson preparation and teaching, and how to shut down the system safely.

Most of the schools present have no mains electricity  so they were supplied with powerbanks to power their Raspberry Pis.

The Raspberry Pi server provides a huge off-line library of videos, articles and lesson plans tailored for rural communities. It can be a real game changer in schools which have few teaching resources.

Thanks to a grant of £2500 from the Carmela and Ronnie Pignatelli Foundation, Giakonda Solar Schools was able to provide the necessary equipment and organise a day’s training.  Mr Mangwende is already planning follow-up sessions so the teachers can share experiences and success.

PIgnatelli Foundation logo

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