Category Archives: zambia

Need for more funding for Zambian schools

Category : zambia

We are honorary members of NAQEZ (National Action for Quality Education in Zambia). This organisation is made up of educational professionals who have the ear of the Zambian Ministry of Education.

After attending a Zambia Qualifications Authority media breakfast representatives of  NAQEZ appeared before a select Parliamentary Committee on Children Affairs this morning.

According to this Committee of MPs and Parliamentary staff, NAQEZ acquitted itself supremely well on Comprehensive sexuality education.

During the same meeting,the question of quality of education in ZAMBIA was raised by one MP.The NAQEZ team informed the house that the standards of education in schools are poor.The Champions pleaded with the MPs to join NAQEZ in demanding for more funds for the education sector.

Raspberry Pi PCs en route to Zambia

Category : News , zambia

Thanks to all those who contributed to our recent gofundme campaign. Today we sent off equipment for 8 Zambian teachers who had worked particularly hard at the Zoom training sessions Howard has been delivering this term.

With the Raspberry PIs and cables we’ve sent (and their own keyboard, mouse and screen) they will be able to practise the programming skills they’ve been learning; and pass them on to their pupils.

consignment of PisPi and accessoriesPI set up

With some additional money, we sent SSD hard drives with Raspbian operating system so that they can each refurbish one of the laptops we shipped out a few months ago.

A big thank you to all our supporters.

Reward for hardworking teachers

Category : zambia

Howard has been running Zoom teacher training sessions twice a week for the last couple of months. He has focussed on Python and Scratch to teach basic programming skills to teachers in Zambia.

Despite connectivity issues at times, they have worked very hard and persevered. Giakonda Solar Schools wishes to reward their efforts by sending Raspberry Pi computers which can be used to practise the skills learned and pass them on to their pupils.

We aim to raise £1000 via gofundme and have so far already raised £540.  To contribute please click on the link below or go to our donations page. Every penny goes to help Zambia schools – we have no paid staff or overheads.

gofundme

our donations page

Ubuntu on Raspberry Pi4

Category : News , zambia

We are super excited that Canonical have released Ubuntu 20.10 for the Raspberry Pi. As followers will know, we have been using Raspberry Pi computers in remote schools in Southern Zambia for over 5 years as a low power, cost effective and very efficient solution.

Well now we can run the full-fat Ubuntu on the Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB and 8GB versions).

Coding

Category : News , zambia

We’re using COVID lockdown to hold twice weekly Zoom training sessions with Zambian teachers interested in learning Python and Scratch in order to teach coding to their pupils. It’s going well so far in spite of some technical problems- thanks to Howard sending support and practise materials and thanks teachers for hanging in there.

Scratch sprite

COVID in Zambia

Category : News , zambia

Schools in Zambia have now welcomed back all pupils and are trying to take as many precautions as they can against COVID 19.

Thanks to some generous individual donors, we have sent fifteen schools non-contact digital thermometers to test temperatures before letting students into school.

Testing at Siavonga Basic

testing temperature at Dambilo schoolTesting at KatalumbaTesting at Manchamvwa Inland

Thermometers have arrived!

Category : News , zambia

The non contact digital thermometers for schools in Zambia have arrived at last. Generous donations from individuals enabled us to buy 15 of them for our solar schools to make coming to school a safer experience for teachers and children.

District EDucation Board Secretary using thermometer to test her standards Officers

The Education department picked them up and has begun the task of distributing to schools. Siavonga Basic School were the first recipients.

Thermometers for schools

Category : News , zambia

To support Bbakasa School in this time of pandemic, we sent a non-contact digital thermometer so that teachers could identify and send home anyone who turned up for school with a high temperature. They are finding it so useful, that we have started raising money to provide at least 14 more of these. Each thermometer costs £30 but every pound donated will be used to help remote African schools.

pupils at Bbakasa school lining up for temperature testing

Thanks to generous supporters we have raised enough money for 8 non contact digital thermometers for schools in Siavonga Zambia. Can you help us increase this even more and help even more schools check that their pupils are safe to come to school. The children below are from Bbakasa Junior and Secondary School.

 

Achievements to date

Category : News , solarpower , zambia

We’ve come a long way since our first visit to Zambia in 2015.

Here is a flavour of what we’ve achieved to date.

We have installed solar power in 14 schools in Siavonga District and 3 schools in Monze District. This enables them for the first time to have lighting and the infrastructure for computers.

We have supplied the learning resources of RACHEL (Remote Area Community Hotspot for Education and Learning) to 5 schools with mains power via a Synology NAS server.

But our main focus has been the Raspberry Pi. It acts as a wifi hotspot and does not need mains power. We have used this as a server supplying RACHEL. 80 schools are now regularly using this resource for teaching and learning.

A fundamental part of our project is the training of teachers. On each visit we run courses on solar power, the use of RACHEL off-line learning resources, networking and general computer maintenance, and office applications. To date, in the three districts we visit, a total of 157 teachers from 61 schools have attended one or more of these sessions.

In addition to this, thanks to large donations of equipment we have sent out 128 PCs, 79 monitors, and 160 laptops. These were distributed by the local District Education Board Secretaries.

We have also been able to provide training in beekeeping delivered by a trainer from Monze, along with two beehives per school for those who attended. Some of them have been able to start selling jars of honey.

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

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