Powering Potential for Zambian Schools
Category : zambia
At Sianyoolo we were pleased to see the school in line of sight with two powerful masts. They should easily be able to connect in to the fortnightly mentoring sessions. Two teachers from this school will be involved.
Finally we visited Kabuyu Primary. Mr McCloud from the school regularly joins our zoom training but there are connectivity issues at the school which we will be working to solve.
Thanks to Ms Ephe Hambabangolwe, the District Education Board Secretary, we secured the use of the official landcruiser to visit some of the other schools involved in the Learn to Learn project.
We first visited Siamwiinga School where we had installed solar panels in March 2021. We hadn’t actually checked out the installation due to COVID restrictions so it was good to see everything in good condition.
Teachers and pupils helped mount an external wireless antenna which will boost internet signal for the school.
Next on to Chaanga, a large secondary school with solar panels for power and for a water pump.
The headteacher was very positive about the project and felt it is very much needed. The school has weekly boarding places for vulnerable girls who return home at weekends.
Some of the teachers were unfamiliar with the Raspberry Pi 400 computers that we’d supplied so Howard spent some time demonstrating its features. We also invited them to join in our weekly ICT tutorial sessions.
We supplied a router for which they will need to purchase data bundles.
On Wednesday we visited one of the less accessible schools, Munyama. When Mr Richard Mabunde tried to get home from Monday’s training by motorbike he found himself in a flood and needed local children to help him get the bike through.We chose to go by speedboat which was the other option and were lucky to find the lake calm and without waves.
Our main purpose was to check out the best place in the school area to access internet. Munyama is one of the schools chosen to pilot a learning to learn scheme which will mentor teachers in ways to encourage pupils to attend and achieve in school. We were pleased to see good care being taken of the solar panels and RACHEL learning resources being connected and used.
We were treated to fish and nshima before listening to the very talented Munyama School Choir. These are very impressive young singers, coached by a volunteer teacher.
After a disastrous start, including two key members unable to fly out with us due to Covid, things are looking up. We started the day with Howard demonstrating the equipment we brought with us for use with the project. The whole project was made possible thanks to a grant from the Welsh Government Wales and Africa Grant Scheme.
All teachers then joined us at Lake Safari Lodge for a virtual “Meet and Greet” with Beth and Lisa. They gave an overview of the proposed learning program and we gathered some baseline data to help our later evaluation.
Then all enjoyed socializing over snacks and soft drinks.
Thanks for making this possible go to Welsh Government for their award of a grant under the WalesandAfrica Grant Scheme.
Category : zambia
Thanks to funding from Welsh Government through their Wales and Africa Grant Scheme, we are proceeding with our pilot Learning to Learn Project.
Its aim is to motivate all pupils, but particularly girls, to attend school regularly, have a more positive attitude to school and to themselves, have high aspirations and and achieve their full potential.
We will do this through online sessions with a selected group of teachers showing them activities and tactics to create a different learning environment.
The grant covers the necessary IT equipment to facilitate these sessions and enable monitoring and recording of results.
Category : News
Category : News
We attended an interesting Zoom meeting early this morning for NGOs registered with the Zambian Government. A representative of the Financial Intelligence Centre gave a presentation on Money Laundering and Funding Terrorism awareness to 93 people.
This was followed by a Q&A session. The new Zambian government is preparing a Code of Conduct to guide all NGOs and not-for-profit organisations to comply with best practice as outlined by the Financial Action Task Force.
We have just set up Giakonda Solar Schools YouTube channel which contains training videos we make from time to time.
So far there are videos on aspects of LibreOffice Writer, created by Howard and one of our Zambian partner teachers Francis; and videos on updating Raspberry Pi operating system. Many more to follow.
Please visit and subscribe. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJzpDvVZRwInL3ay6sKMD5Q
Category : News
African Storybook Story Maker App won the 2021 Tech4Good Awards in Education and was the Winner of Winners in virtual awards ceremony. Accessing RACHEL, our partner schools in Zambia can read African Stories in local languages such as Chitonga and Bembe.
The African Story Book Story Maker App lets pupils use the stories as inspiration to write their own.
