The Halcrow Foundation is helping fund a new learning centre in rural Zambia which will vastly improve the quality of education for local children and young people.
The charity Baraka Community Partnerships (BCP) is building the community-based learning centre in the Kapiri-Mposhi district of Zambia. Local schools, teachers and students will benefit from new facilities including a library, IT centre, classroom, toilets, office and storeroom, as well as equipment including computers, books, desks and teaching aids.
Teacher training programme
A shortage of schools in rural Zambia means many communities have no access to quality education. While most of the schools that are open are drastically underfunded with inadequate resources and little or no teacher training.
As well as providing learning facilities for students, the new centre will also run a training and professional development programme of courses for teachers and school management teams. This means that as well as helping to improve students’ exam results, the centre will also increase teacher motivation and professionalism, and promote a better culture of reading and learning. Ultimately the project will boost employment opportunities and improve the income of local families.
Andy Mckee BCP’s Founder says “The Learning Centre is a long held dream for us at Baraka. We have for a long time been frustrated with the lack of opportunities and resources for rural schools and Halcrow Foundation has presented us with the means to address many of the problems that these schools face.”
Generating income
The centre’s training and IT centre will be available to BCP’s partner charities and other oganisations that focus on educational development. BCP’s long term goal is to replicate the project in other areas of the country.
BCP is a charity that concentrates on projects in Zambia and Laos that develop schools, promote healthcare and instigate water and sanitation programmes. It looks at long-term, sustainable solutions for communities that are based on their own ideas, goals and aspirations. All projects are suggested or initiated by local people, so in this way BCP helps communities turn their own vision into reality.
