Supporting education for vulnerable children – Zambia
In Zambia, over 500,000 children do not attend mainstream schools. The majority of these children are girls. Children are often unable to attend because they can not afford uniforms, warm clothing for the cold seasons, shoes, or food and many have been orphaned by AIDS. These vulnerable children fall through the cracks of the government system. To combat this, Zambia Open Community Schools (ZOCS) established community schools in four provinces of Zambia. Open to all, they reach out to over 37,000 children. As well as providing education to children who otherwise would not have the opportunity, ZOCS also run a feeding programme and child counselling to ensure that the children are healthy and have someone to talk to.
Book Aid International is working with ZOCS to help improve the quality of the education that the children receive. While ZOCS teachers are trained and extremely enthusiastic, without the right books and teacher training, the quality of education will suffer.
Camel Library - Kenya
The geography of Kenya, and many African countries, means that a number of communities are cut off from towns and villages where they could access books in a library.
In Kenya, an imaginative solution was found – using camels to transport books to remote communities, bringing them books and the opportunity to access essential information. Three camels are used – one for books, one for equipment and a further spare camel – and they journey up to the communities usually once a month delivering new books.
Children’s Book Project – Tanzania
Tanzania is one of the world’s poorest countries and, though the government is committed to providing a library for every primary school, there is hardly any money for books. In the Kwonga district particularly the quality of education is very low. Compared to children in other districts, pupils in Kwonga have to travel the furthest to school, have larger class sizes and, when there are books, have to share them between bigger groups. These children have a much lower chance of completing primary school, attending secondary school or gaining qualifications.
To help improve the quality of their education, Book Aid International will be working with the Children’s Book Project to supply books and train teachers in the Kwonga district. We will also be supporting local publishing to ensure that the children have good quality books in Kiswahili. Quality education will give these children the chance of a brighter future.
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