Project History
1. When did the Ituna Community Project start?
Officially the project started on the 13th May 2006 when a ‘governing document’ was voted on and accepted by a small group composed mainly of students from the 2 Universities in Sheffield (Hallam & Sheffield). On that date we as a group became an ‘unincorporated’ association. Subsequently we applied for, and were accepted as a registered charity in England and Wales on the 24th July 2006 (registration no. 1115553).
A group of 12 people, mainly students, visited Kitwe in Zambia for 3 weeks in June 2005. This trip was organised by ‘The Navigators’ student group in Sheffield (see www.sheffieldnavigators.co.uk ). During this visit the team mixed with other students at the University in Kitwe (called the Copperbelt University), but also assisted at the Ituna Community School by teaching and helping with classes. At the time of organising this initial trip there were no plans to launch a charity or to build a school.
On our return as a group we reviewed our experiences and what we had learned. As Christians we prayed, asking God whether He was asking us to respond to the needs we had seen and become more actively involved in being the answer to someone else’s prayers. Over 2 meetings the vision/mission statement that drives the project today was written and born. The rest, as they say, is history.
The link with Kitwe in Zambia comes through a personal friendship of Andy Grafton, who currently oversees the Sheffield Student Navigator Group and is a trustee of the charity. As a result of his work with the navigators, Andy Grafton met Justin Mukuka, who was working in a similar way with students in Kitwe and have had a friendship lasting for several years.
4. Why this community and school?
For our original trip in June 2005 (as a group from the navigators, before the formation of the project) we asked Justin Mukuka, our Zambian link, to find us a community that he thought would benefit from our help. After visiting various groups he selected the Ituna Community School in Twatasha ward.
Ituna Community School
5. What is the history and back ground to the Ituna Community School?
The ‘Ituna Community Orphans, Vulnerable Children’s Committee’ (ICOVCC) was founded on August 5th 1999 by the ‘Race Course’ community in Twatasha after the government introduced a policy of privatisation of local companies. This left most parents and guardians in the community without any employment or income. As a result parents and guardians were unable to pay school fees or have the money to buy uniforms necessary for their children to attend state schools. The ICOVCC mobilised themselves and formed a community school, renting a local building called Ituna Bar. The school seeks to offer all subjects recognised by the Ministry of Education, and was registered as an official ‘Community School’ on the 26th September 2001.
6. What community does the school serve?
Ituna Community School is found in the ward of Twatasha, in the constituency of Chimwemwe (Chimwemwe means happiness), in the Copperbelt province of Zambia. The total population of Kitwe is estimated to be 450,000, with a population of around 9000 in the Twatasha ward. The 829 orphans and vulnerable children who attend the school come from Twatasha.
A large area of Twatasha ward is called ‘The Racecourse’, named after the areas colonial use, before the housing began to be built in 1972 due to land pressures. Racecourse is a ‘squat’ or informal settlement as people didn’t have legal right of settlement when they built the houses, although the council now goes someway towards recognising these areas. Most of the homes were built by their owners and are made from mud fired bricks (called Kimberley bricks), with about 10% of homes have electricity. There is access to clean water through local ‘kiosks’ selling water (about 2 pence for 20 litres). As an informal settlement the area doesn’t receive, or have a right to services such as sewerage or road maintenance from the local authority. The settlement is unlikely to be demolished (though is theoretically possible) but likewise is unlikely to gain proper legal status as a formal settlement in the near future as the council lacks the resources to fund the necessary improvements to local infrastructure. Unemployment is over 50%, and HIV rates are around 20%. Life expectancy at birth is 37 years.
7. How many children attend the school?
829 of which 67 have no parents, 109 have only one parent, while the parents of the rest can not afford to send them to government school because of the cost of books, uniform etc.
8. How is the school currently run?
The ‘Ituna Community Orphans, Vulnerable Children’s Committee’ (ICOVCC) has an executive committee which oversees and runs the school. They have a chairman, secretary and treasurer, along with a school bank account. The executive committee is elected from the local community every 2 years and works to a governing document within a constitutional framework. Each year there is an AGM where the executive committee reports back to the community the years activities and use of money.
9. Are there any other ‘donors’ or charities involved in helping the school?
No. The school executive committee have been writing to local companies and other Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO’s) asking for various forms of assistance, but haven’t received much support.
10. What income does the school have at present?
The government gives a grant of around 1M Kwatcha (£150) per term to the school. This is a tiny fraction of what proper funding would involve. Parents at the moment are not required to make any contribution to the school through a fees system, although this is up for discussion in the community at present. In reality most parents in the community (if a child has parents) struggle to feed their families, let alone pay for schooling.
11. What problems is the school facing at present?
The problems are huge:-
Funding
Reliance on Volunteer rather than paid teachers
Lack of suitable premises
Lack of chairs, desks and other materials
Children often missing from lessons because of hunger, illness or the need to work to feed themselves
Arrears in rent on the current premises
Education in Zambia
12. How is education in Zambia organised and to what level?
Lower Education:
Schooling usually falls into three levels - Primary (Years 1 to 7), Junior Secondary (Years 8 to 9) and Upper Secondary (Years 10 to 12). So-called "Basic" schools teach Years 1 to 9, as Year 9 is considered to be a decent level of schooling for the majority of children; however, schooling until recently was only free up to Year 7 and most children drop out then. Both government and private schools exist in Zambia. Private schools operate under either the British or American method of schooling.
Higher Education:
Educational opportunities beyond high school are very limited in Zambia. There are few schools offering higher education and most Zambians cannot afford the fees. The University of Zambia and the Copperbelt University are the primary institutions of higher learning.
13. Education in Zambia is now free. Why can’t the children go to a government school?
With the recent debt relief Zambia has experienced from the international community, in April 2006 the Zambian government announced ‘free’ education for all children would be extended from year 7 up to year 9. However, to attend a government school however you need to have the following:-
The school Uniform
Appropriate books & pens
A school bag
These items cost about £10. Since over 75% of Zambians subsist on less than $1 (55p)a day, (Source: world bank development indicators) many parents and guardians can’t afford even this modest amount. Ituna Community school accepts any child in the area who is unable to afford to go to a government school.
14. What do you hope to achieve?
Our mission statement seeks to summarise what we hope to achieve:-
‘'to empower Ituna Community School, Kitwe, Zambia, to develop a self-sustaining educational facility which positively impacts the future lives of the children and wider community.’
What we mean by this is that we want to help the school build new premises, where their future is secure, before helping the school generate an income such that they can support themselves without our help. To find out in more detail about how we’ll do this look at the ‘strategy’ part of this website.
In the longer term we hope that a good, and sustained, education will allow the children to release themselves from poverty, carrying the wider community with them. Throughout Africa education is seen by many NGO’s, such as the UN and World Bank, as the most important root out of poverty, allowing individuals to take control of their lives and broaden their chances.