Having arrived back in Zambia to quite a lot of changes it was really excellent and encouraging to meet with Pastor Albert this morning!
He told me that the parents are all very happy with Enoch, the teacher we took on in August and that the newly decorated school is being put to good use. The decision to limit class sizes to 30 pupils (compared to 200 pupils in the grade 6 class at the local government school last year) wasn't popular in the beginning but now is showing dividends. The parents have been buying school uniforms from the sewing class this month and next month are aiming to begin paying K5,000 a month for each of their children. Pastor Albert is hoping that starting this now will help them to be ready to keep paying Enoch's salary after August when his current funding runs out.
We made so much progress in Kamfinsa last year with establishing the Hammer Mill, building the pastor's house, finishing the school and starting a sewing class that I was expecting this year to be a year of consolidation. However, having heard what is happening in Kamfinsa it seems they are determined to keep moving forward. Normally, when we leave Zambia for a break in the UK we return to find little if any progress but today appears to have broken that trend! Firstly, the borehole that was being drilled just as we were leaving Zambia has been finished and Seeds of Hope who drilled the well, didn't stop there, they have since been out to Kamfinsa and put together a borehole committee! They taught the committee to maintain the borehole and encouraged them to buy a lock and chain to ensure it is used responsibly! This seemed to really inspire the villagers as they then also formed a committee for the hammer-mill. They wisely decided to use some of the profits from milling to supply the village with fertiliser to help bring in a bumper harvest!! More Maize grown = more milling = more profit!!
Amazingly they also found a man who not only used to run a hammer mill but is also a skilled carpenter! Last year, along with the sewing machines, we also helped take a whole variety of carpentry tools to Kamfinsa which the villagers were longing to use. Now they are managing to pay this carpenter (without outside help!) to both run the hammer-mill and teach people to make furniture in between! I am delighted to hear that the village is starting to be able to fund things like this from scratch by themselves!!
And it gets better!!! :-) The sewing class has been doing so well making school uniforms that they got a contract from MTN (one of the biggest mobile phone networks in Zambia) to make uniforms for a school MTN are sponsoring. The MTN school is quite a way beyond Kamfinsa village but in the same direction from the main road and so MTN should be maintaining the road out to Kamfinsa once the rains have finished. The sewing teacher, whose salary was being paid by a friend of my mum's, should have finished teaching at the end of January (when the money ran out) but this MTN contract has meant there is enough money coming in to keep paying the teacher... the ladies are not quite ready to go it alone, so they are really happy to have the teacher for a bit longer!
All this news is the kind of thing I have been wanting to hear for a long time - of course I mustn't get carried away, but the village just seem to be really making a go of everything! Praise God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He told me that the parents are all very happy with Enoch, the teacher we took on in August and that the newly decorated school is being put to good use. The decision to limit class sizes to 30 pupils (compared to 200 pupils in the grade 6 class at the local government school last year) wasn't popular in the beginning but now is showing dividends. The parents have been buying school uniforms from the sewing class this month and next month are aiming to begin paying K5,000 a month for each of their children. Pastor Albert is hoping that starting this now will help them to be ready to keep paying Enoch's salary after August when his current funding runs out.
We made so much progress in Kamfinsa last year with establishing the Hammer Mill, building the pastor's house, finishing the school and starting a sewing class that I was expecting this year to be a year of consolidation. However, having heard what is happening in Kamfinsa it seems they are determined to keep moving forward. Normally, when we leave Zambia for a break in the UK we return to find little if any progress but today appears to have broken that trend! Firstly, the borehole that was being drilled just as we were leaving Zambia has been finished and Seeds of Hope who drilled the well, didn't stop there, they have since been out to Kamfinsa and put together a borehole committee! They taught the committee to maintain the borehole and encouraged them to buy a lock and chain to ensure it is used responsibly! This seemed to really inspire the villagers as they then also formed a committee for the hammer-mill. They wisely decided to use some of the profits from milling to supply the village with fertiliser to help bring in a bumper harvest!! More Maize grown = more milling = more profit!!
Amazingly they also found a man who not only used to run a hammer mill but is also a skilled carpenter! Last year, along with the sewing machines, we also helped take a whole variety of carpentry tools to Kamfinsa which the villagers were longing to use. Now they are managing to pay this carpenter (without outside help!) to both run the hammer-mill and teach people to make furniture in between! I am delighted to hear that the village is starting to be able to fund things like this from scratch by themselves!!
And it gets better!!! :-) The sewing class has been doing so well making school uniforms that they got a contract from MTN (one of the biggest mobile phone networks in Zambia) to make uniforms for a school MTN are sponsoring. The MTN school is quite a way beyond Kamfinsa village but in the same direction from the main road and so MTN should be maintaining the road out to Kamfinsa once the rains have finished. The sewing teacher, whose salary was being paid by a friend of my mum's, should have finished teaching at the end of January (when the money ran out) but this MTN contract has meant there is enough money coming in to keep paying the teacher... the ladies are not quite ready to go it alone, so they are really happy to have the teacher for a bit longer!
All this news is the kind of thing I have been wanting to hear for a long time - of course I mustn't get carried away, but the village just seem to be really making a go of everything! Praise God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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