Two New Stars in the Children for Health Sky!
It was an absolute pleasure this week to get to know two incredible people.
- Kelvin Nsekwila, a primary school teacher in Zambia who also runs a community-based organisation whereby volunteers teach out-of-school children; and
- Imani Tonda, a medical doctor running a big health and education operation in Tanzania.
Both have come forward to offer help to us as we start to develop our SuperBetter Children project – a Well-being and Resilience curriculum for children aged 10-14 years old living in resource poor settings. They will help with the design stage to ensure we create something that really works.
After our chat, Kelvin agreed to write a letter to you, our community! He sent me many photos (see the gallery below) and here is a video of him having fun with some of the children at his school…!
Hello, I am Kelvin.
I run a community-based organization which provides services to the most vulnerable and marginalized children in the Sansamwenje community of Isoka District, Zambia. The organization serves in the areas of early childhood education and primary education.
I set it up because the children in Sansamwenje community have no access to early childhood education and primary education. The community has only one public primary school, which is unworkable for most (unaffordable). So our focus is to build schools in Sansamwenje community so as to allow more vulnerable children to have access to early childhood education and primary education.
Also, most parents are small scale farmers whose income cannot cover the basic costs of their children’s education. Subsequently, less than 3% of community children have obtained early childhood education and primary education.
This positions our community behind in having capable, educated workforce.
In response to these economic challenges, the organization has established a thatched structure and employed two community teachers who teach the fifty scholarship-supported children who are currently enrolled at our school.
My community has been deeply affected because of the coronavirus. We have been unable to work or make any movement because almost everything in my community had to shut down and we were forced to stay home.
School pupils have been staying home since the second week of March 2020 and this has negatively affected them. Many have become involved in activities that do not support their own or the community’s development such as; childhood marriage, substance abuse and prostitution.
Getting food and other necessities has been a challenge because the prices have increased and the markets are usually empty. This makes it difficult for us community members to feed our families, we have not been able to buy enough food that will take us for the next months, we have not been able to pay the bills and house rentals.
Regardless of all the social economic challenges we face, my community is blessed with beautiful united families, the government helps the elderly ones through social cash funds. The community is united and finds pleasure in working together.
