Education is a privilege

As in many places throughout Africa, education in is a privilege.  When children can go to school, the average class size is 68 and only one in four adults in Zambia finish secondary school.

Grinding poverty and the devastating effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic mean sending children to school is out of reach of most families who are struggling to survive.

Literacy rate just 48%

The Damview Basic School for primary children is on the edge of land where a new SOS Village is being built at Chipata, near the Malawian border. In Chipata, the adult literacy rate is 48%, compared to the national average of 71%.

After nursery school in the SOS Village, children from the Village will go to Damview Basic – along with hundreds of other children from the local community. But, at present, Damview Basic has no plumbing and no electricity. Children draw water from a well in a yellow plastic bucket. The teachers can teach only in the hours of daylight. There are very few books; there are very few desks. Most of the children sit on the floor and each class has up to 80 pupils.

Apart from building the new village at Chipata on land donated by Zambia’s Eastern Province government, SOS Children is paying for the school to be upgraded. It will have electricity, plumbing and new toilet blocks – and hopefully there will be enough funds for more school books, desks and teacher salaries.

Reaching vulnerable children

More than 3,000 community schools across Zambia, such as Damview Basic, provide an education for one-quarter of primary school children in the country. Community schools specialise in reaching vulnerable children.

SOS Children ensures that all the children in its care go to school. Where there are no schools, it builds them. Then the facilities also give local children in the community a chance to learn and develop.