Improved Living

Homes for our teachers

Why

In the last few years, Mukwashi has grown rapidly in numbers, quality & professionalism. Friends & supporters have helped us install transformational school toilets and solar power for the office, but most progress is due to the remarkable work by our head teacher and the young, ambitious, highly-qualified team she’s recruited.

Sadly, however, most of the homes where our brilliant teachers had to live were appallingly grim. We had no choice but to pay £4,000 every year to local Zambian farmers to rent leaky, uncomfortable, sub-standard, tin-roofed shacks for most of our teachers to share.

Their living conditions were degrading & demoralising, but there was nothing else to rent in the area other than tiny mud houses with even worse living conditions. Inevitably, this made it difficult to recruit the best staff.

What

The only possible solution was to build ‘improved living’ homes for all our teachers on our 15-acre school site, where there’s plenty of room.

We commissioned Pesiav United Enterprises, one of Zambia’s leading construction companies: (i) to build two blocks of ‘bedsits’ with shared facilities for nine single teachers, (ii) to build two ‘semi-detached’ family homes for senior staff; and (iii) to rebuild the four existing small homes on our site for married teachers.

These 15 homes will enable us to retain and recruit the best staff; most importantly, they will provide all current and future Mukwashi teachers with dignified living conditions for at least the next 40 years.

When

We started building Stage One (nine shared homes for single teachers) at the end of May, and the first teachers moved in at the beginning of September – though it was another four months before their homes were finally completed.

We began Stage Two (two family homes for the head teacher & deputy head) in late-July and completed them in mid February. These took much longer because progress is always slower in the rainy season. We commenced Stage Three in early January and hope to complete everything by the end of May.

How much & how

It’s costing £86,000 to build all fifteen homes – an average of £5,700 per home. A small group of nineteen friends & supporters in nine different countries generously gave, loaned (interest free) and raised funds to build fourteen homes. If we can’t find a funder for the final home, we will have to use funds from the UK government Gift Aid scheme which we had hoped to use for another improvement at the school.

Solar

There is almost no mains power in Zambia – falling river levels due to climate change have almost wiped out the country’s hydro-electricity infrastructure. Solar is the only way forward, but it is not cheap!

It seemed such a huge task to raise £86,000 to build 15 homes that we didn’t believe we’d be able to equip them with solar lighting and solar water heating for another few years.

However, last August, because of the power emergency, the Zambian government temporarily suspended import duty & taxes on all solar goods – cutting the price we’d have to pay by 50%.

We decided to grab that opportunity and try to raise what it would cost for solar – another £6,500.

Friends & supporters have contributed £1,000 for solar equipment, and we’ve had to use the UK government’s Gift Aid money to fund the rest.

Stage Three underway

In Stage Three, we are refurbishing and up-grading our existing block of four small two-bedroom homes. We are making major internal structural adjustments to make better use of the space, and we are…

Stage Two completed

We began work on Stage Two at the end of July. This time we were building two three-bedroom family homes for senior staff, and our Headteacher and Deputy Head moved in during February. We’ve tr…

Stage One completed

We started building our ‘improved living’ homes at the end of May and have now completed the first stage: two blocks containing nine studios for shared living by single teachers. The teac…