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, the homes where our brilliant teachers have to live are still appallingly grim. At the moment, we’ve no choice but to pay £4,000 every year to local Zambian farmers to rent leaky, uncomfortable, sub-standard, tin-roofed shacks for our teachers to share.

The living conditions are degrading & demoralising, but there is nothing else to rent in the area other than tiny mud houses with even worse living conditions. Inevitably, this makes it difficult for the school to recruit and retain the best staff.

What

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

We have commissioned Pesiav United Enterprises, one of Zambia’s leading construction companies: (i) to build a block of nine ‘bedsits’ with shared facilities for single teachers, (ii) to build two ‘semi-detached’ family homes for senior staff; and (iii) to adapt and significantly upgrade the four existing tiny staff homes on our site to make them more ‘livable’ 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 will be a couple more weeks before they are fully completed.

We began Stage Two (two family homes for the head teacher & deputy head) in mid-July and hope to complete them before the rainy season begins at the end of November.

We’ll then follow on with Stage Three and hope to complete everything by next Easter.

We update this page with weekly progress reports.

How much & how

It’s costing £90,000 to build all fifteen homes – an average of £5,800 per home. Thus far, a small group of friends & supporters have given and loaned (interest free) the funds for the first fourteen.

This means we’re now seeking the people, schools, churches, etc, who’ll fund the final home.

Solar

There is almost no mains power in Zambia – falling river levels due to climate change have as good as wiped out the country’s hydro-electricity infrastructure.

Solar is the only sustainable way forward, but it is not cheap!

It seemed such a huge task to raise £90,000 to build 15 homes that we didn’t believe we’d be able to afford to equip them with solar lighting and solar water heating for another few years.

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

So, we’ve decided to grab this opportunity and try to raise what it will cost – £433 per house.

Will you help? It will make such a big difference to our teachers to have light in the evenings and hot water in the showers.

There’s a lot of kit to buy for fifteen homes, please will you fund one or two items. The details are on the donate page.

Week Thirteen

This Monday, our single teachers didn’t need to walk three kilometres along a farm track to school. After thirteen weeks’ work, last Saturday was the fixed deadline, as that was when th…

Week Twelve

We’ve completed the inside painting of the two Stage One blocks, and are trying to ensure they do not feel ‘institutional’. Each studio is different, and the corridors are homely …

Week Eleven

We’ve completed the groundworks on ‘Stage Two’ – two three-bedroomed family homes to house the Mukwashi headteachers and deputy heads for the next fifty years… Our tea…

Week Ten

We’ve been tiling the floors this week, and finishing the ceilings, of the first two large houses – which contain nine studios for shared living. And we’ve been completing the foo…

Week Nine

We raced ahead this week. The windows have been installed. The ceilings are in position, with large loft hatches for easy maintenance. And the rendering has begun on the external walls. More import…

Week Eight

PUE finished the two rooves this week. They also completed the internal plastering – which now needs to dry completely for about ten days before tiling and painting. They also completed the e…

Week Seven

This week, our contractors, PUE, built the roof frames and began installing the roofing sheets They also started plastering the rooms and installed the ‘first fix’ of electrical wiring …

Week Six

This week, PUE completed the two ring beams and then built the walls above the ring beam up to the planned roof level. At the end of the week, several lorry loads of roofing timbers were delivered,…

Week Five

This week, PUE have been fabricating and installing the reinforced concrete ring beam which runs round both blocks above the window & door frames. This will bear and spread the weight of the ro…

Week Four

It’s been a week of non-stop block-laying for the team from PUE. Everyday, the external and internal structural walls have risen higher and higher – with perfect vertical and horizontal…