News - Page 2 of 4 -

A new project in Chipata, Eastern Province, Zambia

We are excited to be working with a new project based in Chipata, which is in Eastern Zambia, very near to the border with Malawi. St Paul’s Church, Chipata had a vision to start a school which would provide education for children who are orphaned or vulnerable in their local community.

We asked the local congregation to raise some funds and acquire materials to help towards the costs. This, they have started doing, digging the footings and now building a brick wall as part of the slab foundation. As Trustees, we have agreed to help by giving a financial grant.

St Agness Church Primary School

At last the classrooms are finished, and the pupils started using them during August whilst taking their mock examinations, following COVID guidelines by sitting social distanced and wearing a mask!

Wendy Ray receives the Mwape Peer Educational Excellence Award

We are delighted to tell you that Wendy has been given the Mwape Peer Educational Excellence Award 2020. Mwape Peer Awards are given to those people who have made a significant contribution to the Zambian community and is well respected.

Over the last 20 years, through her courage, enthusiasm, energy and commitment, Wendy has made a very real difference to the lives of thousands of orphaned and vulnerable children in Zambia. We are very pleased that her work over the years has been recognized!

More news on St Pauls, Kawama

St Pauls, Kawama proposed School – Work is starting!

I was delighted to hear that the clearing of land was carried out in April and then the area marked in readiness to start building the foundation.

Ground being prepared

Members of the congregation of St Pauls Church have since started to dig the trenches for the foundation walls and their Projects Committee are now approaching local businesses for donated materials such as stones, sand etc.

Update on St Agness School

We are delighted to hear that the new classrooms are nearly finished. Since this photo was taken, glass has been fitted to the windows and final touches are beginning to take place.

St Agness Church Primary School

Hands of Compassion is continuing to support St Agness Church school, which is situated in a rural area. There are 365 children attending the school from Reception to Grade 7 classes. Their urgent need was for more pupils toilets as there were only 2, clearly inadequate. The local community have given their support by making sufficient bricks and as a result, with Hands of Compassion’s help of a financial grant, they completed an extra 4 girls and 4 boys toilets at the end of August this year. They are now completing an unfinished two classroom block..

St Pauls Church, Kawama

Our second current project, St Paul’s church in Kawama, has a vision to build a Church Primary school which will benefit over 100 children who otherwise can not go to school through lack of money. They are actively fund raising, and we have agreed to assist with a grant to complete the building.

St Agness Church Primary School

St Agness Church Primary School is situated in a rural area about two hours drive from Ndola. There are about 360 children who attend, from Grades 1 to 7. At present they only have 4 classrooms of which two are extremely small, walls unplastered with only openings for doors and windows. The pupils have to carry their desks and benches across the school yard to the larger classrooms every day for safe storage over night. They have very few text books and other school resources. The facilities at St Agness school was quite a contrast to the 1st school that Hands of Compassion had been supporting over the years. They only had 2 pupil toilets, 1 for boys and 1 for girls so their urgent need was to have an additional toilet block.

In addition they need help in completing a two classroom block which at present is only at window height.

Hands of Compassion promised to help them, and have sent a first instalment to enable them to start digging the foundations for the pupil toilet block.

Increasing number of children not going to school

There are increasing numbers of children who are not going to school, so the Ministry of Education have persuaded all schools to increase their intake to accommodate more pupils in school. Hands of Compassion School now has 600 pupils.

Best performer in the school

Miriam Kalunga, 10 years old, is chosen as the one out of 600 pupils who made the best performance in the Hands of Compassion School. She was presented an Achievement Award medal and certificate, as well as a school bag and Tshirt.