Location	Mikumbila, Central Province, Zambia
Project start	May 2009
Project finish	February 2010
Trainees	15
Beneficiaries	930
Key Details	Two new classrooms, office and latrines for community school

Full Project details

In 2009, Mikumbila Community School had a two classroom block and an outdoor structure where children had no furniture and sat on stones on the floor, balancing their notebooks on their laps. This made learning very difficult!

In May 2009, after months of planning, we started building two new classrooms. The local community helped with the design, the building and collection of materials. The building used our first hexagonal classroom design, Parry roof tiles and stabilised soil blocks, all made on site by trainees. By February 2010, the new classrooms were completed, along with an office and latrines. The school was officially opened by Chief Nkole in August 2010, when 750 attended the opening ceremony.

The Ministry of Education has now re-graded the school as ‘grade 3’ and provided three additional trained teachers, new literacy materials, books. The school has also seen improved grades thanks to better teaching facilities.

Project Trainees

All 15 building trainees passed their trades tests. 13 former trainees have continued to work together and formed their own co-operative. Spokesperson Abigail Zulu told us that they had already secured orders for over 10,000 soil blocks just a month after the project was completed. The trainees are being supported by Build IT through the loan of a brick press to help them fulfil orders.

British High Commissioner, Carolyn Davidson, was impressed with the trainees when she visited in November 2009 and said, ‘The trainees at Mikumbila were all very proud of what they were in the process of achieving and of the fact they had gained qualifications in the process. All in all a great success story!’.

We caught up with our trainees in August 2011. Davies Kalunga told us that since completing his training he secured three contracts and has been busy upgrading his own home. Davies says ‘The money raised through building assisted me in buying farming inputs and pay my children’s school fees. ’