Bissell Community School, 2017
Previously there was:
The school was first opened in 2001 with 230 pupils learning under a tree.
The school built 2 new classrooms in 2004. However, there is an urgent need for new classrooms at Bissell which now has over 500 pupils but not enough classrooms to teach them. The school has divided the children into two streams, with some coming to classes in the morning and some attending in afternoon to help accommodate all the children wanting to learn, but it is not enough.
With your support:
We worked with the local community at Bissell to build a new kitchen with rocket stoves in 2016. In 2017 we are continued our work at Bissell thanks to the generosity of our supporters, including our corporate partner BGL Group. We constructed a new 3 classroom block for this oversubscribed community school on the outskirts of Lusaka.
Unemployed men and women from the local community were selected to join our training programme. The trainees learn on site whilst the new buildings are constructed and earnt a nationally recognised building certificate if they pass their TEVETA exams
We caught up with a number of trainees from Bissell School in our 2018 impact study: ‘I learnt that BII carries a good reputation of its agenda, goals and work in the community. That is the reason why I enrolled onto their programme. They deliver on their promises” Male Graduate from Bissell Community.
‘Being exposed to many opportunities that are generating an income for me to support my brother in school is the most significant change to me. This would have never happened without the skills that I developed during the trainings’ – Kelvin Chileshe
Since we left…
There are currently 245 girls and 274 boys enrolled at the school. 208 pupils are vulnerable and have lost one or both parents.
The project has positively impacted the lives of 18,114 people living nearby.
Read the BGL Blogs to find out how our BGL volunteers got on when they visited Bissell School during their recent trip to Zambia!
