28 July 2020:

Build It has been working in Zambia for over ten years and we know our work makes a real difference to many peoples’ lives. We are determined to continue to deliver on our mission, both during the pandemic and beyond, and live by our values.

While some countries are steadily emerging from lock-down, in Zambia the situation is less clear. Although recorded cases remain low, there is a growing concern that the pandemic is accelerating. A young population may mitigate impact, but much remains unknown.

Back in March, we set ourselves three objectives:

1. To ensure the safety of our staff and our trainees. Most have since been working from home or following new safety measures implemented on our construction sites.

2. To ensure that Build It emerges from this global crisis in a sound state and able to resume our full programme of our work. We expect our 2020 income to be down by around 10-15% on 2019. As a result, we have trimmed our outgoings and put in place contingency plans should our work continue to face disruptions into 2021. I’d like to thank all our supporters for the generosity and commitment they have expressed over the past few months.

3. To adapt our work to play our part in responding to this crisis and support the young people and communities we work with. With challenges come new opportunities, and we are pleased to have launched two new initiatives:

Our Distance Learning programme is enabling trainees to continue with their learning at home when they are unable to come into the Centre for Excellence.

Our Safe Hands programme is supporting schools to reopen safely. We aim to build permanent, group hand washing facilities at 18 schools training some of our graduates to help build these new facilities. Find out more about our Safe Hands appeal

We are delighted that the Centre for Excellence re-opened on 27 July, with trainees gradually returning on site. This is a very welcome but cautious first step towards re-establishing our full programme.

But we remain vigilant. The coming months will continue to be challenging, but I can assure you that we remain firmly committed to building brighter futures in Zambia.

Andrew Jowett OBE, Chief Executive

 

Our latest news and developments around the COVID-19 pandemic: