Kasempa Boarding School for Disabled
Donation protected
Shakenu Mwani! Welcome!
My name is Bryan Watkin and I am the owner of WearAfrica.org! I am trying to help bridge cross-cultural gaps between Africa and the US by selling handmade crafts from throughout Africa that creates awareness and inspires a conversation about Africa.
WearAfrica.org has a philanthropic agenda deeply rooted and woven into the fabric of the company. Not only do we purchase all of our crafts from artisans in rural and urban areas which supports the local economies, we also return 20% of everything we sell back to small grassroots led development initiatives all over the African continent.
One of the projects I am personally invested in is helping support the disabled Zambians in the Solwezi township and surrounding district in the northwestern province of Zambia. I work closely with the Holland Disabled Association (HDA), which is made up of a group of ambitious, energetic, and courageous individuals. They promote self empowerment of disabled individuals in the Solwezi area by providing them with mobility equipment, trainings, and healthcare assistance with membership. They also have an annual lottery for members to receive micro-loans for business development.
If this isn't enough, they also have many individual infrastructure development projects working towards helping the disabled children, women, and men of Zambia. One of these projects is near and dear to my heart, and is why I have created this page for the Kasempa Boarding School!
Kasempa is a small British Overseas Management Administration (most commonly reffered to over there as a BOMA) in the Northwest Province of Zambia and is home to hundreds of physically handicapped people, with little to no government resources in place to assist these individuals to lead fully functional lives and be active contributors to the local social and economic structure.
The Holland Disabled Association, through their own initiative and funding, has built a boarding house for disabled young children to house up to 40 students at a time (20 girls, 20 boys). This facility provides a safe environment where the deaf and other physically handicapped children can have access to the same education every other child in the area has.
The boarding house is not enough though, it was designed to house, feed, and entertain the children being boarded there. Also,there currently is only one specialist teacher working at the school taking care of all of the students. He comes highly qualified and educates the children using only sign language. Classes are held in the common room that is supposed to be a general gathering and entertainment center for children in their free time. In order for the school to get government assistance and provided with an adequate faculty and staff, they still need to build a 3x1 school block (3 classrooms) and teachers housing on the property.
So these new facilities are what I am asking your help to fund. The cost to complete the project will be $35,000. I will look for a way to attach the building plans and specifications, as well as the itemized costs quotation to the comments section of this page or as a link (will come in time)....
Just adding these new facilities on the property is not the end though... WearAfrica is working hand in hand with the HDA, and together we have long term goals to make the school completely self-sustaining and to improve the quality of education available to all students. We plan in the future to build a piggery and expand on the existing fresh produce garden. To bring in specialists to teach these children how to do perma-gardening, water conservation, livestock management, tailoring, computer skills, anything really to give them real world life skills they can apply as an income generating activity (IGA) for the rest of their lives.
Education is the key to long term sustainable African development! As proved time and time again by example from the HDA, just because these children are differently abled, access to education, love, and encouragement from teachers like Mickey KaKoma can help them excel far beyond what they ever imagined possible. This also, and maybe most importantly, enables them to break through the cultural taboos and dogmas associated with the disabled, and prove that they truly are no different than you or I.
I could write a book about the cultural norms and beliefs surrounding the disabled in Africa, and go on and on about the school. If you would like to learn more or have any questions please feel free to email me at: [email redacted]. I will be as transparent as possible to help you help us achieve success providing support mand quality education to these students!
My name is Bryan Watkin and I am the owner of WearAfrica.org! I am trying to help bridge cross-cultural gaps between Africa and the US by selling handmade crafts from throughout Africa that creates awareness and inspires a conversation about Africa.
WearAfrica.org has a philanthropic agenda deeply rooted and woven into the fabric of the company. Not only do we purchase all of our crafts from artisans in rural and urban areas which supports the local economies, we also return 20% of everything we sell back to small grassroots led development initiatives all over the African continent.
One of the projects I am personally invested in is helping support the disabled Zambians in the Solwezi township and surrounding district in the northwestern province of Zambia. I work closely with the Holland Disabled Association (HDA), which is made up of a group of ambitious, energetic, and courageous individuals. They promote self empowerment of disabled individuals in the Solwezi area by providing them with mobility equipment, trainings, and healthcare assistance with membership. They also have an annual lottery for members to receive micro-loans for business development.
If this isn't enough, they also have many individual infrastructure development projects working towards helping the disabled children, women, and men of Zambia. One of these projects is near and dear to my heart, and is why I have created this page for the Kasempa Boarding School!
Kasempa is a small British Overseas Management Administration (most commonly reffered to over there as a BOMA) in the Northwest Province of Zambia and is home to hundreds of physically handicapped people, with little to no government resources in place to assist these individuals to lead fully functional lives and be active contributors to the local social and economic structure.
The Holland Disabled Association, through their own initiative and funding, has built a boarding house for disabled young children to house up to 40 students at a time (20 girls, 20 boys). This facility provides a safe environment where the deaf and other physically handicapped children can have access to the same education every other child in the area has.
The boarding house is not enough though, it was designed to house, feed, and entertain the children being boarded there. Also,there currently is only one specialist teacher working at the school taking care of all of the students. He comes highly qualified and educates the children using only sign language. Classes are held in the common room that is supposed to be a general gathering and entertainment center for children in their free time. In order for the school to get government assistance and provided with an adequate faculty and staff, they still need to build a 3x1 school block (3 classrooms) and teachers housing on the property.
So these new facilities are what I am asking your help to fund. The cost to complete the project will be $35,000. I will look for a way to attach the building plans and specifications, as well as the itemized costs quotation to the comments section of this page or as a link (will come in time)....
Just adding these new facilities on the property is not the end though... WearAfrica is working hand in hand with the HDA, and together we have long term goals to make the school completely self-sustaining and to improve the quality of education available to all students. We plan in the future to build a piggery and expand on the existing fresh produce garden. To bring in specialists to teach these children how to do perma-gardening, water conservation, livestock management, tailoring, computer skills, anything really to give them real world life skills they can apply as an income generating activity (IGA) for the rest of their lives.
Education is the key to long term sustainable African development! As proved time and time again by example from the HDA, just because these children are differently abled, access to education, love, and encouragement from teachers like Mickey KaKoma can help them excel far beyond what they ever imagined possible. This also, and maybe most importantly, enables them to break through the cultural taboos and dogmas associated with the disabled, and prove that they truly are no different than you or I.
I could write a book about the cultural norms and beliefs surrounding the disabled in Africa, and go on and on about the school. If you would like to learn more or have any questions please feel free to email me at: [email redacted]. I will be as transparent as possible to help you help us achieve success providing support mand quality education to these students!
Organizer
Bryan Watkin
Organizer
Jackman, ME