Our Kondwa Fundraising Experience 
Submitted by the Huron Centennial School

Our school raised money for the Kondwa Children’s Foundation and we found it to be a very successful experience. It felt good to raise so much money for such a good cause.

Our school, Huron Centennial Public raised a grand total of $1000.92 which reached well above our goal! We had hoped to raise $500 but our school was so willing to give generous donations that we raised twice our goal.

With the information that we had on the Kondwa Foundation, we explained to our students how to “be an angel” at Christmas. Our school was so happy to know that we were helping these children with school and supplies that were so desperately needed.

We would like to continue our involvement with the Kondwa Foundation in the future and help those who are less fortunate.

Sincerely,
Ben, Shannen, Lydia, Magnus, Sydney

In late February, the children at the Kondwa Day Center for Orphans and Vulnerable Children celebrated the beginning of the new school year by opening Holiday Angel gifts! The little boys in the Baby Class received matching sweaters in blue, gray, and white, while the girls received lavender dresses with embroidered flowers.  Their teacher, Mr. Pritchard, passed out gifts of clothing, toothbrushes, school supplies, toys, and candy to the 25 happy three to five year olds in his class. 
 
All 90 children currently attending the Kondwa Day Center received gifts, from the baby class of 3-5 year olds to the Pre-primary school class of 7-9 year olds.  In addition, the four teachers and six staff members of the Kondwa Day Center were sent gifts of clothing and toiletries.  Thanks to the dedicated leadership of the school director Angela Malik, this school offers the hope of a bright future for these children, and KCF is passionate about assisting Mrs. Malik in her mission.
 
This year, we were delighted to also give gifts to the 25 children attending the Assisi School for Children with Disabilities, led by Sister Helen Scully.  Some of the children are deaf, some are mentally retarded, but all benefit from the love and care provided to them at Assisi!  We are proud to be partnering with Sister Helen to help these children.
 

Thanks to your generosity, more than 115 children received gifts this year as part of KCF’s Holiday Angel Gift Project!  More than 50 individual donors from across the United States and Canada, banded together to share gifts of holiday spirit with children in Zambia. 
 
Thanks to Laureen Ayers and her students at Huron Centennial School in Canada who raised more than $1,000 to support the Angel Project.  Thanks also to the folks in Cincinnati for the Holiday Angel fundraiser which raised more than $200! 
 
Each donation included a $10 gift toward the construction costs of the new primary school for the graduates of the Kondwa Day Center, and totaled $1,230.  These funds will be put directly to use this spring to build the first classrooms for the new school.
 
Thanks to all of you for a successful 2007 Holiday Angel Gift Project! In 2008, with your help, we will reach 150 children!
 
Please email angels@kondwa.org for more information.

 

 

What if the Kondwa Children’s Foundation earned a penny every time you searched the Internet? Or how about if a percentage of every purchase you made online went to support our mission? Well, now it can!

GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up!

GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 37 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, ebay, Macy’s and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you’ll be supporting your favorite cause.

Just click the banner above or this link to go to http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=864906 and our name should already be chosen as the charity.  If not, when you go to goodsearch.com, type “Kondwa Children’s Foundation” in the Charity Box.

Bookmark this page to search with and help the KCF grow! And, be sure to spread the word!

Also think about these other ways to start GoodSearching:

Add GoodSearch to your IE, Firefox, or Mac toolbar

Make GoodSearch your homepage as well as the homepage on all of the computers in your company or school.

 as well as the homepage on all of the computers in your company or school.

Angela Malik, founder of the Kondwa Day Center in Zambia, was concerned for the well being of the widowed mothers whose children did not qualify for admission to the Kondwa Day Center and took it upon herself to do something about it.  She helped organize a women’s support group who meets periodically to learn and share about effective parenting skills and ideas on how to support their families needs. Together, they pursue various small business ventures like basket making, sewing, tie-dye and batik printing, and other crafts.  They share profits and losses, always reinvesting a portion into the business.

Although the immediate needs of the women are economic, they will tell you they gather for the spirit of oneness.  They acknowledge that they do get lonely and appreciate being with women who share similar burdens.  They call themselves Empowering Women in Development and their group currently numbers twenty-three.

EWD shares a small cinder block building with the Assissi Day School for children with special needs.  They meet together on Tuesday afternoons and Saturdays to work on crafts which they sell and then share the proceeds. The merchandise available during KCF’s Summer 2007 visit included beaded necklaces and bangles, tie-dyed and batik cloth in four-meter segments, beaded net table coverings, rag rugs, and coasters in the national colors of green, red, gold and black.

The primary source of income at this time, however, comes from two portable knitting machines. They are simple structures about four feet long, sit on a table and appear to be lightweight.  One was provided through the Kondwa Children’s Foundation and the second from another donor. One of the women received training on the machine from another agency and taught a second widow how to use it.  They can each turn out five school sweaters a day.

Sweaters (paid for by a donor to Kondwa Day Center) were made for all 90 Kondwa Day Center children during the Summer 2007 visit.  At that time it was winter in Zambia, which lies just south of the equator, and sweaters were definitely in season.  The sweaters included the child’s first name on the front and the words Kondwa Center on the back.  The names are there in order to identify the owner when the sweaters are tossed into a stack during recess!  EWD also makes bright maroon sweaters for children from Ngombe Basic School, the result of having a good relationship with the School Manager who refers guardians to EWD. They have also made samples of vests for government workers and are hopeful to generate orders as a result.

When asked about their Wish List the knitters were quick to respond that they need a yarn winder and would very much like a “pass up” machine, a device that enables them to change patterns. They also take special orders, so being able to make different patterns would give them a competitive edge over the knitters in the market stalls of Lusaka The Treasurer of EWD also expressed concern about cash flow, as the women cannot buy yarns or other raw materials on credit.

The widows of EWD are enthusiastic about their future as a cooperative, and the songs of welcome we received as visitors clearly conveyed their collective strength. They say that they come from humble beginnings but have the will power to succeed.

Original Article by Linda Hansen

By Kathy Allen and Phoebe Goodwin 

Teachers and administrators from twenty community schools in N’gombe  Compound participated in a teacher training workshop sponsored by the Kondwa Day Centre for Orphans during the KCF volunteer trip, Summer, 2007.  Conducted by Phoebe Goodwin, a middle school math and science teacher, and Kathleen Allen, a school psychologist, (both from Tucson, Arizona) the workshop focused on providing ideas for  classroom management; teaching methods for math, science and reading; and an understanding of different learning styles:  auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Among the 40 participants were teachers of preschool age children up to 7th grade, and a few school administrators. The teachers were a lively bunch of learners.  They actively participated in the sessions, sometimes as a large group and at other times in small learning groups. After meeting in small groups, teachers presented their ideas to all participants, providing an opportunity for discussion and interaction between peers from different schools,  as well as building longer lasting connections.

One of the biggest hits of the training was a discovery learning activity involving straws, where teachers cut a regular soda straw into a point at one end and learned to play it like a kazoo.  It’s hard to keep a straight face when you’re buzzing away on a soda straw!  Teachers were given just two directions:  In your group, learn how to play the straw, and determine what happens if you shorten the length of the straw.  The learning goal was to show that the teacher doesn’t always have to tell students answers, but can act as a facilitator to a group discovery activity where all kinds of different things can be discovered about sound, rhythm and vibration.  

A secondary goal was to convey that experiential learning is fun and engaging.  It was a huge hit.  Teachers discovered that if you shorten the straw, the sound gets higher, but there are still some changes you can make to the sound just by using your mouth.  The lesson culminated in a “talent show” where groups of teachers came up with a song that they played on their kazoos and performed in front of the group.  There was a lot of laughing and learning going on at the same time, and teachers commented that previously they had not thought of learning as being something that’s done just for the fun of it.  

At the end of the  training, many teachers reported that the information about learning styles was quite beneficial for them, as most of them had previously taught using only a lecture format. When math, reading, or science activities were  presented, the teachers were able to identify which learning styles were being used, develop lessons which had activities using all three learning styles embedded in them, and understand how depth of understanding is enhanced when students experience new concepts visually, auditorily, and kinesthetically.

Attendance was outstanding during all six days of the workshop.  It is notable that teachers attended a three-hour workshop after a full day of work, and attended a full-day workshop on a holiday.  All teachers were pleased to earn a certificate at the end of the workshop which stated their successful completion of  22 hours of teacher training.  This type of certificate is vital to Zambian teachers because they can get better-paying jobs in government schools if they can show proof of extra teacher training.  In a country where such training is scarce, the certificates were treated like gold.  The teachers serenaded Kathleen and Phoebe with amazing singing at the graduation ceremony when they received their certificates.  Both teacher trainers and teachers learned a lot from each other through this satisfying experience.

Thanks to private donors, Kachele Primary School already has a home for its foundations. Below you can read an update written by one of our 1st session 2007 Summer trip volunteers. Trip participants also planted a living fence around the land perimiter.

Kachele – Gardens for a New School
July 2007

A plot of land, 1.7 hectares in size, awaits the trampling of 420 feet. Once the Kachele Primary School is built, 210 students will fill its seven grades. But while the planning for the school has started and the buildings will follow, the land itself has already been put to productive use.

As part of their school, students at Kachele will learn how to garden, so in laying out the site, space was set aside for the gardens and orchards. Already the garden plots are filled with the winter crops: Chinese cabbage, onions, rape, tomatoes, cabbage, maize, green peppers, an okra. The new trees planted, bananas, mangos, avocados, papaya, and lemons, will soon begin to bear fruit.

The process establishing the new gardens has also been important. While the Kondwa Day Centre for Orphans arranged for a tractor to roughly plow the fields and hired a caretaker, Hameja, to watch over the land; much of the garden work has been done by the orphans’ guardians and caregivers. With the assistance of Hameja, the guardians have been shoveling, hoeing, planting, weeding, watering – all hard work done under the hot African sun.

When harvest time comes, the produce is gathered to provide vegetables and greens for Kondwa, and the excess, especially tomatoes, is sold in the local markets to benefit the school and the garden.

It soon will be time for spring planting in Africa, and whether it will be the new school called Kachele, or more gardens, the little plot of land in Zambia will bear fruit.

Photo: KCF Board Member Shea Van Rhoads and Kondwa Day Center Administrator Angela Malik visit the site of the future Kachele Primary School. Summer 2007.

The KCF is happy to announce that our Wordpress Blog is Back! 

We look forward to providing you timely project updates, helper spotlights and usefull information!