Building a New Secondary School, Malawi, Africa

BUILDING HAS STARTED AT THE NEW
SECONDARY SCHOOL AT KAPANDA
BUT FUNDS ARE STILL NEEDED URGENTLY!

Quantity	Description	Unit Cost (GB£)	Total (GB£)	Total (US$)
1	Textbook	£8	£8	US$16
1	Desk	£20	£20	US$40
1	Square metre of classroom	£70	£70	US$140
4	Classrooms (double classroom block = £13,000)	£6,500	£26,000	US$52,000
1	Teacher's house	£11,700	£11,700	US$23,400
4	Double toilet blocks	£2,000	£8,000	US$16,000
1	Office and storeroom	£10,800	£10,800	US$21,600
100	Desks	£20	£2,000	US$4,000
100	Sets of textbooks per student	£80	£8,000	US$16,000


The first double classroom block at Kapanda is now completed	The classrooms are light and airy	The first three-bedroomed teacher's house

Building Work Has Started on the New Secondary School at Kapanda
The first double classroom block, teacher's house and two toilet blocks are now completed at Kapanda Community Day Secondary School (CDSS). RIPPLE Africa will be funding and coordinating the construction of more buildings, and the Government will be paying for teachers’ salaries, etc.

We’ve been wanting to start building this school for a long time, but it’s been so difficult to raise enough money. But thanks to our donors, this school is rapidly becoming a reality. However, we urgently need more funds to keep the project going. Our aim is to build two more double classrooms, one teacher's house, four double toilets during 2008.


Mixing the soil and cement for the interlocking bricks	Putting the mixture into the brick press	Pressing the brick	Taking the pressed brick out of the press

The school is located in a beautiful area of forest about 3km from Mwaya, and we started making the access road and clearing the site in March 2007. In June 2007, a storeroom was built, and we started moulding the interlocking bricks with the brick press we bought in Zambia. A team of six people prepare the soil, mix it with the cement, and press about 360 bricks per day. It’s a very economical method of construction as over 50 bricks are made from five wheelbarrows of soil and one bag of cement, and then very little cement is used when building the walls. We’ve completed the first double classroom block, teacher's house and two toilet blocks. Aleke Banda, the local MP, has contributed some of his constitutency funds towards the construction of the teachers’ house, and the community has provided burnt bricks for the foundations. The community will also be making 60,000 burnt bricks during the dry season for the foundations of future classroom blocks, teachers’ houses, offices, etc.

This is a very large and worthwhile project, and we will need more funding for additional classrooms, teachers' houses, toilets, etc., so that we can continue with the building programme. If you want an interesting project to raise money for, this could be the one for you (click here for building costs).


The bricks have to cure for about three weeks before they can be used	A view of the partially cleared site for the classroom blocks	Digging the foundations for one of the teachers' houses	The foundations for the first double classroom block

Not only are we building the structures, but we are also supplying desks and textbooks, and we need help to fund these — £20 pays for one desk and £8 pays for a textbook.


We are making our own hardwood desks at the Kapanda site	A double desk like this costs just £20	We are hoping to supply additional textbooks for the students — to buy a set of books for one student costs £80, and each book costs £8

These students have to walk 24 km per day
just to go to and from secondary school

Standard 8 students at the award ceremony in July 2005

Most of these students have passed their exams to go to secondary school, but the closest one is 12 km away. Most of them do not have a bicycle, so they have to walk 24 km per day just to go to and from school.

Although RIPPLE Africa currently sponsors about 40 students to attend secondary schools in the area, this new facility will provide a much needed opportunity for all of the local children.

In the future, we hope to develop a vocational training centre at the school to teach students practical skills which can be used locally.

New Secondary School Poster (PDF)
File size: 213KB

This poster can be printed for display on your noticeboard. Click on the picture on the left or click here to download this PDF document.

Company Registration No. 04823686 • UK Registered Charity No. 1103256

Contact RIPPLE Africa