![[ map of Africa ]](../images/mapeducation.gif)
Problem
Illiteracy limits the ability of African adults to provide for their families. Economic conditions keep 40 million African children from attending primary school. Where schools exist, the community often lacks the resources to provide a quality education.
Solution
Books, supplies, computers, schools and qualified teachers are needed in much of Africa. The Education branch of Reach the Children is raising the quality and quantity of education for children attending partnering schools under the guidelines and supervision of in-country leaders.
We research and implement programs appropriate to location, provide resources (i.e. donated school supplies/textbooks/computers), and assist in facilitating community-parent-teacher interaction to better serve the educational needs of the students.
Success
The Kenyan government donated a small plot of land in the slums of Nairobi for a school. The donation was made to Grace, the future headmistress of Vessel of Hope School, who then contacted Reach the Children with the request of assistance in building the school. In 2005, volunteers from Reach the Children laid the foundation and built the first floor of the school. Classes have commenced at the Vessel of Hope, but the school will not become self-sufficient until it is completed and attracts paying students. Grace requested that Reach the Children assist in building a second floor by providing some labor and funding, with the school obtaining volunteers and workers from the community to help with the labor, and overseeing the delivery of materials.
A group of Reach the Children volunteers answered the request. They worked for several days, and at last, the second floor at the Vessel of Hope School was complete and plumbing was added to the first floor.
Kyengeza Primary School in Uganda was in desperate need of a library. The school had two buildings; the original building, which had unfinished dirt floors and crumbling brick walls, and a newer completed building. The school had an inadequate selection of books, most of them old and falling apart. They requested help building a library and resource center and stocking them with materials.
Reach the Children volunteers worked three different days on a library in the original building. They began by hiring a builder to finish one of the rooms that was ideal for a resource center. The floors were then cemented, the walls plastered, and the windows and doors fastened with locks and shutters. Volunteers then painted the entire room, and added large murals-- a map of Africa and a map of Uganda-- on the walls. Desks were painted and added to the room along with bookshelves full of new books purchased in Kampala. Paper, pens, pencils, markers, and charts finished the classroom. The work at Kyengeza drew much attention from the surrounding community; parents from all over came to visit the school and see the new library.