Mama Vernon's last visit to our area was incredibly succesfull and inspiring, here she tells us more...

2014 visit…  The Building of Sooka Community Pre-School

Life rushes past when you are having fun and busy working! 

A very belated update of what was going on in 2014 in the Sooka Community. This was my longest visit to Shackleton’s, Sooka Community School and Sooka UCZ Community Pre-School in May and June 2014. I loved every minute of it. Mind you, I did take time during my stay to have a 15-day safari into Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia.

 The main reason for the longer stay was to help coordinate the building of the Pre-School with the local UCZ committee and Rev Wezi Manda from Mwandi. When I arrived in early May the cement slab was down. It had moats of sand on it, so it could have water tipped inside the moats daily, to cure the cement. There was also a huge pile of hand made cement bricks, all ready for the builder, who started the brickwork as soon as the slab had cured. The bricks went up quickly and there was a short fall of 400.  I rallied the troops from Shackleton’s Lodge to go brick making before or after their shifts. They became very enthusiastic and a number of men made several batches. Me, I made one! 

I had planned to make more bricks but I went to Livingstone shopping for the Pre-School and school one day with Victor and when I returned all the bricks were finished. Once the bricks were made they had to cure for a week and during that time had to be watered daily. Unfortunately, this held up the building for a while.

Nothing is easy there, as no water laid on to the Pre-School and church area. The water was rolled in 44 gal drums from the school tank, at least a quarter of a km away. Imagine the amount of water required for making all the hundreds of bricks, curing the slab and curing the bricks. All the bricks were made by volunteers from the community, as have all the bricks for both the 2 original classrooms and the new school of three classrooms, plus one teacher’s house. This has been a huge effort and shows the importance the parents are placing on the education of their children.

The Pre-School commenced in January 2014 in the United Church and I had posted ten boxes of equipment, many had arrived safely by May, when I arrived.

There have been ongoing delays but my latest news is that the Pre-School is now painted inside and soon the outside will be completed. 

It will be an exciting day when the children and teacher can move into their purpose built Pre-School. We will then think about bright murals for the walls and outdoor play equipment.

Pre-School building, almost completed

Pre-School in the United Church:

I had such an enjoyable time helping at the Pre-School most mornings. Lemmy, the teacher, was very open to mentoring and soon after I arrived he said, “We learn from our mistakes. Please tell me when I make a mistake”. As a retired Pre-School teacher, I still have quite acute observation skills but certainly didn’t see him make mistakes. I could just see a few areas where I could help him make his life easier. He is such an enthusiastic, motivated teacher that I mostly left him to run the Pre-School, as he normally would and when asked I would read a story, teach a new English song or take an art class.

The children were a joy; an Australian Pre-School teacher’s dream. They are so self disciplined, independent and very eager to learn. The girls would often come and stand beside me, touching my hair…. it must have been fascination to them, soft and fair.

So now they can sing “Row, row, row your boat” with the actions and their English is coming along very well.  Lemmy teaches in both English and their Zambian language, Lozi. When I went on safari, they were obviously practicing the new songs I had taught them and proudly sang them to me on my return.

They all received gifts of a toothbrush and paste box (donated by my 100 year old mother-in-law) filled with a nice new toothbrush and paste donated by Happy Smiles dental surgery, staff and some friends. The photo shows how thrilled they were to receive their gift.

Toothbrush and paste sets

Locally made desks, donated by Theo (aged 10 years) from Armidale NSW Australia

Netball for both school children and adults:

“What is going over at the school today?” I asked Lodge staff, after hearing lots of people and excitement one Saturday. “The Youth Games organised by the Apostolic Church”, was the response. The local young women were playing netball and the men, soccer. Godfrey, the gentleman escorting me over to watch, told he how wonderful the school was for this current generation. They will be the first generation where all the children have attended school, he told me as we walked over to the school. He said he and Mr Remy (Ndula, Headman, Paster of the Apostolic Church and Shackleton’s Fishing guide) had walked the 14km round trip to Mwandi each day for all those years to have an education and how important that had been to them.

I had always wanted to do something for the very hard working ladies of the community. After seeing them playing netball that day and seeing the fun and enjoyment they were having, I realised I had something in my garage that they would be able to use; boxes of netball skirts and shirts in excellent condition. When I returned to Australia, I packed them off to the ladies of the Sooka Community.

Speaking of netball. The schoolgirls play netball after school every day. The games can get quite competitive but there is always lots of fun and banter. Ruth, the dedicated new teacher, was there umpiring every game. The teachers have very long days. School begins at 7.15 am and the after school sports finish on dark.

One of the most wonderful days for me was watching Kabuku run around playing netball. It was hard to hide my emotion.

Kabuku is the young lady who was born with clubfeet. I noticed her walk bare footed, in from the bush, in October 2009 with really badly turned in feet. She was almost walking on her anklebones. I still have a video of her walking that day when she was about 6 or 7 years old. With lots of help from numerous people, she was able to have surgery at a wonderful children’s hospital, the Beit Cure Hospital in Lusaka. More about Kabuku in a previous blog from 4th September 2012. She is also a very bright girl and has grown to be tall and strong. How her life has changed. 
This is a story that really makes my heart sing.

Netball in the sand

Soccer:

The boys play soccer (or football, as it is known there) after school most afternoons. Their teachers help and the coach is one of the young men from the community who works at Shackleton’s Lodge. On the sidelines, those not in teams practice tricks with home made plastic bag balls and the smaller children sit on logs to watch the action.

It is always such a joy to see young people keeping busy, exercising and having tremendous fun.

Soccer at Sooka

Thanks to St.Luke’s Innovative Resources

Mama Vernon is definitely the Sooka Community's unofficial ambassador, here she tells about her encounter with St Luke's Innovative Resources...

I have been given some St.Luke’s Innovative Resources, strength cards that are used in councelling situations or as conversation starters. Russell Deal (Social Worker) who has actually designs most of the sets of cards and has written many of their children’s books and other resources, was very interested in hearing about Sooka Community School and has very generously donated the cards. I will show the teachers how to use them and leave them at the school. I also have one set I think will be suitable for the OVC Councelling centre in Mwandi.

Russell and I had a car trip together to attend a Forum. Russell was our guest speaker and demonstrated the use of the cards to a large attendance of professionals working in the Mental Health field. 

Russell also loves Africa and has travelled to many countries teaching the usefulness of the resources. Once I started talking about Zambia… there was no stopping me and he enjoyed hearing the stories.
On my return, St.Luke’s Innovative Resources, based in Bendigo, Victoria (about 1700km south of Tamworth, NSW) has asked me to write an article about the school for their newsletter.
Thank you, St.Luke’s for your very generous donation to the Sooka community.

St. Luke's Innovative Resources Cards

In December 2013, I was in Sydney for work and three of us went down a day early, to spend some non-work related time in the beautiful city.

Whilst we were there we attended the Yoko Ono exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art and there were many ‘hands on’ things to do. One table had broken crockery, glue, sticky tape and string and you were encouraged to make an item and place it on a shelf (which then became part of Yoko’s exhibition). As is was nearing Christmas, and there were two broken pieces of a plate that looked to me like angels wings, I created a rustic angel, all the time thinking of ‘the Angels of Sooka’, past and present. My friend sent this photo today of my completed angel. I wonder if Yoko Ono ever saw it??

Joyce with 'Sooka Angel' at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

What a way to travel home from work! We were tourists in our state capital, Sydney

Sooka Community UCZ Pre-School

Mama Vernon is here to update us on the developments in the Sooka Community, Thank you Joyce...

I feel as if my dream has come true for the small children of this Sooka region. As a retired Pre-School teacher, the commencement of a Pre-School has been a long-term goal of mine.

What an exciting day it must have been for the Sooka Community, with their first ever Pre-School day on 20th January 2014. Twenty children were enrolled with a voluntary teacher. They are currently using the Sooka United Church for temporary premises until a Pre-School is built.

Sooka UCZ and temporary Pre-School

The first classroom at Sooka Community School was intended for a Pre-School but it took off as a school from Grade 1 and the rest is history. Having had two Grade 7’s graduate, in 2012 and 2013. This school that commenced in 2007 with 35 students now has 154. This would be the envy of most small Australian bush schools, as we need 30 children to retain a second teacher and as our birth rate is so low, this can be difficult.

It would be hard for Westerners to understand that the children in the Sooka region had no opportunity to attend any formalised play get-togethers (other than more recently, Sunday School) until they went to school at age 7 years. There was no Playgroup, Day Care, or Pre-School. 
The families do not own cars, there is no bus, so no way for the children to get to the nearest Pre-School which is a 7km walk to Mwandi, then 7kms home.

A dear friend who is studying to be a Pre-School teacher (mature age student, as I was) asked me “How do you build a Pre-School in another country and culture?” A very good question…… when the book comes out there will be a chapter on just that!
It must come from the community and they must ‘own’ it. They are the ones who will be responsible for the day-to-day running and I will be on the fringes helping where I can. 
It must be sustainable (no ongoing fee sponsorship or teachers wages), I will not be on this earth forever (unfortunately) and don’t have the backing of a big organization.
It must be inclusive of all children and I will certainly be encouraging as much local input as possible, with as many locally made items as possible.

We had our first planning meeting about the Pre-School in May 2013, after the dental team had come back to Australia. The meeting was held after church one Sunday with myself, Francis (long time teacher at the school), the local pastor and a parish representative.

The UCZ and community had previously discussed a Pre-School, as the Zambian Government expect children to attend Pre-School before commencing school, however, there was to be no funding made available to actually build, equip or staff a Pre-School. 

At the meeting I discussed the possibility of using the Sooka UCZ building to start the Pre-School off, while some fundraising was taking place in Australia to build a suitable classroom. Many Pre-Schools in Australia began in church halls and to this day one of the leading Pre-Schools in Tamworth still operates from a church hall. The staff packs all equipment away on Friday afternoon and replacing in the hall on Monday morning. Not ideal but possible. 

Another reason for the United Church of Zambia to be involved, was that they own a plot of land at Sooka, near Shackleton’s Lodge, where as, if the Pre-School was built near the school, that would be Zambian Government land. The community felt strongly that this should be a ‘Community Pre-School’. My one concern was that the Pre-School should be open to every child of any faith (or no faith) and was assured this was the case, it would be there for the whole community. There will be a fee, which of course some families may find hard to find but I don’t feel sponsorship is an option, as this is a community initiative and responsibility. When we make sacrifices for our children, it is something we can look back on with pride.

Keith Waddell (Pastor and High School teacher in Mwandi), Reverend Wezi Msalu Manda (UCZ, Mwandi Consistory chairperson) and I have had many emails back and forth to get the Pre-School underway.  Keith organised for a cupboard to be built to hold the Pre-School equipment in the storeroom at the back of the church at Sooka. This was my first request, so that there would be a safe and clean place to store the equipment that I started posting for the Pre-School. Thank you Keith for organising that and delivering it up to Sooka.

Speaking of posting, I have sent ten boxes to the Pre-School and the latest report was that four had arrived safely.
It took some time to get an emailed plan of the proposed Pre-School building. That has now been approved and the quote from a local builder has been accepted. 
Funds have been transferred from Australia to start the foundations for the Pre-School. 
I will be over at Shackleton’s Lodge in May and am very hopeful that the building of Pre-School will have commenced by then.

During my time at Shackleton’s Lodge in May/June I plan to spend time helping out at both Sooka Community UCZ Pre-School and Sooka Community School and of course a spot of Tiger fishing!
I will be interested in seeing the new school buildings that the Zambian Government is building. There are to be three new classrooms and a new teacher’s house. The School has certainly outgrown the two classrooms and one African style (mud) classroom.

Building a Future

Another update thanks to Mama Vernon...

New School Buildings..
We didn’t receive the funding from ‘Room to Read’ for a library and classroom, however, the Zambian Government has rewarded the hard work put in by the Sooka Community, the teachers and supporters by granting the funds to build three new classrooms and a new teachers house. The ground has been cleared on a new site and the building materials are to arrive soon.

This is such wonderful news that the school has been recognised and will almost certainly mean that it will become a Government Primary School within the next 3 years.
With this progress there came a major problem for our amazing teachers Francis and John who have been there since the beginning. As untrained teachers they would lose their positions when the school becomes a Government School. We had a discussion and they are willing and able to study externally…. IF we could find someone to sponsor their Distance Education fees. 

I put in a formal proposal to Rotary Club of Tamworth, Sunrise, Australia, and they have agreed to pay the tuition fees for the next 3 years and we are so very thankful for that support. Great news.
We might need to also supply Francis and John with some boxes of candles!!

Francis & John

Community Based Pre—School:

The community invited me to a meeting and they expressed their wish to get a Community Based Pre-School. 

The plan would be to build a building in the grounds of the United Church, as that is not Government land. My suggestion was that while we try to raise funds for a building, they could commence a Pre-School in the church a few days per week.

A Pre-School is the missing link in the education system in the community, as they have Grades 1 to 7 at Sooka Community School and the new Mwandi Boarding Secondary School (about 2km walk, for both boarders and day students) and Mwandi High School, both schools going from Grades 8 to 12. 

Unfortunately the nearest Pre-School is also in Mwandi and as the parents do not have cars, it is too far for the little ones to walk 14kms round trip to Pre-School through the deep sand. 

The Sooka United Church of Zambia, Pastor and Francis were able to obtain a quote for a building and now we need to get together the funds so a contractor can build the Pre-School hopefully before the beginning of Term 1, 2014.

On further consultation with Shackleton’s Lodge staff and other community members it appears quite clear that they want this to be an English Pre-School to help the children learn English at the optimum age. If the Pre-School were in a larger town or city the teaching would be in English. I certainly have enough beautiful books to equip the Pre-School and all are in English. 

The next generation

Nothing is impossible and I am sure we can get a Pre-School up and running for these little guys. 

Grade 8 Asperations:

The girl who was Dux of Sooka Community School last year, is currently at the Boarding School and her wish is to become a doctor; her wish may well come true, as the Headmaster of that school told Francis and I that she is very clever and already topping her classes there. 

How amazing would it be for a young person who commenced school at little Sooka Community School to become a Doctor? Two of the other Grade 8 girls said they would like to be nurses.

Who knows what their future holds.

Beit Cure Hospital, Lusaka:

Beit Cure Hospital, Lusaka

Speaking of things medical…  Earlier this year I emailed the Executive Director of the Beit Cure Children’s Hospital in Lusaka and asked if I could come to look through the hospital, as some of our Sooka children have had major surgery there. 

WOW, what an amazing, clean, modern hospital with lovely grounds and on the edge of Lusaka with room for expansion. I wanted to be able to thank the staff for the wonderful job they do there and to picture where our children from Sooka go.

The hospital is free to children, which is amazing. So we just need to find the transport sponsorship if a child needs to go up there.

Two of our lovely girls have had major surgery there. One had surgery on her clubfeet… that now look strong and straight and she is very smart and doing so well at school. 

The other girl broke her leg in 2009. Unfortunately she had to have the leg amputated at Beit Cure Hospital and then later her prosthetic leg was made there. When I arrived in May, the first person that Victor (Shackleton’s mini bus driver) spoke of was this girl and his concerns about her prosthetic leg, which was now not fitting well and a bit broken. To my surprise a new leg was arriving with nurses from the US soon after I left. 

Dr. Tom Irons (Paediatrician from US), who does a clinic with all the Sooka School children in February each year, would have organised this. What a wonderful man.

Until next time, remember……….

“For every life we don’t empower……… someone else overpowers”

Dental clinic & other remarkable news

Another lovely post written for us by Mama Vernon...

The anticipation and excitement were almost unbearable.

Months of planning, packing, organising every last detail….. then the day came to leave Tamworth. Three of the group had travelled ahead four days earlier, as they were going to a conference in Phuket and would then fly over and meet us at Johannesburg airport on the morning of 6th May. We would all then travel up to Livingstone together.

There was some anxiety around…. ‘what if the flight from Singapore is delayed and we miss the connection?’. ‘Sorry’ said I, ‘we are going ahead to Livingstone and you can come on later. Victor will be there waiting for us at Livingstone, I can’t be late!!’. They made the connection and there was great excitement when all six met up at the departure lounge for Livingstone at Jo’burg Airport.

And, Yes, Victor was at Livingstone to meet us and drive us in the comfortable new mini bus to Shackleton’s. The two hours went by quickly as I sat up front with Victor to catch up on 18 months worth of village and school news. We even saw Zebra in the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park... what a great welcome to Zambia.

Soooo loved being back, to smell Zambia and feel the African sun on my skin.

When we arrived at Shackleton’s there was a huge welcome party of children, staff and some parents from Sooka Community School. Victor indicated that ‘the kids will be there’ but I decided to surprise my friends…. Perhaps ‘overwhelm’ my friends would be a better expression. Lovely singing, traditional dances and speeches took place and it was just a wonderful occasion.

The headmaster said “ If we could remove our hearts from our body and lay them on the grass before you, you would see how they would jump with joy”……. My heart would have been there joining in the party!

Day one: The dental clinic commenced and the girls looked at 52 children’s teeth the first day, being a long day when they would normally see 22 to 25 per day in Australia.

Louise & Elyce ready for poolside dental clinic

Every child had photos taken of their teeth, records were taken, teeth cleaned and fluoride treatment applied. All children were also measured and heights recorded.

Day two was a bit quicker with 54 being treated by lunchtime. Most staff had their teeth checked and when word got out, a few children turned up from other villages. All children were also provided with a plastic box with a toothbrush and toothpaste and their name printed on top. We originally thought these would stay at the school for cleaning teeth when the children arrived at School but the management committee decided they should go home, so children could clean their teeth at the weekends.

Mwandi Boarding Secondary School opened to Grades 8 and 10 this year. My dream was to get one or two children to this new school on scholarships. Can you imagine my delight to find of the 16 children who graduated from Grade 7 at Sooka Community School the end of 2012, 10 are at the new school (3 as boarders and 7 as day students), 4 are walking the 14km round trip to Mwandi High School daily and 2 left school after Grade 7.

I find this is quite remarkable and am SO proud of the community and their dedication in providing a good education for their children. They must be making huge sacrifices but their children will be so very grateful. Francis (teacher at Sooka Community School) and I walked the 20 minutes, through thick sand, over to see the children from Sooka who are attending the new school. They are very special to us, as the first class to attend (and graduate from) Sooka Community School. They all looked extremely happy and so smart in their black and white uniforms.

Can you believe this lovely modern new school has a library with not one book in it? However, the structures look impressive, they have power and will eventually have computers. We met with the headmaster and he is very keen to see as many local children as possible at this school and said they will be very flexible with payment of school fees and plan to make arrangements with farmers and gardeners to buy produce and vegetables locally. Hopefully there will be job opportunities at the school for local families too.

10 students are attending the brand new Mwandi Boarding Secondary School

The red sports shirts arrived safely! Some children had them on for our arrival celebration and the following day Howard and Victor collected 4 more boxes from the post office and all the rest of the shirts were there, plus second hand blue netball shirts for girls and grey shorts for the boys. They were all dressed in these the day I departed at my Farewell Disco at 7.30am. They looked just beautiful; fresh and bright.

So thank you so much my friends Janelle and Rod for donating the shirts and St Edwards School, Tamworth for the netball skirts and boys shorts.

Too much news for one blog entry, more soon!

Children sing the Zambian National Anthem & raise the flag

Thank you Joyce!

2013 Update & Wishes

Another update from one of our biggest supporters, Mama Vernon...

My very best wishes to you all for a healthy and safe New Year. May many dreams come true in 2013.
This is the time of year to reflect on the past twelve months and make plans for the future.

Congratulations to the children who completed Grade 7 at the end of 2012. This is the first group to complete Grade 7 at Sooka Community School. Such a milestone. We appear to have been unsuccessful in obtaining funding through ‘Room to Read’ for a Library/playroom and classroom, but let’s not give up! I love a challenge! Some fundraising has been going on in Tamworth, Australia and hopefully in 2013 we can do some more improvements at the school. A new classroom and more toilets
are top priority. A Library/playroom would be a dream at this stage.

My biggest dream would be to hold one or two days per week Pre-School in the playroom. Research shows the human brain develops more by the age of 3 ½ than any other stage of life. Some Pre-School days would set the children up so well for Grade 1.

Joyce and Elliot Dube, the owner & chef of Safari Club Bar and Grill 

I had my 60th Birthday in September and we had a party at the Safari Club, Tamworth (where else!!). Guests were asked to dress ‘with a touch of Africa’and some made great efforts, which were really appreciated. I wore a Chetenge, the traditional wrap skirt of the Lozi people. I know the community at Sooka would approve, as they gave me one in September 2011. In lieu of gifts I asked friends and family (who were interested) to make a small donation to Sooka Community School. I had no idea how generous they would be and we now have some money in the bank to plan new things for the school.

Also at my party I had a really lovely surprise……………..
Howard Shackleton had recorded the whole school singing “Happy Birthday” to Joyce. This was quite a team effort. Our daughter had been emailing Sherie Shackleton and over all those miles came the wonderful voices of Sooka Community School children. What a beautiful moment. We couldn’t play the video but were able to play the singing through the sound system on the restaurant. I hope the kids know how much that meant to me, my most precious gift. Awesome ***********************

The birthday cake!

In May 2013, six Tamworthians will arrive at Shackleton’s Lodge. I am going over and we have a team to conduct a dental clinic with all the school kids. We also plan to paint the inside of the second classroom, if it has not been done yet. We are all getting organised and really excited.

HOT OFF THE PRESS… A friend gave me a generous donation in lieu of Christmas gift cards etc that she would normally give family and friends. I have been able to purchase 130 red, polo style sports shirts for the school. They are posted, so hope they arrive before we do in May. These were on the school ‘wish list’ from 2009. The first brand new uniforms I have posted to the school, I know the children will be very excited to receive them.

So looking forward to seeing the Sooka community and you all at Shackleton’s in May.