Nanga school

On a recent visit to Zambia we went to see the staff and pupils at Nanga special school, north of Mazabuca and about an hours drive from Monze.

Dreadful – the only word to describe what we witnessed here. Where to start? Well for instance the wiring in many places is dangerous – this is a live wire above a child’s bed; the girls dormitory is in the same building as the dining area and kitchen – a fire hazard. The toilets provided by the Zambian government are open pit latrines with access so narrow that wheelchair users have to get down and crawl all over the…

Perhaps the most desperate problem is budget. With school fees of kw500 per term – some of which is not paid because of poverty, plus a paltry kw3700 per term government fund (equivalent to about 6p per child per day) gives a total – if all pupils paid – of about kw12500 against a food budget alone of kw60000. Do the sums and it adds up to starvation!