Izabella travelled with over 30 other students and 2 teachers from Wyvern St Edmunds school to take part in a community volunteering project in Zanzibar, through a company called African Adventures. Thanks to everyone at Salisbury United Reformed Church for supporting her fundraising efforts to make the trip possible.
They volunteered at Kijito Upele, a government primary school which provides a free education to approximately 5,830 students aged between seven and 15. The head teacher is Makame Hanna Ali, and he is supported by a team of 66 staff. The school has 22 classrooms, and teaches Standard One through to Standard Eight.
African Adventures partnered with Kijito Upele in 2014, when the need for support was recognised. The school is severely overcrowded, with class sizes averaging 100 students, and its facilities are in urgent need of improvements in order to cope with the large student numbers.
At Kijito Upele, the school day is split into two in order to reduce overcrowding, with half the students attending in the morning and half attending in the afternoon. This quite literally cuts the children’s access to education in half. We are working with the school to renovate existing facilities, construct new classrooms, and improve the quality of education that Kijito Upele is able to provide.
Watch this space for news and photos from Izabela.
