Building schools out of shoes!

Between 21st July and 12th August, former police inspector David Scott from the Nottinghamshire Police Aid Convoys (NPAC) charity was in Zambia assessing the effect of the first container of schools and medical equipment that arrived in December 2007. A second container dispatched in March had just arrived at the Zambia border and was waiting customs clearance.

In Eastern Province, Zambia, children’s shoes (of usable quality) are a highly desirable and valuable commodity. Without them children cannot walk the long distances to school because the ground is frequently far too hot, the terrain too sharp or in the rainy season virtually impossible to traverse barefooted; but the cost makes them totally unattainable – money does not work here, only barter.

All the children are desperate to go to school, even if it is 5km away. The schools provide mats, food and shade because the smaller ones arrive to school exhausted and need feeding and a nap!

The installation of water boreholes means that the schools that the children long to walk to are simply inadequate for the numbers. Boreholes have released the children from the twice-daily dangerous task of fetching water from the rivers.

Many more children than five years ago are surviving the first years of life because the fresh borehole water is free from disease.

When David enquired in the area of Ouyoba about the usefulness of the books, desks and chairs sent from Nottinghamshire, he was amazed at the value attached to of even the simplest of items that had been supplied. The inventory showed that nothing had gone missing and all items were in use. He was told that many well-meaning people had made promises to provide desks over the years but no-one had been able to keep them because the villages proved to be too far from the towns and good roads.

David noted that none of the children wore shoes and there was also a hushed discussion about shoes; about whether the provision of shoes would spoil the children’s way of life or make their feet soft – but he couldn’t have been more wrong, “Children’s shoes” he was told by Chief Ndake “are far too rare a commodity for these people to afford but they desperately want them as they would guarantee regular attendance at school”. “Although,” he said, “ it would be wrong to simply give them away because gifts would mess up their way of life by devaluing them, making young people reliant on hand-outs and taking away the work ethic – the shoes could however, be earned by helping at the school”.

Eastern Province has an abundance of red clay. This red clay turns to fine invasive red dust in the dry season and an impossible red slimy mud in the rainy season – but it makes good bricks. A scheme was therefore conceived that families could buy shoes with bricks at a rate to be determined by the head-teacher. This would give the shoes the value they deserve and provide school buildings, proper toilet buildings, a cooking area and most importantly - accommodation to attract teachers. All they needed were the shoes...

In the consignment just arriving in Lusaka, David knew that there were around 1,000 pairs of shoes from the 2007 International Walk to School Week and Share a Pair promotion that the Nottinghamshire County Council’s Road Safety team had organised in October 2007.

When that container was customs cleared and emptied at the Makeni warehouse on 8th August, the shoes had turned into the most valuable commodity on board, even eclipsing the computers for the teacher training college in the city. In two huge sacks of shoes they were looking at, there were three new schools that will be completed by November 2008, before the rains arrive.

The first picture shoes NPAC team member Wayne Purbrick exhausted by collecting the shoes last year.

The next pictures show children at the Kelengo community school in uniform from the old Ladybrook School, in Mansfield. (not shown)

The last picture shows His Excellency Dr Kenneth Kaunda, the former President of Zambia viewing the contents of the August container with David Scott. (not shown)

Three more containers left on 26th and 30th August, and 9th September 2008 from Clarborough Primary School, near Retford, Church Drive Primary School in Daybrook, Nottingham and Highfields School, Long Eaton. They were packed with schools equipment for the new and existing schools, plus some more shoes! These containers will arrive in Eastern Province, Zambia in November 2008.

The next ‘Walk-to-School’ and ‘Share-a-pair’ week will start on 6th October, and the shoes will leave after Christmas, to arrive after the rainy season, when the roads are open again.

David said, “the Zambia project, although the most expensive we have undertaken and the most difficult to negotiate, is very rewarding. I was continually informed that we are allowing the first generation of children in the remote villages to sit on chairs, at desks in proper schools, and so allow them to participate with children in the urban areas, it is a privilege to be able to do it, and this is what we are entrusted to do”.

There are several secondary schools in Eastern Province that provide boarding places for 1200 older pupils. The pupils, who are mainly male, board at the school for 90 days and during that time sleep on mattresses on the floor. The schools are short of science lab equipment and sports equipment, as well as general school resources. They also need teacher training manuals and basic medical equipment.

The Notts Police Aid Convoy (NPAC) always welcome donations of this kind and the team members are always looking for sources of such equipment. Any help would be appreciated!

So, if any of the Nottinghamshire Masons or family would like to donate, gifts would be much apprecaited.

For more information about the work of NPAC go to www.npac,org.uk