Remote Africa is involved with the local community both as an important local employer and as a contributor in other ways. One of these way is the Mkasanga School fund. Mksanga School is the school in the village closest to Tafika and the support from guests at the lodge forms a major contribution to the education of the local children.

Below you will see the annual reports for the last two years. These are compiled by Carol Coppinger who runs the fund and thanks to her for allowing Afrikeye to reproduce them here.

The rains are almost upon us and with the rain comes the urgency to be prepared! Since I have no fields to plough and the season draws to a close without my need to do much more than encourage our great team of staff around me, I am galvanized into a Mkasanga School Budget review!

Thanks to your generous support and encouragement the Mkasanga School Fund has raised suflicient funds and equipment this year to achieve the following:

• Set up the first year of high school at Mkasanga village.
• Fund 4 teachers to assist the 3 government paid teachers cope with the 350 pupils!
• Fund t.he completion of Frackson Sakala’s teachers training course. We hope he will be able to return to Mkasanga School with his newfound teaching skills and pass on his enthusiasm and vision to the Mkasanga pupils.
• Provide Mkasanga School and 2 other neighbouring schools with over 2500 storybooks to encourage the pupils and villagers to read and discover the wonder of books.
• Provide many footballs to the 3 schools and also the local village men and women for basketball and football.
• Decorate the school classrooms with bright and informative posters of anatomy, maps etc.
• Provide skipping ropes /tennis balls/crayons/math’s sets and general school equipment.

Many thanks to you all. The headmaster and pupils welcome you to visit the school on your next safari. They continue to take great delight in meeting our guests and practicing their English skills on you all! The following is a brief breakdown of our expenditure estimated to December 2002 (in US dollars):

In 2003 the headmaster plans to set up the second year of high school. which will make Mkasanga a Basic School. It affords more pupils in the area the opportunity to commence high school. In order to assist these pupils with prep, the headmaster has requested that we investigate the installation of a solar lighting plant in one of the classrooms. This can also be used for an adult education class for men and women in the evenings.

In my pondering over the reason for the human being, I always find myself back at the discovery that we are compelled to change things. It seems that Mkasanga Village, at the back end of nowhere, wants to change just like the rest of the world! I have included an estimation of a solar panel, battery and lighting system in my 2003 budget....and heaven help us! This is only the beginning!

In addition we will increase the number of teachers paid for by the fund to 6, offer 5 high schoo] scholarships, select a new teacher assistant to attend training school and provide assistance in the form of stationery packs to 9 orphans of the school. A busy year lies ahead.

For the latest school news please check out our new website at www.remoteafrica.corn

The year 2001 is 'on the wane' and at Tafika we are wilting a little from the heat as we await the onset of the rains, helped by action packed game viewing filled with leopard kills, lazy lions munching on harassed buffalo and little wartlets racing behind protective parents waving tail antennae skyward. This morning a family group of about 15 elephants ambled past our front lawn whilst Tiptoe watched in silence . . . for once taking the prudent approach.

The Mkasanga community is hard at work preparing their fields in time for the rain. Their work is only just beginning. Many nights will be spent awake chasing off the hippos and elephants, which think fields packed with corn heaven on earth! Many children actually miss a few months of school at this time as farming takes preference.

The school is looking good. A new classroom block is being built to offer the first two years of high school, making it more affordable for the pupils to continue with high school. This is planned to commence in January 2002 but ft looks like there is still a long way to go!

The school now has the headmaster, Mr Lungu, his wife, also a teacher, and one other government funded teacher. We hope they are encouraged to remain at their posts during the rains. In addition our fund has paid for four teachers. We are very impressed with the teachers and commend them for a year of conscientious effort and hard work.

Frackson Sakala, a fund sponsored teacher from 2000, spent this year at teacher training school in Chipata, funded by our guests. His constant updates show that he is doing very well and he commences his final year of practical training in January. If all goes well he will return to Mkasanga school as a qualified teacher in 2003.

We await the school reports of our nine high school scholars. We plan to take a hard line on any loafers this year and only those who are doing very well will be funded next year; though this is never easy because we very rarely get their reports before they need to leave for the next year! African efficiency is often cleverer than we credit!

Many thanks to all of you for your generosity throughout this year. You have touched the lives of many villagers bringing hope stimulation and laughter; your African dancing during village trips provides many chuckles!

Love and best wishes

Carol, John and the entire Remote Africa Team

Also donated to the school by various generous guests have been over 500 books, world maps and other posters, 15 footballs, pens and paper. A school in Saratoga had a book drive and collected over 2000 books which are on their way in the post! WELL DONE!!

Further information

For further information about Tafika's work in the community and how to support it please use the feedback page

© Afrikeye 1999 - 2007 (certain items under permission of original copyright owner)

home  privacy about legal contact