Our speaker this week was Lorne Parker
Lorne gave us an update on our Mozambique school projects.
1. Xia Xia
a. Construction of the High Scholl block is now complete
b. The High school included a gymnasium. The school population has grown so much that it is now being used for classrooms;
c. The next project is construction of washroom facilities.
2. Pussa
a. The school in Pussa Mozambique (2 hours north of Xia Xia ) was destroyed in a Cyclone;
b. Our Club, in partnership with other Rotary Clubs undertook to rebuild the school;
c. The school was rebuilt but the school population has grown and it is now necessary to build a second building
Lorne advises that the unique element to our school projects, and the reason they are successful, is that we do not just build and leave. We have remained committed to the projects and ensured their sustainability.
News flash
Lorne found the following news article from Mozambique. He will trying to get some of the government supplied desks.
Maputo — Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Saturday launched a national programme to produce school desks, under which the government intends to distribute, by next year, 140,000 desks.
Since two pupils sit at a standard desk, and each desk will be used in up to three shifts in the schools this could allow almost a million children to study at desks, rather than sitting on the ground.
Speaking at the launch ceremony at the Sansao Muthemba primary school in the western province of Tete, Nyusi said that the wood to produce the desks comes from the timber seized earlier this year in “Operation Trunk”. This was the crackdown on illegal timber operations led by the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development, in which dozens of timber yards, many of them owned by Chinese businesses, were raided, and over 222,000 cubic metres of logs were seized.
Nyusi estimated the current shortage of school desks at 800,000 - which means there are about three million pupils who attend classes sitting on the floor.
“Aware that the availability of desks has a positive influence on the quality of education, the governmnent defined as a priority in its Five Year Programme for 2015/2019 the acquisition and distribution of 700,000 desks”, said Nyusi.
In 2015 and 2016 the government purchased and distributed 151,000 desks. In the third quarter of this year a further 40,600 desks were acquired.
“From 2015 to now we have managed to comply with 27 per cent of the target we planned”, said the President.
