The little school project

A glimpse from our trip to Africa in March 2018 and our school project in the remote village Chisanza (North Eastern Zambia)
 

  

Love Never Fails

When my then 13 year old daughter Rebekka in 2017 came home with an idea about how to help Africans, I took her seriously and became inspired. She started her own charity project, Pillow For Africa, with her friend Emil and through hard work and dedication, they gave half of their profit to a small health clinic in rural Zambia.
 

 

 
 
Rebekka inspires me every day. So, when we visited the health clinic in March 2018, we also took the opportunity to visit and start supporting a small school in the village of Chisanza in North Eastern Zambia, next to the health clinic.
 
A remote area with lot of opportunities to grow and prosper. It touched my heart, mind and soul to see what a huge difference a pen and a book can make. We hope to play a small part in helping young Zambians reach their dreams and fulfil their potentials.
 
Although we sell luxury, getting an education should not be. For every piece of jewellery we sell, the Maya Bjørnsten Foundation privately donates directly to the children and their school.

 

    

First step

We have just received these beautiful pictures from the secluded school in Chisanza, Zambia and we just wanted to share the good news about their progress. Now they have new school books, pens, papers and chalk from the first of hopefully many donations from Roughdiamonds.dk. In time we hope to help them get more teachers in primarily English, to provide them with tables and chairs so they will be able to have something to learn at, and windows for the school building they are so proud to have build for themselves.

 

 

 

    

Second step

Our second donation went towards making the school environment even better for the children. It made it possible to purchase new benches and tables, so now they no longer have to sit on the floor, as well as cement for the floors, walls and actual windows to keep the wind out.
 
 
 
 
 
 
The donations also made it possible for the volunteer teachers to receive salaries and to fight a cholera epidemic.

 

Third and fourth step

The donations from Roughdiamonds.dk continue to be used to purchase basic school materials, and the funding of teachers’ salaries. Most recently, donations have gone towards the purchase of a television and computers for the school.

 

 

By acquiring the television, the children are given the possibility of partaking in Zambia’s government’s national educational program on the television channel, Edu TV channel 4. The education program is for pre-schoolers, primary and secondary school. The channel was introduced during COVID-19 in order to provide lessons otherwise not taught during the pandemic’s closing of the schools.

 

 

 

During the pandemic, sanitary measures were installed at the school thanks to the donated money: Hand-sanitizers, face masks, and cleansing agents such as chlorine for disinfection purposes. After the reopening of the school, donations from Roughdiamonds.dk have also been used to purchase shoes and shirts for the children, making for a most colourful everyday display.

 

 

 

  

Ongoing donations

Right now, a six months art class is unfolding to stimulate the children’s learning through creativity. Roughdiamonds.dk donations are funding the salary for two teachers and the purpose of various art supplies. By utilizing creative arts as an essential component of the teaching/learning process, the students are exposed to everything from physical education to drama, dancing, singing, gardening and acrylic art painting, all to stimulate the positive growth and development of the students.

  

 

Once the course work has been completed, it will be decided if this is something that can be implemented in the educational program in the future.