.
The school is a primary school but one with a difference …. the children’s ages range from 5 – 17 years old. Why? Many children in impoverished areas cannot afford to attend school or, even worse, have had to stay at home to care for ill and dying parents.
|
Name: Address: |
 Principal in the
sole staff room/office
|
Gutjwa has:
458 pupils
Over 200 are orphans (Some of these are from ‘child run households’ where an older child takes care of his/her siblings - ‘older’ can mean as young as 11 or 12yrs being responsible for the household)
 |
8 classrooms, the last 4 of which were connected to electricity in August 2007 … but with scant budget to pay for it – our solar power project will transform this situation, with low-cost green electricity. |
An
average
of 57 children per classroom, one with 74
One tap on a water tank as the sole source of water … no hand washing at the toilets, no drinking taps.
It also has:
|
A
kitchen
shelter built by parents so that the free porridge lunch for all pupils
can be
cooked during the rainy season. The
kitchen
was built from blocks won when the Head entered the children into a
competition. |
 |
Gutjwa’s Greatest Assets
| they
do everything in their
power to keep children active and away from a future of early
pregnancy, AIDs,
crime and/or drugs. The Principal has a strong, supportive parent body …. just no money! Teacher resource, repairs and maintenance do not feature on a list that is headed by keeping children fed and clothed. |
 Football,
cricket, netball and chess are all extra-curricular activities
|
Ms
Sibambo
has allocated some of the school grounds for the community to grow
vegetables …
on the proviso that some of the produce is given to the school to add
to the
porridge to make it more nutritious.
 The school's assembly tree |
 The extensive garden area |
WHY HELP GUTJWA?
It is a school with attitude and a self help philosophy;
where the staff truly cares about the welfare of the children
| Books in Homes is an NGO which prints and delivers very low cost reading books to impoverished schools. The Founder also offers free seminars to guide teachers in the use of different teaching techniques. |
 Staff crammed into the one small room / office |
The
staff
at Gutjwa heard of this service and contacted Val to ask her to run a
teaching
seminar for them. |
|
"Barbara
and I went to Gutjwa on Friday last
week They were the only school where all
the staff where present and working. It was the first Friday of the
month and
the other teachers at the other schools had gone off to Union Meetings,
leaving
the children to run wild". |
Excerpts from two separate e-mails |
|
"I
went to Gutjwa yesterday to give
them the food that is donated to them and
also to sell books to them.
They are really so positive and so hard working compared to
other schools
I work with". |
Val
Morris,
Founder