Ipee Hope Orphanage School – Zambia
Project Overview
This is a project we stumbled on while passing through Livingstone en- route to Kafue National Park in Zambia.
At our campsite, The Waterfront on the banks of the Zambezi, we met Oscar Kalumene — a 26 year old gardener who told me how he had established, and managed to officially register with the Ministry of Education, a community school for orphans in Ipee village, western Zambia. The Ipee Hope Community School.
What’s Happening Now
1 grass-built classroom
1 teacher
Around 50 children (split between morning and afternoon lessons)
A borehole providing water to both the school and the wider village
What’s Needed
Whilst Oscar has applied for NGO status and has had this accepted, before it can get operational status, and in order to secure the school’s future, the project urgently needs:
A brick-built classroom
A toilet block
With these in place, the school will be able to get support direct through it’s NGO and grow to provide a more complete and inclusive education for these and even more children.
Oscar’s Story
A young man from Ipee village in western Zambia, Oscar is one of eight children.
When he was nine, his father died, leaving his mother struggling to support the family. Without money to educate the children Oscar was lucky to be sent 700 kilometres away to live with an uncle in Mazabuka so that he could attend school.
Unfortunately life was hard, he was badly treated, and at 13 he was living on the streets.
A teacher eventually took him in for a while, but he moved away and Oscar started selling cigarettes, groundnuts, and boiled eggs, so he could rent a room and continue his education.
After passing his Grade 9 exams he managed to get a place in boarding school but again ran out of money. He approached the head of a boarding school, asking if he could work in return for his education. The head agreed and he tended the gardens, pigs, and chickens. He completed his final exams at 18.
On returning home, he found tragedy and need. One of his sisters had died, and there was no school in the village. Children were walking a 10-kilometre round trip to attend a government school — if they attended at all. Many were orphans, unable to read, write, or count.
Moved by what he saw, Oscar made a decision: to build a school for the children and orphans in his village.
Why It Matters
This is more than a school.
It is:
Access to education for children, which has not been reasonably provided for
Opportunity where there was none
A future shaped by knowledge, not circumstance
Oscar desperately needs help to complete his mission and it will not take a huge amount to enable him to get what he needs. USD 2000, will get the brick built classroom and the toilet block and help provide school materials. However, they will always be dependent on donations so please do what you can to help. Everyone should be able to get an education.
Learn More / Support
SallysWheels has set up a GivenGain Fundraiser under the Africa Rally Event. It is live now and will be until the end of August. Please support Oscar and the Ipee Hope Community School through this Fundraiser, in partnership with Julita Kok https://mamalita.co.za/ who will collect the funds, through their NGO, in South Africa on their behalf.