News September 2014
Habari ya Mikembo August and September 2014
We apologize for not sending any news in August, due to unexpected events as well as the lack of stories to tell… We are now back on track J
Kinsangwe School
- Hectic start as we had about 450 appliquants, far too many for our classrooms.
Following consulations with the members of our Managing Committee and the School Director, and after a lot of thinking, we decided :
– To implement double shifts (classes in the morning and in the afternoon) for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders.
– To split kindergarden (almost 60 children) into two.
– Considering the increased costs, to ask parents for monthly school fees: 2 $ for kindergarden, 5 $ for primary school and sewing classe, and 10 $ for highschool. We’ll start collecting these in October.
– To implement new regulations concerning, amongst other things, the possible expulsion of pupils who cannot make the 40% mark without a good excuse. The parents have been informed of all these decisions and have accepted them. We’ll see how it all works out in October.
Kinsangwe Clinic
- The paperwork, and more specifically the Administration Agreement, is taking forever L. The inauguration, which should have taken place on September, 26th and was then postponed to October, 24th, has now been scheduled for the beginning of November.
Meanwhile, the Ursuline Sisters, who will be running the Clinic, asked us to build two more rooms… Here we go again…
Books
While we first expected them in September, we should have them by October. This is due to a massive jamming at the Kasumbalesa border following the installation of a new software (and causing a 52-km-long truck queue on the Zambian side!)
GIZ
- Our teachers resumed the training of primary school teachers at the Lubanda school, 100 km from Lubumbashi going towards the Parc des Kundelungu. A codicil has been signed with the GIZ to include a third school.
- Completion of a « Guide d’éducation environnementale » (environmental education guide) to assist the teachers in charge of that course. A 90-page-document that cost us hours and hours of hard work… which explain why we were late sending our August news and stars J Great teamwork ! Thanks to Sylvie for illustrating the cover!
Comité de Gestion
- We held our seventh Management Committee on 16-09-14. Main topics :
– Beginning of the new schoolyear,
– Management and running of the Clinic,
– Our budget… the economic slump is hitting everyone, let’s try to handle it as best we can !