Fund-Raising and Fresh Water Well

Fund-Raising

Over the past few weeks, three fund-raising events have taken place within Lusaka, Zambia for the Mushilila School Project. The first, was an awareness and fund raising event at the two Saturday Soccer League registration mornings at AISL (the American International School of Lusaka). Parents registering their children donated children’s clothes, shoes, and school supplies, and also donated their small change, generating close to Kw. 1,000,000 (US$ 180). This also proved to be a valuable ‘networking’ event, as many parents in attendance work within the donor community in Zambia.

The second event is on-going. This is a ‘Donation Drop-off’ at AISL where staff and the wider school community drop-off school supplies, clothing, and sports and play equipment that will be distributed to the school and children of Mushilila School. Many donations have been made, and more will continue to be dropped off until school closes on June 19th.

The third event was the “Absolutely Fabulous Ladies Fashion Sale”, which took place yesterday. Many contributors brought along “AB FAB” ladies clothes, shoes, handbags, jewellery, and perfume to sell in aid of the Mushilila School Project. The admission fee for the event, and a proportion of the sellers’ proceeds, were donated to the project. This fun event raised Kw. 2,393,000 (US$427), and many thanks go to the contributors, and my helpers: Alix, Sam, Andrew, and Burton.

These funds, and personal donations, have so far generated US$ 691. A great start, but we still have along way to go.

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my warmest thanks to everyone who has made donations, and particular thanks to the staff, students, and parents of the American International School of Lusaka. The school has been exceptionally supportive of the project; allowing the use of the school grounds, providing tables and display boards at events, assisting with setting up and security, and generally offering me a great deal of moral support!

The promotion of events, and awareness-raising, has not only been achieved through this site, but also through the Face Book Group “Mushilila School Project - Zambia”, and the Face Book Page “Mushilila School, Lower Luangwa”. Please join these Face Book groups if you can, and invite all your friends so that we can raise awareness and support further.

Providing Water Security

Mushilila School has a water well to provide fresh water, but it collapsed some time ago and needs to be either repaired or a new well created. The estimated cost of this project is between Kw 2 - 3 million (US$ 450 - 550). The proceeds from the events to date will be used to develop the well, and Andrew Baldry and Tom Younger will discuss the implementation of this project when they meet with members of the Nyimba District Council in Nyimba on Wednesday 22 April.  Last Thursday, they met with the Member of Parliament for the District,  Mr. Forrie Tembo, in Lusaka. Mr. Tembo was pleasantly surprised by the large amount of support that had been generated through the Mushilila School Project. 

Donating

The project has been experiencing some problems with PayPal donations as it has been difficult to establish its charity status. This issue should be resolved within the next couple of weeks, with the kind assistance of Tom Younger.