Community Schools: Doing Something Meaningful

Today I arrived in Lusaka to join the team for a few days and to finally meet the colleagues of WFP Zambia in person after many emails and phone contacts since early this year to set up this volunteer assignment. My name is Jacoline van Blokland and I am within DSM responsible for the employee engagement program with the DSM-WFP partnership.
For me a first trip to Africa and to Zambia. What impressions to share with you! Driving from the airport you see on the one hand many people walking and bike-riding, highly piled up with produce, like charcoal, to sell and on the other hand the latest SUV model.
The differences between rich and poor are all the time around.
After my arrival early this morning we immediately went to the RCZ pre- and Community school in Lusaka. The team gave a Nutrition lesson to the schoolteacher of grade 4 and the headmaster, and then supported the teacher in giving the lesson to his class. This was a huge success!! The team has done a great job in preparing for this lesson the past week, really trying to understand the local situation and reflecting that in the lesson.
The children were given in a small bag (courtesy of DBA Business Academy, thanks very much) with a printed copy of the Nutrition school books, a pen and some paper. For us this sounds very normal but these children do not usually have books, they share little pieces of paper and pencils or pens. You can imagine their surprise and their pride that they could keep this to take home!
For the teacher the team had an additional teaching tool, which was an invention of Adri: A felt board where the teacher could stick pictures of the food on to make the lesson more lively and visual. The children loved it, as usually they only have the teacher in front of the class and a blackboard!
Taking the schoolbook home is one of the important elements to make this initiative sustainable, in this way the children share the knowledge at home and we make a greater impact.
I was very much impressed with the community engagement, all the teachers and parent teachers association are volunteers, living in the community and they try together to make things better in their own community. They ensure the children get education and allow the WFP School Feeding program to support them. Talking about Doing Something Meaningful………!