THE reality of life experienced by most rural dwellers is harsh. One meal a day of starch without the accompaniment of protein is considered normal. Children are not encouraged to go to school but stay home and help in fields or look after younger members of their families.
The situation is further exacerbated by the AIDS pandemic prevalence that is adding to emotional stress as extended families struggle to look after more sick dependants, mostly orphans, with the end result being that many are not able to cope and wilt under the immensity of this pressure.
This has led to premature deaths of either those needing help, or those that are supposed to provide the help. Many children are left in a lurch facing a grim future. The only way out of this and the way forward for Zambia, and Africa as a whole, is to provide good education.
It is against this background that Mark and Fiona Tomlinson, directors of Nsobe Lodge located in Miengwe area of Masaiti Boma in Ndola rural, have set up a school that anchors on achieving high quality education. Nsobe Trust School – NST – is under the precinct of Miengwe farm which hosts a lodge and game management area.
This initiative is part of the private sector development programme with support of black churches based in the United States of America. And apart from the school, plans are afoot to start other projects that are able to tap from the vast potential that lies behind this vast natural environment.
The school is being used as a catalyst of exposing the children to education of excellence that will lay a firm foundation for their future. Already, Miengwe farm has empowered workers by giving them a 50 per cent stake with five per cent equity covering a10-year period.
There are various aspects of business activities driven by the farm that include agriculture, fish farming, and tourism and wildlife management. Agriculture is most dominant as it encompasses chicken rearing, maize production, bee keeping, piggery, beef processing and forestry as well as a stock feed plant. In all these sectors workers are shareholders under an arrangement meant to incentivise employees and make them take up ownership of the business.
Mark and Fiona, who embrace Christian values based on bible principles, said they feel that the African continent has suffered much injustice. Being South Africans of British descent, the couple realised the devastation caused by irresponsible and selfish colonisers and brainwashing of the apartheid regime. Believing that God had led them to the Copperbelt, they have committed their lives to forging a new future for all Africans mindful of the value of diverse cultures.
Therefore, education offers hope and a chance of an educated future through Nsobe Trust established in 2009, with 16 pre-school children. The Tomlinsons’ are optimistic that the school with 89 pupils under its register shall grow the numbers and add a grade each year until reaching grade 12. Pupils do not pay any money in form of a fee for books or uniforms, as these are provided through the couple’s efforts and donations and funding from well-wishers and donors.
Mark is full of praise of the four-man teaching staff led by headmaster Reagan Shipekesa for their dedication. He said: “They regard teaching as a calling than a job and have pledged their determination to break the cycle of illiteracy and poverty by offering the children a bright future.”
The children are flourishing and love the stimulation, and finding out what fun it is to learn, and to be a child. Although currently learning takes place under makeshift structures, Mark is hopeful a new classroom block presently at foundation level will be completed soon.
Touched and encouraged by the determination and sheer zeal exhibited by the couple over projects being undertaken, and paying teachers’ salaries through Nsobe Lodge, First Quantum Minerals – FQM – through its subsidiary Bwana Mkubwa suphuric acid plant, decided to lend a helping hand and donated desks.
This gesture was heartfelt as the pupils expressed it in song and poem saying; “No more squeezing and bad handwriting, thanks to FQM for giving us desks, please call again and may God bless.”
FQM representative Andries Scott, who is Bwana Mkubwa technical services manager, found time to interact with the pupils and staff, and thanked teachers and the brains behind the school, Mark and Fiona, for giving the children an opportunity of becoming ‘our’ future leaders.
As the pupils continued their song and dance eulogising FQM, saying ‘education in Zambia is the key to success – please help us again’, Scott said: “When you build a classroom block, we will provide more desks.”
Of particular interest, the couple has two children, Jemma (8) and Chembe (6) that learn and mingle and eat and get tutored under the same syllabus as the rest of the children. This underlines the belief that the Tomlinsons’ have reposed in the school. Jemma is in the third grade and Chembe is in grade two. The name ‘Chembe’ is Zambian and was given to the boy by the staff and it means ‘fish eagle’ in Chibemba.
“We love the name. It embodies his free spirit and is a strong Zambian symbol. I believe the fish eagle on our flag symbolises freedom and our ability as a nation to rise above problems,” said the mother, Fiona.
She however said though she conceived the children here in Zambia, “unfortunately they were not born in Zambia, as I went back to South Africa to be with my mother when giving birth”. This is something Fiona regrets because “both my children have not forgiven me.’ Consequently they hold South African passports, “but have lived here all their lives and are proudly Zambian,” she added.
Considering that most pupils come from impoverished homes and cover long distances without food, the school provides a daily nutritious meal as a measure to ameliorating against this hardship. Furthermore, the idea of giving lunch is being contemplated. And pupils that have moved from government schools to the Trust School are subjected to extra lessons.
One of the pupils receiving extra tutorials is Ackson Phiri. “We would like him to get to the level of others, so when school breaks for the day, he remains behind to receive remedial lessons,” said Fiona.
This school is destined to succeed because the initiators, Mark and Fiona, have the passion to reach higher heights and have already distinguished themselves as goal getters and have also demonstrated a heart of uplifting the living standards of the less privileged.
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