During the past Lent, the school chaplaincy of the Einsiedeln Abbey School once again organised the solidarity campaign “Soup for Namwala”. Every Friday, the pupils volunteered to give up a full meal and eat a hearty soup instead. The money saved was used to support a project at the school in Namwala. This year, the focus was on computer science lessons.
In 2016, the Friends of Namwala Secondary School Zambia had financed the furnishing of the new computer science room. The desks were made by the school as part of the handicraft lessons and the school had also purchased the computers.
However, computers should be regularly maintained and updated. This has become increasingly difficult in recent years. The Zambian currency is only 40% of its 2016 value, but school fees have not been raised since 2016. These funds should actually be used to finance maintenance, new purchases and the salaries of the school staff (the teachers’ salaries are paid by the state). All too often, maintenance was then dispensed with. This had consequences for the computer science lessons: of the 45 computers, only 15 were still in working order. In addition, the software had not been updated for some time.
It therefore made sense to support the computer lessons with this year’s soup day. The campaign was a great success: more than 80% of the students and teachers participated. Four soup days were held, two other Fridays fell on St. Joseph’s Day and during the sports holidays. Last school year, only two soup days could be held because of the lockdown.
With the money the young people raised, all 45 computers could be refurbished. For some computers, the missing keyboard and/or mouse pad were purchased. In addition, 4 new computers were purchased for use in class.
The repairs and installations were carried out by two young computer technicians from Namwala village, so the local trade could also benefit.
Teacher Derick Simpande and his students expressed their gratitude via video for the support of the students and teachers of the Collegiate School.
The Namwala Secondary School Zambia Support Association would like to take this opportunity to thank the Stiftsschule Einsiedeln and other involved parties for their support over the years. What started in 2004 as a partner school project has been continued for 8 years as an independent association. During this time, the school has been supported in various areas to a total value of almost CHF 750,000.
