Project Title: Education Support for Children with Disabilities in Zambia
Mission Statement of the project
Education Support for vulnerable children with disabilities project is committed to love, nurture, guide and train children with disabilities to be mature, responsible and successful Zambian or future Adults.
Project Goal:
The goal is to see 70% of vulnerable children with disabilities access basic education, good health by 2020.
In an effort to achieve this, emphasis will also be put on improving the skills of these children with disabilities, initiate income generating project for self -reliance and reduce the burden of over dependence and donor fatigue.
- Construction of a school child friendly rural community children with disabilities centres, which should expose children to different kinds of skill empowerment programs and sports activities, which can guide their future.
- To strengthen sustainability of Maboshe Memorial Centre (MMC) and surrounding communities at large by providing management and skill empowerment those are vital to human livelihood and survival.
- To carry out community health in relation to TB, HIV/AIDS and water and sanitation and hygiene sensitization and awareness campaign in order to prevent children with disabilities and the community from contracting the HIV Virus, Tuberculosis and other related diseases.
Our values
- We value every one with the same priority over profits and properties
- We value giving our best to children with disabilities because it is our purpose
- We value other’s partnership in our organisation
- We value the Excellency of helping suffering children with disabilities for their education, therefore, our commitment is to do today’s work now and tomorrow’s work today.
Justification:
It is justifiably apparent that in the entire districts of western province there is no care centres and schools for vulnerable children with disabilities and this renders the less fortunate children with disabilities more vulnerable because they cannot access basic Education, no one cares or minds and hence these less fortune children with disabilities are left to guide themselves and also form strong peer groups that are characterized by drug abuse and HIV/AIDS that leads to juvenile delinquency.
Secondly due to its rural/remote communities peripheral location from the industrial centres the economical activity of subsistence peasantry farming making it far below the international poverty line resulting in caregivers and people failing to afford good basic education, health care and feeding. This has maintained tremendous vulnerability of children with disabilities resulting in high level of HIV/AIDS and begging.
Thirdly there are only a primary and secondary school in the all of western province providing educational services for persons with disabilities. They are congested with high children – to- teacher ratio; they are of low academic standards, and not suitably deliverable to the vulnerable children with disabilities.
Fourthly, too often, persons with disabilities (PWDs) are ignored and have very limited access to HIV/AIDS prevention services, despite being equally vulnerable to HIV infection, they are not included in key HIV/AIDS prevention information and Disability campaigns, nor are their needs met at most voluntary counselling and testing centres, due to distance to health centres, Lack of sign language interpreters in health, lack of activities for persons with disabilities, no clear plans on HIV/AIDS and Disabilities who are HIV positive, lack of sufficient information on HIV/AIDS and Disabilities, Lack of referral systems and Lack of sufficient HIV/AIDS prevention information and Disability in Braille. Since HIV/AIDS is still a ravaging threat fanning the vulnerable fire among communities, the vulnerable children with disabilities activities are implemented by HIV/AIDS activist organizations operating in the area have in the broadest sense not been suitably supervised and monitored resulting into the program beneficiaries not being the real targeted vulnerable children with disabilities.
Therefore this project is intended to demonstrate true love to the less fortunate children with disabilities and hence committed to delivering services to the true and rightful beneficiaries without any discrimination of any form and working towards considering the gender based phenomenon and working to ensure it minimizes internal and external stigmatization among the beneficiaries.
The project will provide education support for children with disabilities from poverty stricken and HIV/AIDS families in Western Province. It will provide free books, pens, pencils, shoes, wheelchairs, rubbers, school bags, and uniforms for them.
The program is projected to be an ongoing up to when the children with disabilities have been fully-grown and able to meet and carter for their own needs, the children with disabilities project will have established staff and other volunteer workers who will be given appropriate training and will also be managed by volunteers that can come and provide on hand support in any form. Such support may be in form of labor, training, human, financial resources and other relevant vocational skills.
What is the issue, problem, or challenge?
Children with disabilities are the most neglected children in our society. They are denied access to education and other basic social services. Most times there disabilities were brought about by poverty and lack of access to health-care services. The majority of their parents are too poor to send them to school leaving them with no option than to beg on the streets. They later end up becoming beggars on the streets and the cycle of poverty continues to have a multiplier effect on them and society. The aggravated problem therefore is the vulnerability of children with disabilities rendering them unable to access their rightful basics of health care, education, good nutrition and psychosocial uplifting; that really need to be molded and empowered by them accessing basic education, treatment, with vocational skills that can make them happy, useful and resourceful citizens in society.
How will this project solve this problem?
The project will provide basic primary education, school books, lunch, transportation, school uniforms and a conducive environment for these children to access qualitative education mixed with vocational flavor thereby helping them in life.
Project Objectives
- To improve the access to education and livelihood for the children with disabilities.
- To boost up the confident level of children with disabilities families by education activity.
- To increase the literacy rate in particular area.
- To built asset from the burden by providing education and skill training in case of children of disabilities.
- Edifying & developing of children with disabilities
- Promoting good character, life-style and education
- Providing educational resources for children with disabilities
- Support to registered needy and vulnerable children with disabilities at pre-school and those already in school.
- Train and nature children with disabilities in the foundations of Christ Jesus.
- Improve on the nutritional status of the children with disabilities at schools and home.
- Improve on the caregiver’s initiatives i.e. caregiver’s projects.
- Create community awareness of support programs in health, sanitation and hygiene.
- Conduct home visit to orphaned children with disabilities homes and conduct family counseling services.
- Conduct HIV/AIDS sensitization meetings with families of the community of our operation in line with disabilities programmes.
Project Output:
- Increased number of needy children with disabilities attending school, in the rural/remote communities and the most disadvantaged.
- Less fortunate children with disabilities attend school in clean new uniforms
- These children with disabilities attend school with enough school supplies
- Improved living and sleeping conditions among these children with disabilities.
- Improved nutritional status and reduced physical ailments and have a productive population.
- Positive thinking towards sustainability of projects.
- Enhanced enlightened community on child care thus creating a viable sound future.
Project Activities:
- Identification and registering more vulnerable children with disabilities who are, less fortunate.
- Provision of tuition fees, school uniforms, scholastic materials etc.
- Construction of conducive classrooms and create a conducive learning environment.
- Construction of pit latrines.
- Supply and establishment of library and computers for school.
- Provision of educational needs to children with disabilities.
- Conducting screening for healthy problems and provide treatment.
- Provision of nutritional needs to children with disabilities.
- Training on children with disabilities and caregivers on livelihood skills.
- Initiating and supporting income generating projects at family level.
- Conducting counseling and guidance to children with disabilities and their guardians.
Target Beneficiaries:
The beneficiaries will be 100 needy children with disabilities and of parents died of HIV/AIDS and other natural forms of death, needy children with disabilities from families of low income and those with large number of children with disabilities but cannot afford their education, destitute, homeless and other forms of vulnerable children with disabilities.
Those children with disabilities from needy families and poorest of the poor families will be considered to be amongst the beneficiaries of this project.
The immediate families of these children with disabilities will also in turn benefit by lifting/ raising their general welfare through building up their capacities in child care issues, skills development, support their livelihood projects. The community especially will in turn benefit through activities like counseling, Health education and income generating projects extended to them and general guidance in family positive progress.
Potential Long Term Impact
The project will help us in educating 100 children with disabilities from poverty stricken families through the provision of quality education that will enable them to acquire long life skills and live independently with dignity in the future.
Project Message
Education is a veritable tool needed to liberate children with disabilities out of poverty and street begging. I know that this is true as education brought me out of street begging and poverty.
Project Coverage Communities:
This project is intended to cover the whole of Western and Southern Province (Zambia) because needy children with disabilities are all over and come from different districts. However we are currently working in four districts of Western Province due to limited financial resources. These districts include Mongu, Senanga, Kalabo and Shango’mbo where HIV/AIDS and poverty are most hit. We are working with rural/remote communities and our offices are found in all the four currently districts of western province. In these places poverty and diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS have affected community severely.
Some of the challenges that the organization faces is
MMC has a vision to reach out to more rural/remote communities in Zambia but it faces the problem of
- Lack of adequate resources to meet the ever increasing demand of its services.
- Lack of funds for programmatic costs
- Lack of funds for administrative expenses such as rent offices, salaries and staff benefits and communication costs
- Lack of funds for organizational development such as staff training, travel and networking opportunities.
- Need of reliable transport system (motor-bikes and 4 X 4Vehicles), mostly our catchment area is distance and sandy, with a bicycle is not feasible now that our bicycles cannot pull in the sand as compared to rain season when sands are hard.
- Lack of political will from policy makers
- Funding (Lack of donor funding for rural/remote based organisations mostly in Western Province, mostly donor funds adverts in the country end up in urban communities and other provinces, southern, Lusaka, Eastern, Northern, Central, Copperbelt, Lupula and Northwest).
- Inadequate office equipment
- Inadequate funding for programme implementation
- Poor networking
- Geographical difficulties (Communication)
Project Budget for 1 years 2012
This project has registered 100 disadvantaged children with disabilities in the western provinces districts of Mongu and Senanga. However, this budget is targeting the most disadvantaged 100 children with disabilities who are at MMC project sites or communities. This budget highlights the priority needs of the vulnerable children with disabilities centres or offices that need immediate address.
This budget includes all the 100 children with disabilities will be registered but 100 children with disabilities are the ones who are currently in the two MMC project sites or community. The other 100 couldn’t be in school due to complete lack of support, space and resources. This budget includes all of them because they all need to go to school.
Sustainability of the project
For organizational sustainability, MMC offers consultancy and training in a variety of subjects at a fee, some areas of training and consultancy include:
- Community responses to HIV Prevention and ARVs referral systems.
- Maternal, Child Health, Sexual Reproductive Health information.
- Revolving funds.
- Educational and nutrition support increase to income and secure enhanced livelihoods through income generating projects, poverty reduction,
- Health:- create opportunities for everyone to improve health.
- Water supply and Sanitation, Water for life - Providing access to clean drinking water for everyone.
- Gender and HIV and AIDS, human Rights.
- Advocacy and Networking and organizational Development.
- Institutional Strengthening, care and support.
- Scaling up treatment, care and support to People living with HIV.
- Advocacy and Networking and organizational Development and Institutional Strengthening
- Maboshe Memorial Centre (MMC) has continued to mobilize own resources and implementation of long term action plan.
- Develop proposal for demonstration programme in Western and Southern provinces and to seek donor/government funding for the proposal.
- Resource Centres Internet Services.
- Rural/Remote community development
Financial Implication:
Books $ 200
Pens $ 300
Pencils $ 30
Uniforms $ 2,000
Shoes $ 1,000
School Bags $ 200
Rain Covers $ 200
Rubbers $ 20
Rulers $ 20
Transport $ 200
Blanks $ 100
Total Funding Received to Date: Nil
Total Funding Project Goal: US $ 4,000.00
Contact Person
Maboshe Patrick
Country Director
Contact physical address
MMC Secretariat, Lewanika General Hospital, Plot # 3001, House # 411, Lusaka-Mongu Road, Mongu, Zambia.
Contact Postal address
Maboshe Memorial Centre (MMC),
C/o Ms. Likezo Maboshe, Mulambwa UCZ Church,
P.O Box 910371, Mongu Zambia, Southern Africa,
Office Lines: + 260 973 017 321,
+260 973 017 315.
Email: mmcmongheadoffice@ymail.com
Website: www.maboshememorialcentremmc.yolasite.com , www.maboshememorial.org