PHOTOGRAPHY BY HANNA WIGART, DERRICK MULFORD, GEORGIE FOX, KATHLEEN FELTHAM and SARAH WERTHMUELLER THROUGH ALERT, WITH OUR GRATEFUL THANKS
kubimba education and innovation centre
The focus of the Kubimba Centre is education, literacy classes, IT access and innovation, headed up by Courtney Connolly as the Jafuta Education Director and a team of especially trained facilitators, conducting supplementary teaching in Higher English learning along with the core subjects of Mathematics, Geography and Sciences. These classes take place during the week after school hours, over the weekends and during school holidays. Every day as school ends, large groups of school children come through to the Centre from the surrounding schools for assistance with homework, research and a place to study. In the school holidays, numbers go as high as 400 students a day utilising the centre, playground and sports fields, with students not just from the area but even from Victoria Falls City itself. An English Literacy program has been established in collaboration with Children In The Wilderness (C.I.T.W.) and Eco Club facilitators trained under the C.I.T.W. eco awareness programs, with 3 Eco Clubs started at surrounding local schools - many eager members have joined.
In order to achieve these educational aims, many kind donors have played a part:
- 89 Dell Chrome Laptops donated by Jonathan Gerber & Holiday Dreams Foundation, of which 30 were kept for the Centre and the rest donated to surrounding schools
- 30 iPads from friends of the Foundation
- Books for the library through C.I.T.W. and Books for Africa
- EduTek & Teacher in a Box programs - These contain the Khan Academy, a library, vocational skills teaching, documentaries and films, accessible via a dedicated link on all smart devices
- A very exciting Innovation Station within the Centre, especially sponsored by Kathy Cole. This STEM focused system allows access to learning, coding, robotics, critical skills thinking, the arts and many other incredible tools, developed by the team at MATTER and JAMPF. They continue to provide technical training and the oversight team, monitoring 50 selected children's usage of the system to provide the best possible learning tool. In addition to the 50 students, all children are allowed access and the iPad based system is taken to surrounding schools to allow further students access to this life changing technology.
A vital service of the Kubimba Centre is to provide a safe space and a positive place to 'hang out', so games and leisure activities are also important, along with the lessons these teach in sharing, competition and strategy. To facilitate this, a wonderful donation of 60 chessboards has initiated the setting up of chess clubs across 15 schools, with the Centre boasting its' own all girls' chess club. A fuse ball table, table tennis and larger toys for the younger ones mean the verandah and library of the Centre are always hives of activity. On designated weekends, movies are shown by projector and special events organised.
In addition to the education services provided at the Centre, we continue our other programs, which you can read about further here. We continue to dream big about what a difference education can make in people's lives and are looking to fundraise to install further Innovation Hubs and expand the support we can offer to the schools in the area.
