Unexpected challenge and composting toilets in Kashitu
In the rural area of Kashitu in Zambia, the local community is building the first secondary school for its children. Czech volunteers have been involved in this project for over four years. This time, we have launched the project on several fronts: we are building the first classroom, composting toilets and a composting plant. We are aiming not only for the self-sufficiency of the local school, but also for a stable livelihood for local farmers. With you, we can get the classroom under a roof and complete the composting toilets, so the locals can benefit from for the upcoming planting season, which begins in autumn in Zambia. Join our construction of the campus that connects education, the local community, its traditions and Czech know-how!
As a result of the significant rise of the Zambian kwacha against the US dollar, the prices of construction materials and equipment have increased by approximately 18–20% over the past two months. The budgets we prepared more than six months ago for grant applications and our public fundraising campaign therefore no longer reflects the actual costs. Being honest - the money we have been raising throughout the year has significantly less purchasing power at this moment. That is why we are asking for your support. At the moment, we are approximately 200,000 CZK (8 300 EUR) short of completing this year’s plans, which means putting a roof on the classroom and finishing the composting toilets for the school campus. An additional 100,000 CZK would allow us to expand existing projects, such as beekeeping, the women’s sewing workshop, and the carpentry workshop for young people.
This year in Kashitu is dedicated to the first classroom designed as an educational space for agricultural skills. It will later used as one of the classrooms of the secondary school complex, which, once completed, will be able to accommodate up to 250 students each year. At the same time, we are building another important part of the campus: composting toilets. These will not only provide sanitation facilities for the school. They will also serve as an educational tool for the entire local community. We will demonstrate how composting works, how similar toilets can be built in ordinary households, and how local farmers can benefit from fully processed compost. Those farmers are increasingly dependent on expensive industrial fertilisers, which prices and availability are highly unstable and affected by the local economy as well as globally. Moreover, an average farmer is able to save only small amount of money obtained during harvest - it makes around 20 % of the fertiliser needed for next season. Compost produced through these toilets could therefore provide an important additional source of nutrients for their soil.
Only with your support, we can keep building.
Our most urgent priority is to manufacture the roof trusses and roofing materials so that we can enclose the first classroom before the rainy season begins in November. At the same time, we will complete the composting toilets, providing essential sanitation facilities for the future school campus. The project will also include a composting facility and a demonstration plot, where we will work together with local farmers to show how compost can be used to replace part of the currently used industrial fertilisers.
Another challenge in building Kashitu
An unstable economic situation is one of the risks that comes with implementing a project in a developing country. The local economy is affected by global events, election periods, droughts and poor harvests, as well as many other factors hardly predicted or controlled. As a team, hovewer, we are able to adapt to these changes. We respond to them in ways that allow us to carry out our plans, even when the original budget is no longer sufficient. By finding practical solutions on site, we can replace expensive equipment with more affordable alternatives that work just as well. We can handle smaller challenges, but a roof is a big thing – and that is why we ask for your help. Your donation will help us complete this year’s classroom and composting toilets despite the challenging economic situation. Support the construction of the secondary school in Kashitu at a time when your help is needed more than ever.
Thank you for your support. Together, we have already succeeded in building this part of the newly emerging campus.
Learn more about the secondary school project on our website here.
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