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Monze Mutterings
A
sign just outside Monze bearing the words “Lwengu School Bids you a
Safe Journey” (or words to that effect) caught my attention on a
recent trip down to Livingstone. I didn’t think too much about it
until I received a phone call from local Monze farmers, the Savory’s
with the suggestion that perhaps I should pay Lwengu a visit as it
was something that the little Monze community was proud of and they
wanted the greater Zambian community to hear about it.
Lwengu, a Primary and Secondary Boarding school, and situated on the
outskirts of Monze, was the brainchild of Monze residents Joyce and
Shatis Vlahakis. They had battled to find a suitable educational
establishment for their five daughters and Joyce, a teacher, started
a school in a small way in the old Mazabuka Rural Council Offices in
Monze. She realised that there was a huge demand for quality
education at all levels in the area and together with her “Jack of
all Trades” husband, Shatis, started up Lwengu. The school, in its
present location, started in 1998 and now has 220 boarders ranging
in age from 6 to 18. The children come from far (Botswana) and wide
(Copperbelt, Livingstone and Lusaka). With funding from the Belgium
and European Women’s Association and Shatis’s ingenuity on the
building and landscaping front, the school has blossomed into an
educational establishment to be reckoned with. Headmaster, Bonface
Zgambo, was proud to point out that Lwengu, which follows the
Zambian Government syllabus, had, over the years, had 100% pass
rates for Grades seven and 9. Lwengu hopes to introduce A levels
over the next few years . They have a particularly strong computer
and science faculty and when we spoke to some of the children in the
state-of-the-art science lab, many of them aspired to be doctors,
lawyers and sociologists.
Sports fields surround the school and all of the children
participate in a variety of sports, including basketball, rugby,
soccer, netball and athletics. Shatis, who heads up the
Conservation Farming unit (specifically for small scale growers) in
the Southern Province, has introduced a strong conservation ethic
into the system. Indigenous fruit trees abound and each child has
the responsibility for taking care of trees they have planted in the
school grounds. Trees that one day, no doubt, their own children
will be picking the fruit from! For more information on Lwengu
contact them on shato@zamnet.zm |
April
2006