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The 20-20 Network
By Ruth Mwenya
I bet you’ve got
some somewhere …….. Yes, they are pretty useless. You probably
don’t know what to do with them. But despite the fact that nobody
seems to want them, you keep being given them and you don’t want to
throw them away! So they’re piling up in a drawer somewhere, or
being used as a bookmark, or at the bottom of a pocket or handbag
……. What am I talking about? TWENTY KWACHA NOTES, of course……..!
The dilemma of
what to do with K20 notes was the seed of our “Project Help” at the
Italian School. I lived in Serenje for over 4 years before moving
to Lusaka and K20 notes are rarely seen there and never used. So on
coming to Lusaka and visiting Shoprite a bit more frequently my pile
of K20 notes started to build up. In a country where there is so
much need, how frustrating to end up with a pile of money that seems
useless. But of course it’s NOT useless, if you add it all up …
Our Grade 8
students at school (Italian School, that is) took on the project
with enthusiasm. In the January term we discussed the best way to
help people : do we give them time, money or resources (we decided
we should give them all three!) In our Design & Technology lessons
we designed boxes to collect money for charity and chose the most
suitable one to be built out of timber. In Drama lessons, after
watching a documentary, we developed a piece of drama depicting the
plight of children who live on the streets of Lusaka and presented
it to the school at assembly.
After the Easter
holidays we painted the box which the carpenter had ready for us,
and after a promotional Assembly, we started collecting……… K20
notes, K50 notes, K100 notes and anything people wanted to give. We
had no idea how much we would be able to raise….K50,000? K100,000?
We didn’t know what the response would be either. Well, it was
amazing, children were bringing money every day and when we counted
after one week, we had over K100,000!
The Project grew
and grew. Parents of students have collected in their offices and
after appearing on ZNBC TV people from as far as Kabwe have sent us
K20 notes. By the end of term we had raised almost K1,200,000. Our
students wanted to help in other children’s education and have
decided to hand the money to the Zambian NGO “Children in Crisis” to
pay for school fees for 1 child in High School and 2 children in
Primary school.
“Project Help” is
having a holiday along with the school but will be up and running
again in September. So if you don’t know what to do with your K20
notes, please contact us and we will put them to good use. We would
really like the Project to keep growing to see more money raised for
a good cause. Maybe the Grade 8’s Rap will inspire you to join in:
“There
was a day when we used to say
Twenty Kwachas are so yesterday
But
not today, now we say: Hey, hey, hey!
Bring
your money to the Italian School
Put
it in the box if you wanna be cool
We
wanna give kids an education.
Get
‘em off the streets, help the Nation
Today’s a new day, say: Hey, hey, hey!
Bring
your money every day!”
You might like to
set up your own “Project Help” at school or in your offices and then
donate the money to educate children or support them in other ways.
If you want more details please contact the Italian School on 254181
or email us at
italsch@zamnet.zm. |
August
2006