Guardian Angels Community School

The Guardian Angels Community School is managed by the Sisters of Mercy of St Charles of Borromeo in Chilanga, Zambia. Guardian Angels has classes for children from Pre-school to Grade 7. The school opened in January 2002 as a day-care center. It was established to provide education for children whose parents were receiving palliative treatment or had died of HIV/AIDS in the Mother of Mercy Hospic

e. In 2002 the school had two teachers and 72 pupils. In September of that same year, it moved to larger premises and improved from a day center to a Community School. The school is built on the St. Mary’s Parish land and is registered to the Archdiocese o Lusaka and the Ministry of Education. The management board includes Sister Jeremia Mrowiec, who is the director of the school, and the Parents School Committee (P.C.S.C.). The School offers free education to orphans who have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, and also other vulnerable children in the communities and district of Chilanga, Zambia. The School is sponsored by the Touch Organization of Ireland who has – over the years – donated funds to construct the classroom blocks. There are 450 children in total (194 male and 256 female). We have one head-teacher and nine teachers -2 male and 8 female. How can you help? The school is pleased to have a feeding program, which offers every child one meal per day. One cook is employed, who provides all 450 children with lunch every school day. In the future we would like to have sufficient funding to provide two meals per day to each child, offering them lunch, and also breakfast in the morning, to help them remain engaged during classes. We would like to offer a "Sponsor a classroom" opportunity. This would enable people to sponsor a class, ensuring that the teaching of the children is to a high standard. The donations would go towards providing training for teachers, and ensuring each teacher receives their expected salary each month. One of the main challenges the school faces is its precarious water system and the provision of safe water, sanitation and the improvement of health and wellbeing of the children. The school is in need of a tank/pump to help improve the water system issues. We are lucky to be able to provide education for so many children here at Guardian Angels, however many are unable to progress after grade 7, as they don’t have the money to fund further education. Sponsorship for the Grade 7 children at Guardian Angels Community School, would give them a chance to advance their education even further. We would love to have transport for the children of Guardian Angels Community School. At the moment we have no way of taking the children out for events, as we have no transport to do this. In the future we would love to have a bus to give our children the opportunity to experience learning outside of the classroom.