Search
Home > Community Development Program > 2010 Community Development Projects > Education
Education
The work continues...
With generous donor support The Sumba Foundation USA been able to make vast improvements at 13 primary schools. Some have been renovated and in some cases others have been completely rebuilt from the ground up. These schools are now prospering and providing the children with a safer and a much improved learning environment.

Enrolments are up, children are staying in school longer and in the first four years there was more than a 300% increase in the number of 6th grade graduates. Clearly these schools have proved to be a good investment!

We continue to constantly improve the schools by providing more of what each school needs to teach its children better. We also reward the best students with the opportunity to further their education by providing scholarships.

Now that the schools we support are functioning as they should be we are focusing on seeding basic health, hygiene and dietary information to the students. The large majority of these children will return to their villages between third and sixth grade and within only a few years they will marry and have children of their own. The more knowledge they have the better prepared they will be to help their families stay healthy, to be more productive and to live a better life.

We also want to get this vital information out to the villages, to those that are not in school. A simple and effective way to achieve this is by having movie nights in villages. With a small generator, a projector and screen mounted on our truck we can pull into villages and teach at night. Subjects will vary from basic hygiene and health, malaria, diet and farming and environmental issues.

HERE IS HOW YOU CAN HELP


SCHOOL LUNCHES

($1.25 … the cost to feed a child at school for a month)

It is estimated that more than half of the Sumbanese children under the age of five suffer from malnutrition and anemia due too poor diets. The impact of anemia on children is debilitating. A mild case can impair intellectual development and can lower a child's IQ by between 10 and 15 points. To combat this problem we now distribute vitamins to the school children and provide healthy lunches for student. In many cases this daily meal is the most nutritious one that the children will have.

We are now providing free lunches to children at three of the 13 primary schools. At each there are a group of women volunteers who prepare and cook a porridge of green beans fortified with powdered milk, coconut cream, bananas and a small amount of sugar… the children love it! We also have small vegetable gardens at these schools where we are introducing organic farming to the children. At the gardens the students grow healthy indigenous vegetables that they do not normally eat at home and it’s also an easy and fun way for us to introduce new protein rich vegetables that are not part of the local diet at all.

The school children are all from poor families living up to a four mile walk away from the schools. These are the children that will help us create positive long term change in their community. By improving their health now and teaching them the benefits of a healthy diet and good hygiene we will have created the start of a much needed dietary change.

  • Providing free lunch for primary school children
  • Motivates the children to stay in school longer
  • Increases their ability to learn
  • Vastly improves their overall health and wellbeing
  • Introduces a new foods and a healthy diet that will be taken back by them to their villages
  • Creates paying jobs for farmers in the community
  • Over time creates a new self supporting market economy in the area
As adults these children will grow their own healthier crops for themselves and their children. Some will farm commercially creating small economies throughout the area, for them this could be the start on the road to the end of poverty.

There are 2,965 children in 13 schools we support. At three of the schools we are feeding the children three times a week, this is only because of funding limitations. Nevertheless three times a week is much better than nothing and we are already seeing quick results in the schools being confirmed by teachers reporting that since the program started the children are now able to focus more and better understand lessons.

Our budget for feeding a child three times a week for a month is only $1.25. On average each school has 228 students costing only $285 to provide a healthy meal for a month or $2,850 for a 10 month school year.

HERE IS HOW YOU CAN HELP




SPONSOR A SCHOOL OF 228 YOUNG STUDENTS WITH ONE YEAR OF HEALTHY MEALS FOR ONLY US$2,850


FEED 228 YOUNG STUDENTS AT A SCHOOL FOR A MONTH FOR ONLY US$285




EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS

We have created courses in hygiene, ecology, re-cycling, water issues, malaria and other diseases that affect the region, farming and even English. (a huge request from both the students and the teachers). We need to purchase more teaching aids such as books and posters to further develop our in-school education program and to expand it to all of the schools we support.

YOU CAN HELP US BUY THE TEACHING AIDS WE NEED FOR ONLY US$1,000



EDUCATION IN THE VILLAGES

With a small generator, a projector and a screen mounted on our truck we can pull into villages and teach at night. Subjects will vary from basic hygiene and health, to malaria, diet, farming and environmental issues. With this equipment we can educate thousands of villagers on how to live a healthier and better life.

YOU CAN HELP US TEACH THOUSANDS OF VILLAGERS FOR ONLY US$1,500




SCHOOL SUPPLIES FOR CHILDREN

Each term we distribute a complete set of writing and coloring books, pencils, pens, crayons, rulers, erasers, pencil sharpeners and compasses to all children in the schools we support. Without our help most of the children would not have them because the parents just cannot afford it.

FOR $500 YOU CAN SPONSOR A GROUP OF 100 STUDENTS WITH THESE SUPPLIES FOR ONE YEAR.




HIGH SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIPS FOR OUR BEST STUDENTS

At last we can offer the best students with an opportunity to further their education and not only help themselves but also their community. Two to three of the best students from each the schools we support are picked by their teachers as candidates for Sumba Foundation Scholarships. The final decisions are made by us after interviewing all of the candidates. All of the students receiving scholarships will be reviewed yearly before receiving the next year’s grant.

Scholarships will be given to students wanting to study at the government nursing, farming, mechanical & construction and hotel trade’s schools. The best graduates will be offered employment at The Sumba Foundation and at Nihiwatu Resort. Those we cannot employ will still have opportunities for employment with the government or in the private sector.

The costs of the schools vary. For instance the nursing trade school costs $750 a year and the other trade schools are $300. We also We do ask that donors commit to the full 4 years of each child’s education. We will contact you with photos and details of each student and their yearly progress reports.

SPONSOR A NURSING SCHOOL STUDENT FOR US$750 A YEAR FOR

3 YEARS. THE COST TO GRADUATE IS ONLY US$2,250

SPONSOR A TRADE SCHOOL STUDENT FOR US$300 A YEAR.


Contact Us | Sitemap | Privacy Policy
Design : TatenWeb Development : TatenContent Management : iPublish