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About us... |
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We are only small but in the two years since our
founding we have built strong |
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relationships within the community, as well as a
reputation for delivering |
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tangible change and development. |
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Our focus is on wide-ranging infrastructure developments
that enhance both |
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direct learning environments, and other wide facilities
however we also assist |
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in the provision of learning resources and, in the
future, will support the |
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development of teachers. |
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| Our story |
| African
Promise was established in 2008 by our graduate founder
Charles |
| Coldman.
In 2003 Charles spent four months volunteering in the
Kasigau |
| community
with the gap-year organisation Africa & Asia Venture. At
the end |
| of his
time in the village of Jora, Charles made a promise to
the schools' |
| headmaster
that we would return to help rebuild the school. |
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| That he
did in 2006, spending six months living with a local
family whilst |
| managing
the work at school. Seeing so many childrens lives and
futures |
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transformed by one project made Charles look to other
schools in the wider |
| community. |
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| So that
single promise has grown to an African Promise
and in 2008 work |
| began at a
second school. |
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Meet the team >>> |
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Contact us >>> |
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| Why? |
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Watch Patrick's story to find out... |
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| (video
coming soon) |
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| What we do |
| Our work
can be broken down into a number of areas: |
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Primary level learning facilities & resources |
| We fund
projects ranging from the renovation or rebuilding of
classrooms, to |
| the
construction of purpose-built libraries. All our builds
are completed to the |
| highest
possible standard in order to create environments as
conducive as |
| possible
to effective learning. Where we renovate or build
classrooms we also |
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modern classroom furniture and storage space, and we
stock our |
| libraries
with reading books chosen by teaching staff. |
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Nursery level learning facilities & resources |
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The development and improvment of the very grassroots
education is key. We |
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build new or renovate existing nursery schools, and
equip them with playground |
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equipment and suitable classroom furntiure so that we
can begin to help |
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transform early childhood education by providing
stimulating learning environm- |
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ents that deliver the opportunity for children to have
fun whilst developing |
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formative life and learning skills. |
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Sanitation, water & hygiene |
| A healthy,
well-fed, well-watered child is a child more able to
concentrate and |
| learn. We
install modern, safe and hygienic sanitation units with
hand-wash |
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areas and seperate facilities for boys & girls, and
primary pupils & nursery |
| pupils and
staff. We also install water supply and storage
capabilities in an |
| effort to
ensure there is no day without water in the schools. |
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Sustainability & self-sufficiency |
| Some of
our projects are also aiming to improve the
sustainability and long- |
| term
self-sufficiency of the schools. Our eco-kitchen
projects aim to reduce |
| the impact
of the schools on the environment by minimising firewood
use, |
| whilst the
associated kitchen garden projects aim to allow the
school to grow |
| its own
vegetables and greens either to supplement school
lunches or to sell |
| to the
communities and thus generate a revenue stream. |
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| How we
work |
| We believe
that lasting and sustainable development can only be
achieved |
| when those
benefiting from any change are part of the driving force
behind it. |
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| We work in
partnership with school management committees and
education |
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authorities, and with all stakeholders within the
tight-knit village communities. |
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| Our small
team of full-time local employees directly oversee the
day-to-day |
| management
of our projects and all labour required for building
work is |
| employed
locally. In this way we have employed over 150 people
and injected |
| over
£25,000 directly into the pockets of local families. |
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| Other
community members are responsible for collecting locally
available |
| building
materials such as sand, and for bringing water when it
is required. It |
| is a
prerequisite of our support that the parents and
community is actively |
| engaged
with the projects. |
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