An incredible partnership with CARE and Ipsos will be taking place in the Mantapala refugee settlement in Zambia!
The Ipsos Foundation-funded project will build three new classrooms in the new Mantapala primary school, which will be dedicated to vocational training like wood and metal work, sewing, and more. The new classrooms will reach more students with smaller class sizes and will provide much-needed specialized training to all students in the Mantapala refugee settlement. Students will gain technical skills that will better allow them to secure a job in the future or to create small businesses, as employment opportunities are rare in the settlement. These wonderful new classrooms are also being built with environmentally sustainable materials, preserving the surrounding natural forest by using susun-driednot charcoal fired, bricks and will provide employment to refugees living in the camp.
Zambia has continued to receive refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi who are fleeing violence. As of May, there were more than 14,000 people living in Mantapala camp. Of these, over half are school-aged children.
The Ministry of Education of Zambia revised the school curriculum in 2013 making vocational training mandatory for students in grades 5 to 12. However, several schools, including Mantapala’s, have been unable to provide vocational training to their students due to a lack of infrastructures (dedicated vocational classrooms) and equipment, which is how this wonderful project came about.
Construction of the classroom is underway and they are planned to be completed by the end of September.
A HUGE thank you to Ipsos and to our incredible team at CARE Zambia for making this wonderful project a reality. These classrooms and the knowledge they will bestow will help Zambia’s future leaders to realize their dreams. Stay tuned for more details as the project moves forward!