JUST at the mention of the name Development Aid from People to People (DAPP), what comes to everyone’s mind here in Zambia is the sale of second-hand clothes.
But Stanley Mpubula, 25, considers DAPP as his saviour after the organisation incorporated him in its Children’s Town programme in 1998 and he is a teacher today because of the support he got from the organisation.
Established in 1992, Children’s Town in Chibombo’s Malambanyama village, the centre has seen more than 1,500 vulnerable children graduate from the school and pursue lucrative careers to contribute to the development of the country.
Children’s Town, situated 45 kilometres from Lusaka, facilitated Mr Mpubula’s education from primary to tertiary level.
Mr Mpubula narrated to this author how, in 1998, he found himself at the school run by DAPP.
Born in a family of four, Mr Mpubula recalls that after being enrolled into grade one in 1991 at Kasenga Primary School in Chongwe, he stopped school in grade two because of financial constraints.
During that period all he could do was to look after cattle instead of going to school. To a boy of his age, looking after cattle was easier than helping his parents till the land.
“I started looking after cattle because I did not have anyone to take responsibility of my education.
My father was a polygamist and all of his wives looked up to him for the well- being of their children,” Mr Mpubula recalls.
He recalls that on January 5, 1998, his sister who was married and lived in the Copperbelt had heard of this school and decided to take him there for his education.
Mr Mpubula’s sister never looked at the years that had passed without him not being in class and insisted he goes into grade five despite him being 13 years old at the time.
Mr Mpubula said he faced a lot of challenges at school because he was younger and small in stature as compared to his classmates who were older than him.
Every time he reported in class his classmates jeered at him, and as a newcomer, this made his life difficult.
A few days later, Mr Mpubula sought the audience of the class teacher who he describes as very understanding and he was moved back to grade two.
“I found it very difficult to learn in a class of big pupils. I used to be ill-treated and learning was never enjoyable and I had to ask to be moved to a lower grade. Thank God I was moved by this very understanding teacher,” he recalls.
Because of his passion for education, Mr Mpubula worked hard to emerge first in class every time they had an examination.
“I realised I had nothing as a human being to count on or show my children. So, I had to put my entire mind on education.
“Because of my passion for education, I used to be number one each time we had end of term examinations and when I reached grade five, my teacher recommended that I attempt the grade seven examinations and surprisingly I made it to grade eight,” Mr Mpubula recalls.
Mr Mpubula qualified to grade eight at Kafushi Secondary School in Chibombo where he did his grade eight to 12 and upon completion in 2005, Children’s Town engaged him as an untrained teacher taking up grade six.
A year later, he decided to go to Kitwe Teacher’s Training College and was first sponsored by DAPP but due to huge demands of DAPP’s financial support from the community, Mr Mpubula decided to apply for a government bursary and luckily he was given.
The two-year teaching course has seen Mr Mpubula recruited as a teacher at Ndola’s Northrise Basic School where he has been since early this year.
Going back down memory lane, Mr Mpubula says the importance of school was not clearly explained to him and instead, he looked at school as a waste of time not until he was incorporated by DAPP.
“I think parents should take an active role in children’s education by explaining to their children the importance of going to school. Let your children see the relevance of school and visualise them being prominent entrepreneurs, chief executives of their own company or civil servants,” he says.
The Children’s Town runs a rehabilitation and integration programme for former street children and a community school for orphans and vulnerable children from the surrounding communities.
After being in Zambia for 20 years now, DAPP has made an impact in the lives of many and still pledges its continued support to the education sector.
DAPP Zambia managing director Rene Schultz disclosed that DAPP is in the process of starting a teachers’ training programme focusing on training teachers for rural schools.
Mr Schultz said DAPP will open eight teachers’ training colleges in eight provinces, who will be trained to take up the teaching profession in rural areas with the first one to be opened in 2012.
“For the 20 years we have been in Zambia, I think we are better placed to invest more in education.
Because of this, DAPP will construct eight teachers’ training colleges around the country whose main focus will be the rural populace,” he said.
The Children’s Town is a project offering a home, safe environment and education in all spheres of life to allow the children to transform themselves into self-sustaining and creative citizens. Currently, the Children’s Town has 434 children of which 54 are boarders.
Since 1990 when the organisation was registered, DAPP’s main objective has been poverty alleviation and community empowerment.
Indeed, poverty is a coil that leads to lack of education, low productivity and high child mortality which leads to further poverty and underdevelopment in various communities.
For the past 20 years of its existence in Zambia, DAPP has implemented various projects to work with people in need by providing knowledge, skills and tools that will empower them and their families to overcome the challenges of everyday life, thereby improving their quality of life.
DAPP also supports various communities in Zambia. The projects promote education at all levels through programmes in schools, training the teachers, teaching the peasant farmers and their families, training the workers in the projects and training those around the projects.
DAPP is also working in the fight against HIV and AIDS under the Total Control of the Epidemic (TCE) programme and HOPE project, taking care of orphans and empowering various communities through projects like Child Aid, Children’s Town, Farmers Club, and the School WASH and quality Education Project.
It also promotes solidarity and humanism among people by creating the foundation upon which these can exist.
DAPP is a member of the Federation Humana People to People, which has its headquarters in Zimbabwe.
Humana People to People is a networking of non-profit organisations in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Latin America, all working in the field of international solidarity, co-operation and development.
Humana People to People was created to contribute to the fight against colonialism and apartheid in the late 1970s.
When the last countries of southern Africa had won their independence and later when apartheid was abolished, Humana People to People continued to contribute to building the new societies and better lives for the people.
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