Beyond Ourselves is partnering together with Kamatipa Community School to build a small classroom block for their school. We recently sat down with the pastor and founder of the school, Moses Tembo, to talk about the need in the community and the impact this school building will have.
Pastoring a church in Kamatipa brought a lot of insight on how low the literacy levels are in the community and how they were so many early marriages. This broke my heart and this is what birthed the vision of starting a community school. I thought children were better off having some education than spending their entire day at home in a community that did not value education. My dream for the Kamatipa community has always been to see a community of people that is capable of living a decent life through valuing education.
When I started the school and lumped all the children in different grades into our church hall, people in the community thought I was crazy – they laughed at me and the situation in which children were learning. People were quick to mention that I was going to dilapidate the already unstable church structure with my visionless school.
I never gave up and sought for people to assist the school. Beyond Ourselves coming on board to help assist in the building of the 2 classroom block has been a prayer answered. When the community started seeing the building materials being brought on site, everyone was excited and now the story has changed from being a laughingstock to even providing jobs for the locals. Providing jobs means families are being fed as the poverty levels in Kamatipa are so high.
I believe the community will never be the same with the building of the classrooms. My hope for the future is to have Kamatipa as a grade 7 exam centre.
Thank you Beyond Ourselves and Partners
Pastor Moses Tembo
