Tongabezi Trust School

Location :

The Tongabezi Trust School was set up by Vanessa Parker, who was previously teaching as a volunteer in Livingstone. Vanessa is the wife of Ben, who established Tongabezi in 1990 together with the late William Ruck-Keene.

The school opened on 1 May 1996 and due to its huge success it has been growing ever since. Vanessa donates her time to the school on a purely voluntary basis. The school provides education to the Tongabezi staff children, as well as children from the local community, in an area where educational funding and materials are scarce.

Tujatane has grown from a pre-school class of 15 children, to a primary school with over 220 students. The school has charity status in the UK and is completely funded on donations. Apart from the first classroom, which Tongabezi built, the development of the school has been made possible through the generous sponsorship of donors all over the world. These donations range from individual child sponsorship, teacher sponsorship, help with our food programme, medical programme to building projects. The school currently has seven classrooms, an office, a library, a kitchen, an amphitheater, a storeroom, a computer room with several donated laptops, a fantastic music room with guitars and keyboards as well as local instruments such as the marimba and our brand new science laboratory.

We now have 8 teachers (including our head teacher), part-time French and music teachers and several assistants (non qualified) to provide support in every grade. Their dedication and enthusiasm have resulted in fun and lively classrooms full of interest and activity.

We have computers donated from several schools in the UK; a TV/Video and a library of used books from the UK and Australia. The school has an amphitheater for assemblies and performances, as well as changing rooms, a music room (full of instruments, both African and Western) and a newly restored playground.

The children are enjoying the chance to learn to work on computers and also to watch on video things that are outside of their experience.
While the cultures of different countries vary in myriad ways, they also contain many shared values. Among these is the universal understanding that education is a core component of healthy development. Tujatane is providing an education to 116 children whose ages range from two to fifteen years. All students come from low income families.

The children of Tujatane typically live with their families in mud huts. They have no running water and limited access to electricity. The huts are comprised of one or two rooms which are used as bedrooms for parents and children and a living room for all. The kitchen is an outside charcoal burner. The shower is a grass wall to which the family brings a bucket for washing themselves.

Through education, Tujatane becomes the starting point for change. The children and their parents understand that education will bring opportunity. You can help to make that opportunity happen.
By sponsoring a child at Tujatane, you bring assurance of education to her and her family.
Sponsorship brings many rewards. You will have the wonderful pleasure of getting to know your child through email or traditional correspondence, which we encourage. You'll be able to follow your child's progress through the school through updates each term. And you will know that you have provided the cornerstone for the improvement of living conditions for the people of Tongabezi.

Tujatane currently feeds all of its 220 + students and teaching staff a full lunch every day.
Students also receive porridge at break times, as it's rare that the children will have breakfast at home.
The menu is basic, but nutritionally balanced with eggs on the menu three days a week and beans on the other days.
The World Food Programme has been supporting us in providing 'HEPS' (High Energy Protein Supplement).

The cost of the Food Programme is around U$10 or £6 a month per child and is fund raised for separately to the Sponsorship Programme.

• Anynomous

  14 July 2018

  Our Pre-schoolers getting warm before starting their lessons yesterday morning! ☀️❄️

• Anynomous

  05 July 2018

  Happy 4th of July to all of our friends in America! 🇺🇸

• Anynomous

  29 June 2018

  Sometimes when it’s cold, we do our lessons in the sunshine! 😍❄️☀️🇿🇲

• Anynomous

  22 June 2018

  Teacher Susan and Teacher Evans showing our students basic First Aid in our assembly today! 👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️

• Anynomous

  14 June 2018

  There is always something going on when you visit Tujatane. Today’s treat was our music band having a great time practicing their new song! ☺️🎼

• Anynomous

  08 June 2018

  We love having visitors come to Tujatane from all over the world. Sometimes we have visitors from the Animal Kingdom too!! 😄

• Anynomous

  06 June 2018

  Life. Is. Good!

• Anynomous

  04 June 2018

  Last week was Maths & Science week. Our children showcased some amazing projects and we were thrilled to be joined by some female doctors and up and coming female scientists to empower our girls 👩‍⚕️👩‍🔬

• Anynomous

  24 May 2018

  Wow! Amazing Africa Day celebrations at Tujatane today. Everyone looked stunning in their attire and had great fun doing a variety of Africa themed activities 🧡🌍

• Anynomous

  16 May 2018

  Wednesday hump day? Not here at Tujatane, it’s Wednesday STYLE day! 😎

• Anynomous

  13 May 2018

  Happy Zambian Mother’s Day to each and every wonderful mother, aunty, sister and guardian out there! Also, big love to Vanessa who is mother to us all here at Tujatane 🧡

• Anynomous

  12 May 2018

  Look at our amazing new art aprons that our wonderful women’s sewing group made! 😍 A big thanks to Liz Hauck who has been running a fantastic workshop for our children this week. Watch this space for their final collage..! 🎨🖌

• Anynomous

  01 May 2018

  A big happy birthday to Felix from FAIRFAX & FAVOR! We hope you have a lovely day! Lots of love from all of us at Tujatane Tongabezi Trust School 🥂🎁🎈🎂😀🎉

• Anynomous

  26 April 2018

  Thank you SO much to Abi from Abi James for sending us more beads and fimo so we can make even more wonderful jewellery to raise funds for our school! ❤️😘

• Anynomous

  24 April 2018

  Best friends relaxing and sharing special secrets ☺️😍

• Anynomous

  21 April 2018

  Wow! No wonder our children always look so smart when they have Teacher Mike as such an amazing and smart role model!

• Anynomous

  20 April 2018

  And that’s a wrap... term 1 over and out! What an amazing term we have had and already the children are looking forward to the holiday programme starting next week!

• Anynomous

  13 April 2018

  At Tongabezi Lodge, it is all about the small detail and special touches... and some of those extra special touches are made by our wonderful children! 😍

• Anynomous

  11 April 2018

  A HUGE thank you to Abi from @soul_design_jewellery for running the most amazing jewellery workshop with some of our students for the past 2 days. They have learnt SO much and we cannot wait to start selling the goodies they’ve made in the @tongabezi shop to raise money for the school. Well done to Mary and Patrick for their amazing winning necklace designs!