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An Update from Zambia
Thursday, March 03 2012

PEAS has expanded our student population by 92% in 2012, with 4358 students now in the PEAS network. After opening a record six schools in early 2012, PEAS is now running 13 schools across Uganda and Zambia.

Two of the five recently opened schools were built in partnership with ARK (Absolute Return for Kids) and another two with our partners The Costa Foundation. All new PEAS schools were able to engage USE–funding for all eligible students in 2012, and so all eligible Senior 1 students will not have to pay tuition fees. Everyone at PEAS is very proud of this development, as it means we can now widen access to secondary education to even the most disadvantaged children.

This month we would like to give you an update on our first school in Zambia.

On January 9th, we launched George Secondary School, PEAS Zambia’s first school in Ndola in the Copperbelt region. It has been an exciting development for everyone at PEAS with 204 students enrolled, over half of whom are girls.

George Secondary School has two classes of Grade 8s in the school and three classes of Grade 10s, with 10 permanent members of teaching staff. This gives the school a good pupil to classroom ratio of 1:40, which is in line with government regulations. Recent developments at the school include a new kitchen with fuel-efficient stoves and a staff room for the 8 teachers working at the school. We are also in the process of completing a dormitory, to be ready for pupils to move into in April ready for Term 2, and an equipped laboratory to be ready in mid- March.

Two IGAs have been launched at George Secondary thanks to T&J Meyer; a poultry house and an arable Project. Both take place at the schools and are one of the main contributors towards PEAS’ goal of sustainability, as well as providing a key location for students to learn vocational and practical skills, which are always in high demand.

The poultry house will generate a steady source of revenue for the school once it is fully up and running. Furthermore, it will provide the school with a steady supply of eggs and potentially also meat that can be included in the students’ lunches to increase the protein value of the meals. We expect a healthy profit of K4 million (£500) after the first six weeks, with the initial costs being covered the project will start to fund itself by being able to buy feed for the chickens, fumigation and vaccination materials and replace any loss of chickens or eggs. The revenues will also be used to purchase more teaching and learning equipment for the school: K4 million could purchase four whole class sets of text books for Maths or English.

The arable project was set up early on to ensure its proper integration into the school and allow the school to gather at least two harvests already in the first year of operation. Beans and cabbage have been planted in the field and will contribute towards the student’s lunches, and thus reduce the running costs of the school.

What is next for PEAS Zambia?

George Secondary School, as the high registration numbers show, has been hugely successful in expanding access to the poorer families in the locality. We will need to expand the school quickly in order to develop the capacity for the school to absorb these students without compromising the quality of the build and the facilities, and most importantly, without effecting the teaching and learning in the school. The school will eventually grow to maturity at 1,000 students and PEAS can help realise the dreams of boys like Ephraim Nyenge, 16.

“I was able to come to George Secondary School because it’s cheap and my parents can afford the fees. When I leave school I want to be a policeman because there are people who do not treat everyone well and I want to help those people.”
 

An Education raises £60,000 for PEAS
Sunday, November 11 2011

On Friday night (11/11/11) Katherine Parkinson (IT Crowd) and her team, employees from Oliver Wyman, reigned victorious as the winners of the inaugural 'An Education' quiz, at Westminster school. Quizmaster Jeremy Paxman led teams through six rounds of grueling general knowledge questions to see Katherine’s team defeat teams headed up by captains such as Louis Theroux, Bruce Dickinson and Deborah Meaden. The best and brightest employees from city firms such as Deloitte, ING and Barnett Waddingham, were questioned by Jeremy Paxman, famous for hosting University Challenge and Newsnight.

 

Click on the photos above to see more on our Facebook page.

Deborah Meaden, entrepreneur and Dragon’s Den judge bidded £5000 to win the honour of naming a classroom for a PEAS school in Uganda. Deborah Meaden says “Organising a quiz to raise funds for an education charity is so spot on. It’s been a blindingly inspirational night and it was lovely to have named a class. The sustainability of PEAS is what engaged me and I’m really looking forward to seeing PEAS’ work on the ground and the long term difference it makes. ”
She was just one of the night’s team captains alongside Louis Theroux, and other special guests including actor Larry Lamb, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, Iron Maiden leader singer Bruce Dickinson and Apprentice advisor Nick Hewer.

Winning team captain, Katherine Parkinson says “I’m so delighted to have won. It’s been a privilege to have been in a room with so many clever people and great to win a quiz once! It’s been a lot of fun too.” The Oliver Wyman team were closely followed by a team from Deloitte, led by comedian Richard Herring, who took second place.

The event raised over £60,000 for PEAS, which will help us to launch five new schools in Uganda in February. The £60,000 raised could help PEAS build as much as twelve classrooms in Uganda, allowing PEAS to enroll hundreds of new students.

John Rendel, PEAS’ CEO said: "PEAS hopes to open five schools in Uganda and one in Zambia in February, and this event has helped to raise much needed funds to help equip the schools so they can give its students the best education from the beginning. We are delighted with everyone’s response tonight "

The teams were given some respite from the brain busting questions during a dinner and auction, which saw guests bid for a double date with TV actor Larry Lamb and his son George Lamb, and up and coming designer Alicia Duncan Smith, daughter of cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith, donate a bespoke couture dress to a lucky bidder for £3000. Comedian and Spaced actor Peter Serafinowicz outbid Charlie Higson (co-creator of the Fast Show and author) for a Savile Row tailored suit.

For more information about the event, the charity or special guest or corporate involvement in An Education, please contact Abigail Colley on 020 3117 1918, 07783586899 or abigail.colley@peas.org.uk. 

Sarah Ntiiro High School gets a new kitchen
Friday, November 11 2010

Thanks to Hazel's Footprints Trust, Sarah Ntiiro High School has got a new permanent kitchen building with fuel-efficient wood burning stoves.

PEAS would like to say a massive thank you to the Hazel's Footprints Trust for funding a new permanent kitchen building at Sarah Ntiiro High School. The kitchen replaces a temporary wooden construction where staff were cooking lunch for over 100 students on open fires.

The new kitchen has been fitted with two fuel-efficient wood burning stoves, which will halve the amount of firewood used to cook lunch. These cost savings will be translated into sustainably providing five free school places a year at Sarah Ntiiro.

PEAS hopes to be able to build a permanent kitchen at all of its other schools (currently only Forest High School has one). Fully fitted with the stoves they cost around £8,000, if you would like to fund one please get in touch.

Bricks made by students build new block at Onwards & Upwards
Friday, November 11 2010

Students at Onwards and Upwards spent their holidays making bricks as part of the school's Income Generating Activity. Albert Sebulime, Sowedi Bogere, Abbey Muyomba and Umar Mukiubya of the S6 class told of their experience:

We started the project in 2008, working everyday during the school holidays except on Sundays. We are all boarding students so it was not a great change to be living at the school. Brick-making was a particularly good project for us as we have now learnt skills we can use after we leave school, to make some money and to build our own homes.

We each mastered different tasks: Umar mixed the bricks, Sowedi compressed the brick-making machine, Abbey removed the bricks from the machine and Albert took the finished bricks to store. We used our bricks to build a new classroom block at our school. We are very proud of what we have achieved and we think the new school building looks great. It felt good knowing that our work would make it easier for the school to build its new block.

Matt runs New York for PEAS
Friday, November 11 2010

This Sunday, brave PEAS runner Matt Jury will cover a gruelling 26.2 miles to raise money for our schools in Uganda. And he's gone all the way to New York to do it!

PEAS would like to say a massive thank you to Matt, who has spent the last months training for the New York marathon, which he'll be running this Sunday, 7 November 2010, to raise money for PEAS.

PEAS spoke to Matt just before he left for New York earlier this week and he was feeling confident about the race.

Matt set himself an ambitious £2,000 fundraising target, which he is well on the way to reaching. If you would like to sponsor Matt and give him that extra push round the course on Sunday visit his justgiving page.

Well done Matt, and good luck from everyone at PEAS

Pioneering a new school in Mityana!
Wednesday, October 10 2010

A new school, Pioneer High, is opening in February 2011 in Namongo Sub County, Mityana District, thanks to the generous funding of the Costa Foundation!

The PEAS Education Consultant, Laura Brown, recently visited the school site. She came across one of the locals, a coffee farmer who will benefit greatly from the new school, and he told her his story:

"My name is Moses. I have lived in this house, with my wife Gladys, for over twenty years. I have 2 acres of land where I grow coffee beans. When they are ready I spread them out and people come to buy them by the cupfull.

I have five children. The oldest one is 18 and he is in secondary school in Mityana. It takes him over 3 hours to walk to school in the morning. None of my other children go to school. We were all very excited when we found out that a new school is being built right next door. We feel very lucky. I will make sure my children attend the school and study hard."

This is only one of countless similar stories. PEAS is addressing a real demand in the area for secondary education. Read more about Pioneer High School.

Check out the photos below! 

Thinking caps on. Pencils sharpened. Answer sheets at the ready. GO!
Friday, November 11 2011

This evening, PEAS will hold our biggest ever fundraiser to launch our goal to create 100,000 sustainable places in PEAS schools by 2017.

Jeremy Paxman will host the inaugural ‘An Education’ quiz in aid of PEAS in the Up School Hall at Westminster School. Tonight we will see over 200 guests from 20 city firms join team captains Louis Theroux, Bruce Dickinson and Deborah Meaden amongst others to battle it out through six rounds of questioning from Jeremy Paxman.

The quiz will see the best and brightest employees from city firms such as Deloitte, ING and Barnett Waddingham, questioned by Jeremy Paxman, famous for hosting University Challenge and Newsnight. Deborah Meaden, entrepreneur and Dragon’s Den judge, says: “I have a real competitive streak so I’m looking forward to seeing who else my team is up against.” She will join Louis Theroux, and other special guests including actor Larry Lamb, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, Iron Maiden leader singer Bruce Dickinson and Apprentice advisor Nick Hewer.

PEAS hopes that An Education will raise over £40,000 in funds vital to launch new schools in Uganda and Zambia. John Rendel, PEAS’ CEO said: "PEAS hopes to open five schools in Uganda and one in Zambia in February, and this event has helped to raise much needed funds to help equip the schools with blackboards, desk and chairs, so that each school can give its students the best education from the beginning."
 

For all press enquiries about the evening, please contact Abigail on 020 3117 1918 or 07783586899. Alternatively send an email at abigail.colley@peas.org.uk.

Equator 24 raises thousands for PEAS
Monday, October 10 2011

An ambitious and very enthusiastic team last week completed the Equator 24 cycling challenge for PEAS. They crossed the massive distance of 1020 km between Brazzaville & Ouesso over ten days, completing on September 30th.

Both the PEAS team and the Equator 24 team would like to say a big thank you to everyone who donated and helped £5,777.00 for Equator 24. Equator 24 would also like to thank the congolese authorities, the embassy in Paris, The Red Cross in Congo, companies such as Oakam, Les Depeches de Brazzaville, Total, MTN, Air France, BGFI, and companies in England such as Madison Cycles, Cotswold Outdoor.

Frederic Nze, CEO of Oakam, a corporate supporter of PEAS, and the founder of the Equator 24 initiative, commented that “Equator 24 is a fantastic event and our team at Oakam aims to raise at least £200,000 for the charity.' He said Oakam is  'are aware of the educational disadvantages in Africa and together with PEAS is dedicated to helping overcome these as much as we can.'

Tomas Urbanek, store manager at the Oakam in Stratford and 2011 participant of Equator 24 said of the ride that 'It is a real test of resilience and teamwork that will ultimately test our limits.'

You can read more about the trip (in both french and english!) please visit www.equator24.org.

Costa Fundraiser of the Year wins trip of a lifetime
Wednesday, August 08 2011

Costa Foundation store manager Clare Peacock has recently returned from a whirlwind one-week trip to Uganda to see Hibiscus and Pioneer High Schools, funded by the Costa Foundation, and opened in February 2011. 

 


Voted Costa Foundation Fundraiser of the Year 2010 by her fellow store managers, Clare’s trip was a reward from Costa to thank her for her fundraising efforts over the year. She was accompanied by Costa Foundation manager Piers Blake, and managed to not only fit in visits to three PEAS schools, but also got to see the exciting new sites on which PEAS expect to build two new future schools to open February 2012.

Clare told us that one of her favourite parts of the trip was talking to the students at the schools, emphasising how overwhelmed she was by their focus. “When I asked what they did after school, they simply said 'revise'. And I believe them....most of them have only begun to learn English since they arrived at the school, yet were already able to communicate with us very well”. At Pioneer High School, Clare was particularly “impressed by how highly they rate education. They definitely prioritise things differently to kids in the UK, though maybe that’s because they don’t have the distractions of TV and mobile phones”!

The trip was also a great chance for the manager of a Teesside Costa store to visit some coffee farms. After travelling high into the hills of the Rwenzori Mountains, Clare was able to meet some of the coffee farmers in Bwesumbu, a sub-district with 8 primary schools, but currently no secondary school to speak of. Bwesumbu is the future site of a PEAS secondary school to be opened in February 2012.

Clare tells us that her trip to Uganda has ‘left her in awe of the impact the Foundation has made’ and ‘determined to ensure more money than ever is raised this year.’

‘Seeing the results made me so proud that we have made that difference. Everything we’ve done has been so worthwhile, and it’s made me more determined than ever to make sure that we raise a record amount this year. Because, believe me, they really do deserve it!”

For more information on how PEAS is supported by companies such as Costa, and how your company could get involved, please email priya.mishra@peas.org.uk or call 020 3117 2497.

 
 
The Costa Foundation supports coffee-growing communities around the world. Set up in 2006, the Foundation helps to provide access to education in these communities, as well as supporting the coffee-growers. The Costa Foundation has built 22 schools around the world.
An exciting new partnership is developing between PEAS and the Costa Foundation. The Foundation has funded Hibiscus High School, Ntungamo and Pioneer High School, Mityana, which opened February 2011.
 
Help us set up PEAS school farms
Wednesday, May 05 2011

Recently there have been riots in Uganda. This is because food prices have risen 78%, putting huge pressure on the ability of our schools to provide lunch every day for our students.

For many PEAS students, the nutritious lunch we provide is the only meal they eat each day. But rocketing food prices is putting this at risk. PEAS urgently needs your help to set up school farms to run as social enterprises, sustainably supplying food as well as raising income to pay for next year's seeds and labour.

Help us set up PEAS school farms
Each of our schools has land where they can plant maize and beans, and keep livestock. We need to give each PEAS school a one-off grant to set up a farm. Schools will grow food to feed their students and any left over will be sold to the local community. Excess income will pay for next year's seeds, meaning the project will be fully sustainable. But we need to act immediately, as the planting season begins right now in May.

£5 buys 10kg of maize which will plant 1 acre of land
£10.50 buys 10kg of beans, which will plant 1 acre of land
£50 will help buy tools to clear and plant the land

For the price of a sandwich or a meal out in the UK, you can help our schools sustainably grow everything they need.

Please give a gift today to help us set up these school farms. We really need to act now and make sure our ability to feed and educate our students is protected from a very uncertain economic climate in Uganda.