Communities Without Borders has a firm commitment to provide education to the most disadvantaged children in Zambia by supporting community schools and providing scholarships for hundreds of secondary school students. With your continued help, we have an opportunity to significantly benefit over 300 more children in the spirit of our founder Richard Bail, who passed away in May 2019.

HONORING OUR FOUNDER

Dr. Richard Bail, the driving force behind CWB for 20 years, envisioned the creation of a “model community school” with our newest partner, the Sekelela Community School. To honor his legacy, we are embarking on an exciting new building project to add three classrooms and a cooking facility at this school. It is the largest project CWB has ever undertaken.

The Dick Bail Fund is targeted to the building project in lieu of our regular yearly fundraising. We need $60,000 to complete the project while still maintaining our ongoing commitment to the 260 students we are supporting in high schools in Lusaka. We know this is a difficult time to fundraise, but with your help we can still make a major contribution to many students in impoverished circumstances.

THE CHALLENGE

Sekelela is a rural community school* in the outskirts of Lusaka. In Zambia, community schools receive no government funding since they are outside the government system.

With only four classrooms for grades K-9, the school has to run on triple sessions, which severely limits hours for learning. Many of the children walk long distances without breakfast to get to school. Some of them eat only one meal a day. Additional classrooms and daily nutrition will ensure higher quality learning.

OUR PARTNER

The Sekelela Community School is 20 years old, having started under some trees until funds were secured to put up the four current classrooms. It has a strong parent community, which demonstrates the commitment of the community to the school. It is also is a school that fits the mission of CWB, serving orphans and vulnerable children from poverty-stricken communities who would not otherwise have access to education. The students of Sekelela Community School want to learn; they are eager to come to school. They deserve to have the time and the nourishment they need to maximize their learning and eventually find a way out of poverty.

OUR PLAN

Provide a new building containing three classrooms, secure storage, and teacher rooms, plus a kitchen facility to enable community members to prepare daily meals for students and staff.

With the pledges from our board, a few early donors, and Dick’s family, we have more than $20,000 toward our $60,000 goal. The project is underway but we need your help to take full advantage of this opportunity to make an important difference for these children by meeting our ambitious funding goal as soon as possible.

* You can learn more about community schools in Zambia HERE.

To reduce crowding during the June-through-August term, schools in Zambia were open only for students in grades 7, 9, and 12, who were preparing for exams. They will start writing their exams next week.

CWB recently repaired and added desks at the Sekelela Community School, making it possible for students to maintain a safe distance.

CWB also provided thermometers, handwashing basins, and cleaning supplies.

We are sorry that we had to cancel our April 2020 concert. We hope to reschedule it for Spring 2021.

Pianist Lois Shapiro offers this music to share with you. Lois wrote this arrangement of the Chinese folk song, Mo Li Hua (Jasmine Flower).

Lois said: I wrote this recently for one of my Chinese Wellesley College students who was unable to get a flight back home to her family and was homesick. And also as a gift for an ESL Chinese student of mine, her husband and her parents; they have extended family in China, about whom they were quite worried. This was my way of “reaching across the divide” to express connection, as we are all in this disaster together. There is no “us” and  “them.” We all drink from the same spring, as fellow human beings.