THE SCHOOL

ACCESS TO EDUCATION IS THE ONLY WAY TO ENSURE CHILDREN A FUTURE

The school is the first step to make them self-sufficient: it is first of all a safe place where children can be together, feel welcomed and stay off the streets; are supervised by qualified adults, learn to read and write, but also to take care of themselves and their own health; then going back in the studios, each according to their abilities and inclinations, can fight inequality, gain respect, to become independent adults and live in dignity and freedom.

For this reason I decided to build a school building in the village: it was very important that it was close to prevent children from having to travel more than eight kilometers to get to a distant school, as they did before, crossing the bush with all the dangers derived from it.

At first it was a simple tin roof with a few bench, the dirt floor as there were no desks or notebooks, but it was already a school.

Over the years we have managed to improve it, it has now become a masonry school with a real floor. I hired a teacher for the first seven pupils: in a few weeks, the word of mouth (as often happens in Africa) brought more than thirty-five students! The children are increasing, they are the first to believe in the possibility of building a future starting from education and so my project has become more ambitious.

I would like to extend and improve the structure to accommodate more pupils: this involves greater organizational and financial commitment because it means hiring more teachers and one person to cook (we have to guarantee children at least two meals a day), providing educational material (from plaster to notebooks ) and to ensure maintenance of the structure.