TEAM KACHOLOLA HANDOVER DOCUMENT

The team: Eusivia, Lisa, Chloe and Dennis

Location:

CYC (Community Youth Concern), an average sized office next to the post office in Nyimba,

along the Great East Road. You’ll find Mr. Kamlaza who is around most times, lots of chairs,

a few tables and an outside space where you can relax when things get too busy or

overwhelming.

Schools reached

In Nyimba:

Aunt Olie’s School

A primary and secondary school opposite Taitana lodge. This is a private school and we taught

pupils aged 15 and above. We only taught them twice and we did teenage pregnancy and drug

abuse. The pupils are not very responsive to instructions (we tried to run energizers which

wasn’t very successful.) that you give them so you might have to be more authoritative, and

just make sure that you work together as a team and support each other in getting the pupils to

co-operate. Perhaps try to get the teacher to help you if there is a teacher there.

In Kacholola:

Mombe Basic

A primary school with pupils aged 11 to 16 based in Kacholola. The school has an average-sized

classroom so you might need to split the class if there are too many pupils in one classroom (so

you do two sessions instead of one). We taught all the pupils during the first week, and then we

decided to focus on the older pupils in the school (Grade 5 to 7) for the following weeks as it

was more in the VSO target age range. We had split the classes so that a counterpart pair took

Grade 7s and half of Grade 6s; the other counterpart pair took Grade 5s and the rest of the

Grade 6s. Therefore a counterpart pair taught the younger pupils, the other taught the older

pupils.

The topics that we did were: HIV/AIDS, hygiene, correct way to wash hands, puberty, malaria,

teenage pregnancy, bullying, gender roles, importance of education and we also did a quiz on

Maths/ Science/English after we talked about education.

We took prizes for the first session (lollipops) for the pupils who answered questions correctly

but we found that it made our session more about getting sweets (as the pupils kept asking for

sweets) so we only gave out lollipops if necessary after the first session.

We also found energizers to be very useful and engaging for the younger pupils. They enjoyed

“Sala chi tomato” and “Ipepeta” in particular; to the point that whenever they saw us they

would shout out names of energizers.

The UK volunteers should try to get used to using Nyanja as soon as possible to get the pupils’

attention as they respond more quickly if you say “Iwe!” To tell someone off, try to use noises

that would get their attention rather than “Excuse me, can you stop doing blah blah”.

We thought group activities like discussions worked really well but it would depend on the size

of your class, and how old the pupils are. You should try to join in to encourage them to answer

the questions.

Kacholola Boarding Secondary School

This is the best secondary school in the District; the pupils here are very responsive and enjoy

having us here!

The topics that we did were: teenage pregnancy, detrimental cultural norms, drug abuse and

Q&A. We made a Q&A box then answered all the questions the following week. For the last

session before their exams, we brought biscuits and juice and did an informal evaluation, which

everyone really enjoyed. We started a girl group which was exclusive for girls for discuss any

issues or queries that they might have which may be embarrassing to ask. The girl group was

named “Girl Code” by the pupils.

The pupils suggested that they should get a certificate for attending the sessions so that if they

wanted to go on to educate others, they would have proof that they are educated on SRH

topics. Since they were starting to have exams by then, we told them that the next team would

try and do that for them.

Kacholola RHC

Kacholola Rural Health Centre is about 30 minutes walk

from the two schools mentioned above. The clinic is quite

slow going and of the time we have been there we have

only given two sessions, on detrimental cultural norms and

HIV/AIDS, we have also helped to arrange their books for

the patients. We would suggest getting involved in

outreach activities if there are any.

Session plans

In general, our sessions included an energizer, group discussions and roleplays. Sometimes we

would ask a question and go round the classroom so they can all answer individually then we

would talk about our answers.

Transport

Kacholola is about 30 minutes drive away from Nyimba, so you should meet at 8am by Azemac

to leave on time, as the taxi drivers tend to take detours to get fuel or just to buy something for

themselves. The taxi drivers also tend to be late so perhaps tell them an earlier time to you

guys can leave on time.

Important Contacts

Kacholola Boarding: Mr Phiri, 0979550303

Kacholola RHC: Cephas, 0979508801

Mombe: Headteacher or the deputy head teacher. They are very flexible with their timings and

who you teach, so when you first go in just arrange a time with them in person.