User:Roy Greenhalgh

I am a retired IT consultant, having worked for IBM UK and being self employed. This followed 6 years as a teacher, 4 years in the UK and for 2 years, 1965-67 at Chalimbana School, Zambia. I am currently writing-up my PhD thesis at University of Southampton where I am researching the management and training of volunteers in human service delivery voluntary organisations in the UK.

In 2004 my wife, 3 friends from the village in which we live, and I visited Zambia and spent some time at Chalimbana Basic School and the surrounding villages. The outcome was the setting up of CLinC (Changing Lives in Chongwe district), a UK registered charity (Reg. No. 1106904) devoted to supporting community schools in the townships of Lusaka.

Currently we support 3 community schools the north-eastern sector of Lusaka. The first is at Chazanga (St Marks), with one at Ng’ombe (St Matthias) and the third at Chipata (St Anne’s). Three years ago we funded the construction of a two classroom and office/store room building which forms the core of the school at Chipata. Like the other two schools, some classes at Chipata are held in the church buildings.

CLinC funds allowances for the volunteer teachers as well as funding a feeding programme at each school. National curriculum text books and reading books are supplied as the number of classes grows. In 2011, a UK qualified teacher took sets of Jolly Phonics teacher’s materials and numerous readers and spent 4 days introducing the teachers at Chazanga and Chipata schools to the scheme.

To date, all 13 grade 7 children who have sat the Grade 7 examinations which would allow them to move on to grade 8 in government schools have passed.