Earth Bags for Earth Day! Eco-Friendly Building Will Support School Growth in Zambia

African Hope Fund is a long-time supporter of Uyoba School in the rural area of Mfuwe, Zambia, where we collaborate with an education-focused charity called Raise a Smile.

From having one ramshackle building, 350 students and a negative reputation, Uyoba School has grown to two good classroom blocks and a library that Africa Hope Fund built. It also has a reading program run by Raise a Smile and an enrollment of close to 1,200 children. This now includes a preschool and soon, we hope, an 8th Grade class! The kids are now reading for pleasure and getting good grades.

“We have been so fortunate to work with students here, and we want to be able to keep serving them and supporting a bright future as the school grows,” said Africa Hope Fund board member and reading specialist Debby Lott, who works at Uyoba School.

The growth is exciting, but Uyoba School has now run out of space and instructors are teaching under the trees. Raise a Smile and Africa Hope Fund are planning to build an amazing new library and offer the old room to the school for a much-needed extra classroom.

This wonderful library will be built with locally sourced earthbags and will cost just $2,500! It will also be cool year-round due to the thickness of the walls and will be built by the hands of the community who will use it.

Here, we can provide a safe, happy place for reading, learning and playing! We will continue to teach kids who don’t have the opportunity to read.

“I’ve had my eye on the earthbag concept for a while now, and it seems to be a great solution for Africa,” said Jenny Waterhouse with Raise a Smile. “The simplicity and cost-effectiveness are the main attractions.”

In order to bring the new library to life, Raise a Smile needs more funding. In honor of Earth Day this April, we ask our generous donors to support this new, much-needed, eco-friendly building for the students at Uyoba School.

“I am recruiting all able bodies that have ever been assisted by Raise a Smile to come and help. I’ll provide food and drink, and I hope this will be a fun way for people to give back to the community,” Jenny said.