The School and Students Continue to Grow....

As the school year ends at the American International School, RHO Appleseed is in the middle of the year and things continue to come together and grow. The Zambian school calendar runs from January to December, with a few breaks in between. RHO Appleseed will close for winter break for the month of July and will reopen on August 14th. When we are home in Davis, CA we will hold a fundraiser on July 12th. We plan to come back to Lusaka ready to put new programs in place at the school. Last week a wonderful vocal group, Zambian Vocal Collection, visited the school and ran a workshop and performed for the students. It was truly amazing and the kids just loved it! We have arranged for them to run a music program for us; they are excited to start an RHO Appleseed Choir and then start with instrument lessons! We will be raising funds in order to make this happen. In addition, we have arranged for a sports program to begin in August as well. Coach K, a former professional soccer player in South Africa has agreed to run the program. This is another program that we will be raising funds to support. Once these are in place the student school day will run from 8:00am to 3:00pm. They currently go from 8:00am until 1:00pm.

Of the approximately 100 students at RHO Appleseed School, at least 30 of them are orphans. We are launching a "Support an Orphan" program. We are looking for a sponsor for each of these children at $25.00 per month. These funds will go directly to that child's education, health and general well being. Sponsors will be kept updated regularly on the child's academic and general progress. 

We are still hoping to purchase our own land and build a school at some point, but in the mean time, things have been working out at this site. We have just had a stage/patio built in the front yard, it looks beautiful!. Also, a parent from my grade 4 class at AISL and his company just hung all of our chalk boards, white boards and bulletin boards for us. They also built a bridge over the ditch to get to the school. The city is putting in drainage ditches in the compound and we have had a small plank going across it to get to the building. Now we have a wooden bridge with railings!! Thank you Julio Cerqueira and Group Five Zambia!

There has been so much more happening at the school.... too much to go into detail right now, but I will update again soon. Briefly though, we have started a Home Health Care program for the Bauleni Community out of the school. (See the St John Bauleni Branch page) We have been able to help a lot of very sick people through this effort. It has been a very worthwhile, yet emotional experience. There are many very ill people with no medical help at all. We are doing what we can, although, sometimes it is too late. Since beginning, we have seen two patients pass away. While this makes us very sad, we know that we were able to bring them some comfort and love in their last days. 

That is about all for now..... please continue to check back to learn of all of the exciting things in the works for RHO Appleseed School!

~ Love from Africa,
Joy and Ken