Author: Fuse10

In 2016, Cana fell victim to arson. The school lost so much; chairs melted, books burnt, but thank God no children were hurt. Following the fire, a little church in the neighbourhood took them in. Together they raised funds and created a church space on the ground floor and built 7 small classrooms and an office upstairs.

Shortly after settling down in their new building, government officials judged it as unsafe, so further work was undertaken. Even though they have been using the building for several years, they were always looking over their shoulders, half expecting further government interference.

In December 2020, the government returned, this time, to say that a third of the school building was on a road reserve. Fortunately, they were given time to do their own demolition so they were able to store and recycle some of the materials. Usually, when the government undertakes demolitions, books and desks are destroyed because they give people very short notice. When schools closed at the end of March, Cana was already fundraising as they demolished their building. And now that they have been given the official road markings, they can start building a permanent structure.

Cana are hoping to open their doors to children on 10th May. However, so far, they have only managed to raise enough to build the foundation and the initial structural walls of the ground floor. The total cost of the build will be £18,790. Our aim is to try and raise half of the costs, which we appreciate is an ambitious target. To make the target more manageable, we have broken down some of the costs to represent ways in which our individual Friends can help. All donations are gratefully received and will be passed on in a timely way to support this venture. The sooner we can get the children back into their school building, the sooner they can continue their education.

Bag of cement ……………………………….. £5.50

Half a tonne of sand or ballast …………. £7.70

A quarter of all nails needed ……………. £9.30

A quarter of a lorry of stone ………………  £46

Half a lorry of machine cut stone ………  £95

Water costs …………………………………… £205

Total of timber needed …………………… £880

Half the steel needed ……………………. £1625

The JustGiving link to this campaign is https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/help-rebuild-Cana

At Gifted Hands, there is ample space for their new stove; however, they currently don’t have food preparation surfaces, which they have been advised to add. They were also advised, during the training session, to create a designated safe storage space for their firewood. Fruitful also has plenty of space for the new stove in the kitchen, and they too have been asked to also consider adding food preparation surfaces. If you would like to make a donation towards food preparation surfaces for these two schools, please let us know.

At Cana, a section of the school building has recently been demolished to allow for road construction by the government. Therefore, the stoves have been fitted into a temporary space until the new facilities are rebuilt. Sanjo’s staff have promised to come back when the building is complete, to help with relocation. At Linda Care, kitchen space is very tight. However, because the walls are not permanent, they intend to move one of the partitions to create enough room around the stove for easier movement while cooking.

A huge thank you, from the staff and children of all four schools, to Denbigh Rotary Club and to our other Friends for their kind donations, without which the new stoves would not have been possible.