The Icitabo Report
Hello Everyone,
Today we are very excited to bring you all a copy of our official YSI Report, detailing all of the fantastic progress we have made with the Icitabo Project, written by our leader, Eoin Kelly. We hope you find it interesting, and that you will be able to see just how close we are to reaching our goal!
THE ICITABO PROJECT
Issue of Social Concern: To make our world a better place for young people, we chose to help in improving literacy levels amongst "street children" in the city of Kabwe - Zambia.
Goal:
The goal of the project is to open a public library for "street kids" in Kabwe, where they can learn how to read and write (English and/or Bemba) with the help of local volunteers. We aim to bridge the gap between the limited amount of students that can attend Sables Nua (a free primary school in Kabwe) and the huge number of street children who have no access to books and/or education.
Project in brief:
Icitabo means book in Bemba which is the most spoken language in Zambia. The aim of our project is to set up a public library in Kabwe, Zambia, in a place called Sables Nua (run by an Irish charity.) We will collect and send books over to Sables in English. We will learn Bemba and translate a few books from English and Irish. The library will have literacy classes in both languages to help the children in reading and writing and so provide them with better lives for the future. We also created a phone application to teach Bemba to Irish volunteers.
Total Team Members: 23 (23 Males | 0 Females) Category: Education Project Impact: 500 Project Reach: 5000+ Did you fundraise: Yes Amount raised: 11000
For which organisation: Zamda - Ireland
Would you like to continue or encourage another group to continue your YSI project next year? Yes
Did your team become more involved in your local community as a result of doing your YSI project? Yes
How many hours do you think your whole team put into your project? 1500
Did you link with / collaborate another YSI Team? Yes
If yes, where was the other team based: Republic of Ireland
Social Media
https://mobile.twitter.com/icitaboproject
https://pebw010102.wixsite.com/mysite
https://www.facebook.com/TheIcitaboProject/
https://www.instagram.com/theicitaboproject
mailto:icitaboproject@gmail.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb3VwyqsIg2LPqntnQh1vaw
Step 2 - Complete Your Project Summary
What is your big idea and what do you hope to achieve (what are your goals)? Our big idea is to build the first ever public library in Kabwe, the second biggest city in Zambia. The library will house the books that we collected from our communities. Our major goal is to improve literacy levels among the street children of Kabwe by giving them free access to books and literacy lessons. We also have other, smaller goals, such as educating Irish volunteers on Zambia related issues especially helping them learn Bemba before they go to Zambia and educating ourselves on issues such as cultural sensitivity, the politics of aid, Zambian culture and Bemba language.
Why did you choose the social issue?
Our school has a strong relationship with Zambia. Every second year 15 students from our school travel to help in a school called Sables Nua. Sables is running at full capacity with over 200 children. The school caters for the "street children" of Kabwe. We decided to build a public library to bridge the gap between Sable's capacity and the amount of "street children" who have no access to books or any kind of education. This project is a learning experience for us as well. We are learning about Zambian language, history and culture to enhance our experience in 2019.
Who did you collaborate with during the project?
We collaborated with another YSI group in our year, and the one from last year as well as the 15 students who were in Zambia last year. We also worked with Pat Fanning, the principal of Sables, along with its charity Zamda. We met with Irish Aid who gave us a workshop on the proper ways to give aid to poorer countries. This was very significant as it showed us how to support countries in relation to the sustainable development goals, and what happens to them when you give them the necessary aid.
What action(s) have you taken?
Designed the project's logo. Created a website to document all our meetings, events and activities. Collected over 3000 books. Resourced a container to ship the books and be transformed into a library. Translated the book "Handa's Surprise" into Bemba. Created an app is called "Bemba Phrases". Advocated at our fundraising events and 2018 Zamda Gala Ball. Active social media presence with over 2000 followers. Organised a workshop with Irish Aid on sustainable development. Got 1000 Euro from YSI DEN. Organised a workshop with Mr. Michael Chanda, A Zambian national to learn about Zambian culture and history.
How have you made a positive difference?
We have made a positive difference by helping to give disadvantaged the opportunity to read and write in English and in their local language, Bemba. We have done this by setting up a library in Sables, which will help to gear them towards a happy and sustainable future.
What are your plans for the future?
The container with the books will be shipped in March 2018. It will arrive in Zambia in June 2018. The work to convert it into a library will start straight away. 15 of the 25 of the Icitabo project members will have the opportunity to go over to Sables Nua in the summer of 2019. When there, we will work on improving the library ourselves. We will work to extend it and add more books that we will carry with us. We will also carry necessary stationary to Kabwe.
Step 3 - Write Your Project Report
Care Section
Understanding & Research
Describe your understanding of the real world social issue (what is the issue, why it is an issue, what causes
it etc.). Outline your research methods.
The main issue we are dealing with for our YSI project is education in Zambia. There is an education system put in place; however this system is insufficient for many reasons. The education system involves primary education, which begins when children are approximately seven years old. This continues through grades one to seven. Primary education in Zambia is free. The Zambian government consider this system an adequate level of education for most children. After their time in primary education, these children sit the Certificate of Primary Education (CPE). This system continues with grades eight and nine, which are called Junior Secondary. Fees are required to continue with these grades. This ends with the pupils sitting their Junior Secondary Education Exam (JSEE). The CPE and JSEE are important as they determine which school the child may attend for secondary education. The education system ends with final exams at the end of Grade 12. These exams are also important as they determine whether the pupils will continue towards third level education.
This system is insufficient for the following reasons: The Zambian Government has had little money to put towards its education system. They struggle with a budget that is inadequate to provide for their growing population. Schools in rural areas, such as Kabwe, suffer from a shortage of educational facilities, such as classrooms and school libraries. There is a lack of educational resources such as textbooks and teaching aids in these areas. Some villages establish their own community schools when there is no school close to their village. In these community schools, there is typically one class being taught by an unqualified volunteer. Most children do not continue with their education past grade seven due to the fees required for further grades. Needless to say, every child wants an education, but unfortunately that is not the reality for many children in Zambia. There are many orphaned children due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in this country. These children cannot attend school as they are too busy earning money to survive. Also, they cannot afford the costs that come with an education such as fees and school equipment and books. As a result, literacy levels among children in Zambia are quite low.
This means there are very few creative works being published in Zambia. Publishers are hesitant to publish long novels in Bemba and English as these works cannot generate enough profit for publishers. This is because there is a poor general readership due to the previously mentioned low literacy levels. Therefore, many schools lack textbooks and novels in both Bemba and English. Furthermore, community schools in Zambia do not have the sufficient tools for educating their pupils, leading to a poorer standard of living. Another issue would be that unqualified volunteer teachers focus on teaching English rather than focusing on Science, Math or the local language. This causes an unbalanced education that the children receive.
Youth Led
Explain how your team chose the social issue and why you feel passionately about it
The main reason we chose this social issue is because our school has a strong working relationship with Zambia. Every second year 15 students from our school have the chance to go to Zambia. They'll participate in an immersion project in a school called Sables Nua. The school is run by an Irish charity called Zamda-Ireland. Sables is running at full capacity with over 200 children. The school caters for the "street children" of Kabwe. After extensive research, we decided to build a public library to bridge the gap between Sable's capacity and the amount of "street children" who have no access to books or any kind of education. We feel passionately about this issue because 15 of us will go to Zambia in 2019. This project is teaching us not only the language but also the history and culture. This will enhance the help we can offer in 2019.
Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainable Development Goals - Which Sustainable Goal(s) does your innovation impact and how? Our innovation impacts the sustainable goal of quality education. It impacts on this sustainable goal for the following reasons: We are providing books in both English and Bemba so the children of Sables Nua, Kabwe can learn to read and write in both languages. We are sending over books which are simple, educational, and colorful to ensure they are as easy to read as possible. We hope these books will provide the basis for literacy classes for these children. We are building a library as a fun learning space for these children to read the books we provide. We built a phone application to help Irish volunteers learn the language before they go to Zambia. The whole process is proving to be a quality educational experience for all the participants in the Icitabo project especially around issues such as the danger of charity, cultural sensitivity and sustainable development.
Co-Operate Section
Working with others
Who are the relevant people and groups you worked with and how did you collaborate to achieve your goal? The most relevant and significant organisation we collaborated with was the charity Zamda-Ireland. We contacted Pat Fanning, the principal of Sables, and convinced him with our project. He offered us the location to set the library. Through extensive PR we organised a container to be shipped carrying the books to Zambia. The container will be used as the library. We communicated with various schools in our community for book donations. We managed to get invited to the 2018 Zamda Gala to advocate for our project. We organised a workshop with Irish Aid on sustainable development. We were able to see our acts of kindness in a critical eye for a better impact. The workshop gave us a wonderful insight into the politics of aid. We collaborated with people within the school community, such as our principal. We kept significant contact with the other YSI group in our year to compare ideas and to promote one another's projects. We met with the YSI group from last year to get an insight on the Speak Out event. We organised a workshop with Mr. Michael Chanda who is a Zambian national working with Irish Aid. We contacted various online translators.
Teamwork
Describe how your group worked as a team. What worked well? How did you overcome any challenges? How did you use everybody's talents?
We worked very well as a team. As soon as we decided on our project, we split into six committees - communications, fundraising, books, language/translations, social media and website. The members of the project were picked to be in a committee based on their talents and knowledge of different areas of the project. We had a meeting every week to discuss the progress of the project. If their were any challenges we faced, we discussed in this meeting how to overcome them. For example we decided that if we needed permission to do something, it had to go through the coordinator of the project, our year head and then our principal in that order. We communicated very well with each other, sharing ideas or discussing these challenges that we may have had. Everything that we had discussed in the meeting went onto our website to map our progress.
Communicate Section
Communication with others to achieve your goals
Who did you communicate with and how?
The most relevant person we communicated with was Pat Fanning, the coordinator of Sables Nua. On a regular basis, we would contact him via email, to ask him various questions about Sables and the logistics of the whole project. Collaboration also took place between us and our school principal, in order to get permission for various fundraising activities that we held. We had meetings with her to talk about this area of our project, which proved very worthwhile. Irish Aid was an example of an organisation that we kept in good contact with via email also. We organised a workshop with them in order to find out about the dangers of aid in poor countries. We learned a lot through our communication with them. Through our various fundraising activities, we advocated to our community about our project, such as speaking at the alter at our church collections. This was a great way to communicate to the people of our local areas about our project. Lastly, we let all of our social media followers know about our project through our daily posts on our accounts. We gained some valuable contacts from this, such as a helpful book translator.
Change Section
What is your big idea and what do you hope to achieve (what are your goals)?
Our big idea is to build the first ever public library in Kabwe, the second biggest city in Zambia. The library will house the books that we collected from our communities. Our major goal is to improve literacy levels among the street children of Kabwe by giving them free access to books and literacy lessons. We also have other, smaller goals, such as educating Irish volunteers on Zambia related issues especially helping them learn Bemba before they go to Zambia and educating ourselves on issues such as cultural sensitivity, the politics of aid, Zambian culture and Bemba language. What innovative actions have you taken?
We have taken tremendous innovative actions throughout our project. Our motto is: "The proper aim of charity is to reconstruct society in such a way so poverty is impossible" (Oscar Wilde) We came up with the project name, The Icitabo Project. Icitabo means book in Bemba. The choice of words emphasises the respect we have to the local culture and language. We chose a project coordinator and divided the group into six comittees. We designed the project's logo. We created a website to document all our meetings, events and activities. We contacted Zamda-Ireland and pitched our project to them. We contacted primary schools in our community and collected over 3000 books. We organised the books according to literacy levels and genres. We resourced the container in which the books will be shipped and the shipment. The container will be transformed into a library by Zambian craftsmen in Kabwe. We translated the book "Handa's Surprise" into Bemba with the help of a generous online translator. We have complimented the idea of STEM by learning how to build a phone application.
One of our members undertook a 7-day workshop in DCU to learn how to build phone applications for Android. He built the application and he is now running workshops in school to teach the 1st and 2nd year students how to do that. The app is called "Bemba Phrases", which allows Irish volunteers to learn some basic Bemba before going over to help in Kabwe. This action also highlights the fact that we respect the culture and language of Zambia. We have advocated at our fundraising events, such as our church collections and Hurling Blitz. These actions not only allowed us to raise money, but also to spread awaerness about our project in our community and school. We have an active social media presence with over 2000 followers (combined). This provides people with an easy way to find out about our project and its progress. We collaborated with Irish Aid to organise a workshop on sustainable development. By doing this, we received a valuable insight into the dangers of aid, and how to give it in a sustainable way. We felt this action honoured the sustainable development goals we are passionate about.
We advocated creatively at a 2018 Zamda Gala Ball in Clontarf Castle. At an adults-only event, we got dressed up in tuxedos and went to the ball, handing out flyers describing our project to the 300 guests that were there. We received many valuable contacts to help out with our project as a result. This creative action was a big step, among many, for our project. We applied to the YSI Den. We pitched for 1000 EURO and got it. For the event we designed a poster and a presentation. We organised a workshop with Mr. Michael Chanda, a Zambian national who works with Irish Aid, in our school to learn about Zambian culture and history. He taught us how to sing and dance the Zambian way.
We have taken tremendous innovative actions throughout our project. Our motto is: "The proper aim of charity is to reconstruct society in such a way so poverty is impossible" (Oscar Wilde) We came up with the project name, The Icitabo Project. Icitabo means book in Bemba. The choice of words emphasises the respect we have to the local culture and language. We chose a project coordinator and divided the group into six comittees. We designed the project's logo. We created a website to document all our meetings, events and activities. We contacted Zamda-Ireland and pitched our project to them. We contacted primary schools in our community and collected over 3000 books. We organised the books according to literacy levels and genres. We resourced the container in which the books will be shipped and the shipment. The container will be transformed into a library by Zambian craftsmen in Kabwe. We translated the book "Handa's Surprise" into Bemba with the help of a generous online translator.
We have complimented the idea of STEM by learning how to build a phone application. One of our members undertook a 7-day workshop in DCU to learn how to build phone applications for Android. He built the application and he is now running workshops in school to teach the 1st and 2nd year students how to do that. The app is called "Bemba Phrases", which allows Irish volunteers to learn some basic Bemba before going over to help in Kabwe. This action also highlights the fact that we respect the culture and language of Zambia. We have advocated at our fundraising events, such as our church collections and Hurling Blitz. These actions not only allowed us to raise money, but also to spread awaerness about our project in our community and school. We have an active social media presence with over 2000 followers (combined). This provides people with an easy way to find out about our project and its progress.
We collaborated with Irish Aid to organise a workshop on sustainable development. By doing this, we received a valuable insight into the dangers of aid, and how to give it in a sustainable way. We felt this action honoured the sustainable development goals we are passionate about. We advocated creatively at a 2018 Zamda Gala Ball in Clontarf Castle. At an adults-only event, we got dressed up in tuxedos and went to the ball, handing out flyers describing our project to the 300 guests that were there. We received many valuable contacts to help out with our project as a result. This creative action was a big step, among many, for our project. We applied to the YSI Den. We pitched for 1000 EURO and got it. For the event we designed a poster and a presentation. We organised a workshop with Mr. Michael Chanda, a Zambian national who works with Irish Aid, in our school to learn about Zambian culture and history. He taught us how to sing and dance the Zambian way.
Explain how your team has made a positive difference (How have you empowered people to improve their lives; what positive change have you made?)
By May 2018 when the library is set we will be helping poorly educated children in a disadvantaged area to read and write. We are doing this by sending educational books in English and Bemba for them to practice reading and writing. We think this makes an extremely positive difference in the lives of the children attending Sables Nua and those who are not lucky enough to be picked to join the school. We are also empowering these children by improving their education. This increases their likelihood of achieving a successful careers. Unfortunately, there is limited space in Sables Nua, therefore once children reach the age of 18, they must leave the school and take care of themselves. We want to ensure that the children in Sables don't return to the streets when they finish Grade 7.
By helping to improve their education, we are helping to ensure all students who leave Sables Nua are able to find a sufficient income. In other words, they can use their improved education to find a job and become financially stable. This is how we are empowering these currently impoverished children. We are making this positive difference because before, when the children had no library, they had a severe lack of books as school resources. Now, we are giving them these books to improve their education, which will allow them to reach bigger and better things in their future lives, after they have left Sables. Some of these things, such as getting a well-paid job, were mentioned before. However, much simpler things can also be achieved from their improvement in education, which will, in turn, improve their standard of living greatly.
These things could be as simple as reading recipes to allow them to cook meals for themselves, or reading up on what types of crop they should be planting. These things could not be obtained if these students didn't have the sufficient education. We are making the positive difference of giving them the resources to receive an improved education, and so empowering them to live the life they deserve to live, full of health and happiness. With the HIV epidemic still riddling the Zambian society, reading educational leaflets and booklets on the issue can help save lives. Those children will have better access to medical health care should they be able to read and write. What are your plans for the future? (if your action is not complete right now, tell us about your plans to finish or develop it)
The container with the books will be shipped in March 2018. It will arrive in Zambia in June 2018. The work to convert it into a library will start straight away. 15 of the 25 of the Icitabo project members will have the opportunity to go over to Sables Nua in the summer of 2019. When there, we will work on improving the library ourselves. We will work to extend it and add more books that will will carry with us. We will also carry necessary stationary to Kabwe. We are in the process of collecting stories from the orphanage in Kabwe to write and publish a book educating Irish volunteers on the children's life conditions. We will work to improve our phone application to help us with the language as we travel. We might also add parts to the application about Zambia the country and its culture.
Step 4 - Upload your Appendices
Name: The Icitabo Project Photo Diary Name: The Icitabo Project Photo Diary
Step 5 - Enter the YSI Ireland Awards
We would like our project to be considered for the Young Social Innovators of the Year Ireland Awards? Yes
Optional Questions for Additional Awards
Question 1 (Fundraising) We had to raise €3000 in cash to kit out and furnish the library. We raised more money than we needed through the various fundraising activities that we carries out. We held a hurling tournament in our school. We raised over €100 from it and it raised great awareness for our project among younger students in the school. We also had two church gate collections in our local parishes. We raised about €3000 from these collections. These were an excellent way to advocate about our project. A member stood up in front of the church and said a speech that he prepared. It informed our community about everything we were doing with our project. It proved very worthwhile as people were extremely interested and very helpful in relation to donations. Lastly, some of the members of our project took on an assault course called "The Runamuk Challenge". We went around our local areas asking for sponsorhip. This proved very significant for us, as many people from the surrounding communities found out about our project as a result. It also showed that we are extrememly passionate about our project. We pushed oursleves to our limits in order to get money to furnish the library. It implies that we will do what we can to see our project through, as it is just what the children of Sables deserve, and more.
Question 2 (STEM) We have used STEM by building a website along with a mobile app also. Our website is being updated on a regular basis. It is an easy and efficient way to provide people with the knowledge of the ongoing progress of the project. There is a section which describes what we are about, and the different committees invloved in the project. We also put the results of our weekly meetings on the blog of our website. This blog is supplemented wth photos and videos of our what happened during that week. It containes contact detailes, and also provides a easy and efficient way to donate to the project, with the link of our GoFundMe website. The link to our website is https://pebw010102.wixsite.com/mysite The app is also a major part of our project. It represents the fact that we respect the culture and language of the people of Kabwe. We have created the app so that Irish volunteers can learn the basic words of the language before they go over to work in Sables. It is avaialble on android phones. Simple Bemba phrases are translated on the app, along with the book that we have translated, "Handa's Surprise". You can find our app on our website.
Question 3 (Social) Social media was a big part of our project. We used it as a way to tell everyone about the ongoing progress we have made throughout. Below are the links to all of our social media accounts;
Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/icitaboproject
Blog: https://pebw010102.wixsite.com/mysite
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheIcitaboProject/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theicitaboproject
Snapchat: IcitaboProject
We assigned two members of the project with the job of social media. Every time we made significant progress with our project, we would let people know via social media. For example, we posted on Facebook that we were looking for a translator to translate books into Bemba for us, and a man who had experience in that area contacted us about it afterwards. We would not have got in contact with him if it wasn't for our active presence on social media. On accounts such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, we would follow other major charitable organisations such as Zamda for example. This was so we could find out about what they were doing, and they could also see what we were doing, which proved very helpful. We have gained many followers on social media, who would not have known about our project otherwise. Also, on snapchat we have set up a vlog to let people know about our project through the use of videos.
