CONTESA Announces Enhanced Education Sponsorship Programme for AIDS Orphans in Zambia

8th February 2012, Bournemouth: CONTESA a UK registered charity which supports AID orphans in Zambia has today announced the enhancement of the CONTESA Education Sponsorship Programme, which will sponsor the secondary education of students from Kabwe Futures Community School and Messiah Mission Community School in Lusaka.

The programme was created to assist students leaving community schools after grade 9 to enter government schools that require fees to be paid for tuition, uniforms and books. Extensive vetting has been carried out by CONTESA to ensure the students entitled for the sponsorship programme adhere to certain eligibility criteria, including:

• Students are to be single or double orphans with no means of affording school fees
• Must have completed grade 9 in the CONTESA supported schools (Kabwe Futures Community School or Messiah Mission Community School)

CONTESA Trustee and Sponsorship Co-ordinator and spokesperson, Kathryn Barron says of the enhanced education sponsorship programme; “CONTESA’s aim has always been to provide support to AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in Zambia. The Trustees made the decision to extend our vision and identified the need to adopt the strategy of ‘feeding the body and mind’ through educational programmes.” Barron added “CONTESA built the schools which provided classes up to Grade 9, but recognised that the students passing Grade 9 were unable to continue their education in Government schools due to lack of funds so a decision was reached to enhance the sponsorship programme which has been expanding rapidly due to the excellent results and passes of the students.”

The Education Sponsorship Programme started modestly with a few students from the two CONTESA supported community schools who graduated from Grade 9. These two CONTESA supported schools have over 1,300 students with over 130 in Grade 9. There are two types of sponsorships, donations can be directly made to the sponsorship programme which would be allocated accordingly or donors can sponsor a named orphan and be provided with the orphans details including a photo and in due course their exam results.

Kathryn Barron continues “The numbers in Grade 9 have been increasing significantly as the students in Grade 7 have achieved 100% pass rates, whilst these are excellent results they place an onus on CONTESA to secure funding for the continuing education of the students and hence the enhanced sponsorship programme.” Barron adds “The aim of the programme is to give these students hope for the future and to help regenerate communities. We have already seen success through the programme and our goal is to increase the number of students sponsored through the Education Sponsorship Programme by 80 orphans over the next 3 years to reach an average of 200”.

For further information on the Education Sponsorship Programme please contact Kathryn@contesacharity.co.uk or visit the CONTESA website; www.contesacharity.co.uk

About CONTESA
CONTESA is a UK registered charity (1109311) set up in 2005 by Esnat Avon and her husband Roger. Esnat, was born and raised in Zambia but now lives in the UK. Esnat, Margaret the Vice-Chair and other trustees now devote much of their time to raising funds for CONTESA and creating awareness of the plight of orphans and disadvantaged children in one of the sub-Saharan countries most devastated by the AIDS epidemic, Zambia. One of CONTESA’s key pledges is that every penny donated goes directly to the support of the children.

Contact CONTESA
CONTESA Charity
Odini House
17 Boundary Lane
St. Leonards
Ringwood
Hampshire
BH24 2SE

Telephone: 01202 870474
Website: http://www.contesacharity.co.uk
Email: esnat@contesacharity.co.uk
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CONTESACHARITY

This release was published on openPR.