The Classroom Box Project

www.classroombox.org

The Classroom Box project was started by the Rotary Club of Northampton Becket in 2006 with the object of providing boxes of basic educational material to schools in developing countries where there is a limited or non-existence of items that we in this country take for granted.

“Difficult to imagine - but try. A class of 50 children sitting on the floor, the teacher has just handed each one a single sheet of note paper torn from an exercise book so that they can write their end of term examination. The questions have been written on the “blackboard” - the plastered front wall of the room which has been painted black. The children write very small so as to get all the answers on the single sheet. If they don’t have a pen or pencil, they have to share.

In developing countries, children are killed by illnesses that become deadly in combination with poor sanitation and malnutrition. In addition, families stricken by extreme poverty are trapped in a cycle that only leads to more unnecessary deaths. It’s a cycle that is not interrupted, because there is no access to education.

In some small way Northampton Becket Rotary club wishes to help in interrupting this cycle, by assisting in educating those in the developing world, whilst giving local children the opportunity to experience the benefits of helping those less fortunate and at the same time, learning about life in a developing country.
Boxes contain pens, pencils, writing pads, coloured pencils, rulers for 25 children. Also included are 5 geometry sets, two staplers, staples, glue sticks, chalk, a tin of blackboard paint and a paint brush. The new boxes will include a few additional items such as an inflatable globe”.

Rtn Ian Hill
Rotary Club of Northampton Becket

To date, boxes have been sent to the Rotary Club of Arcadia, East London, South Africa for distribution to locally identified needy schools. Feedback from the South African Rotary Club has been excellent. Discussions have been ongoing as to which countries to initially target. Malawi has been chosen as it is a very poor country, has a stable government and is English speaking. Additionally the Rotary Club of Northampton Becket has a nine year relationship with the Rotary Club of Lilongwe in Malawi.

On 13th May this year, the project was launched at Northamptonshire County Council, targeting local primary schools. Alison Buckley, Northamptonshire Learning Advisor for Humanities has been working closely with the Classroom Box project and has produced a resource pack on Malawi for primary schools that fulfils Key Stage Curriculum requirements. The pack will be purchased by the schools from Classroom Box. About 20 schools were represented at the launch and enthusiasm for the project was great not only in terms of fundraising but also in establishment of ongoing links between local schools and schools in Malawi.

Already the Brambleside Community School in Kettering has joined the project and had a recent fundraising event to buy their first two Classroom Boxes. See Brambleside’s website for a full report www.brambleside.ik.org.

The Classroom Box project is set to run and run………….A website is being developed at the moment and the project hopes to be listed as an R.I.B.I. preferred project soon.

If your club would like further information on the Classroom Box project please contact,

John Saynor,

www.classroombox.org