ALMA’s Children Project
This is a decription of the project in its early years, and a description of the school by the late head teacher. There are more pictures of the school elsewhere on this site.
[Source: Margaret Davies, (ALMA Niassa Chaplain), with thanks to Richard Ennals, Patrick Coleman and Helen Brown (Alma rep for Edward Betham School), December 2009]
In September 2006 my husband and I made a trip to Mozambique. After visiting some Anglican churches in Maputo we travelled to Nacala where we called on the church of Todos os Santos (All Saints) which is linked with All Saints, Hampton. Among those who welcomed us warmly at the church were Father Damiao Jaquissone and his wife, Rebecca, Paul and Benegrade Chintinguiza and Samuel Kumbe. Paul and Samuel are church elders and Paul had been directly supervising the building of a primary school close to the church which has been a key ALMA’s Children project.
This was to be the first Anglican State School in Mozambique since independence in 1975. It had four classrooms, an office, water supply and toilets. The standard of building appeared to be good and the church hoped at that stage to hand the school over to the Diocese in mid January 2007 with lessons starting on 20 January. We took a gift of stationery and pens and pencils from All Saints, Hampton, to the school (and also some squishy balls, a gift from ALMA to the nursery school for deprived children which Rebecca Jaquissone had started).
Our visit to Nacala ended with a lunch generously provided by Benegrade Chintinguiza as we and our hosts sat and talked about education and the Todos os Santos community’s hopes for the school and its further enlargement. We discussed the teaching of RE, ideas about uniform, the appointment of staff and the introduction of foreign languages at primary school. As in Maputo we were tremendously impressed with what the local Anglican church and community were trying to do. Father Damiao has since moved to Lichinga as Archdeacon and the current priest at Nacala is Father Mateus Ntiko.
In February 2007 the school was duly opened by Bishop Mark, the Bishop of Niassa. Rev. Patrick Coleman, the Bishop’s Commissary, who was also present, has given a graphic account of the opening ceremony with the cutting of the ribbon and every room, including the lavatories, being blessed with holy water.
MANNA photos provided by Patrick Coleman
Later that year the school and the church were visited by Richard and Bobbie Ennals from All Saints, Hampton, by which stage the school had 440 pupils, including 47 aids orphans. Richard has maintained an active interest in the school’s progress ever since and, after his visit, was able to arrange to send a package of educational materials to the school through Don McBurney, a member of the Educational Committee of the UK National Commission of UNESCO.
The school’s development has continued and by April/May 2009, when Patrick Coleman reported on it again, it had 875 pupils who attended in three shifts and there was also a church-run night school teaching adult literacy.
Furthermore, in Goodwyn Mnyawa the school has a headmaster who takes every opportunity to explore contacts with the outside world, and it is now linked with schools from 25 other countries in the World Council for Total Quality and Excellence in Education. In that connection in 2009 Goodwyn attended the 12th international convention on Student Quality Circles in Lucknow and was the first headteacher to attend the convention from mainland southern Africa.
Since 2009 All Saints School has an ALMA Partner too. It is twinned with the Edward Betham School, a Church of England Primary School in Greenford, West London, a school with a history that goes back to 1780 - although its current establishment dates from 1993 when it had about 450 children on the school roll. Edward Betham School participated in the 2008 Diocese of London Lent Appeal ‘Education for All’ and, through the focus on primary education in Angola and Mozambique, became very interested in the prospect of having a twinned school.
At Christmas 2009 the school sent gifts to Nacala and is looking forward to their relationship deepening and growing. We can confidently hope that the link will be a blessing to both schools.
Margaret Davies, December 2009
[Source: Goodwin Mnyawa, All Saints Anglican School, Nacala. June 2009 (see footnote)]
The school is situated in the northern part of Mozambique in the Province of Nampula.
Nacala is a port east of the Nampula provincial headquarters that serves northern part of Mozambique, which has a population of about 3 million. This school is within the city limit of Nacala.
Nacala Todos Santos Primary School was created through initiative of the Anglican Diocese of Niassa whose headquarters is in Lichinga.
There was a necessity to serve the local community whose pupils were commuting long distances to go and acquire basic education around this area.
The local congregation in liaison with the clergy, then Reverend Damião Jackson created the initiative to request the Right Reverend Bishop Dom Mark Van Koevering to see if he could assist in acquiring funds for the construction of a primary school.
The foot works manifested from 2003 whereby during the routine visits of the Bishop Dom Mark Van Koevering to Nacala, he instructed the congregation to look for a place to purchase for the purpose of school construction. It took not more than a month negotiating for a plot just adjacent to the Nacala Todos Santos Anglican Church and finally the place was bought from funds sent by the Diocese.
The area covering the school premises is about 150.000 square metres.
From 2005, the work of school construction began & it took one year to complete the work. After this the school started with 424 pupils who were got from a nearby school which was operating from small buildings/open area within the location.
The Reverend Bishop took the initiative to officially inaugurate the school on 4 Feb 2007. By then, the school had five teachers with three classes ie 1,2,3 (two streams each), and 324 pupils.
From this year, the school began to expand up to the present situation whereby there are nine teachers with 520 pupils and five classes ie 1,2,3,4,5 with two streams each.
Nacala Todos Santos School schedule usually commences at 06:30Hrs starting with Assembly where they sing a National Anthem followed by a prayer and some announcements.
Normal classes begin from 06:40Hrs with school periods of 35 minutes durations followed by a break in between. The morning schedule terminates at 12:00Hrs. Due to shortage of classrooms, some classes take place in the afternoon whereby pupils arrive at 1100 up to 1700Hrs. Pupils who frequent the school have age ranges beginning from 5 years old up to 10 years depending on the class.
Apart from the normal curriculum activities that take place at school, the Anglican congregation, teachers in liaison with the clergy took initiative to create small funds to support some of Orphan pupils studying at the school. From this funding, orphan pupils are supplied with some clothing and materials for the school like writing pencils and pens, exercise books etc. However, the materials are not enough to support especially this group of orphans.
It is also worth pointing out that our brethren of Ray Of Hope under the auspices of Don Mc Burney assisted the orphans with some materials in 200 , a gesture of which it would be a great remiss if we do not reckon & appreciate for same.
As the school began a few years ago, with some difficulties, there are a number of school requirement that are lacking at school for pupils enjoyment/use
Among others, the community/congregation feels that the school could be well equipped with basic pupil play and learning aids with equipment like:
It is also worth pointing out that up to now, the school does not have a small library where pupils can study and/or acquire basic computer literacy.
It is the ambition of the community/congregation to see that the school acquires means of sustaining itself financially.
It is in this vein that the congregation in liaison with the clergy (Currently Revd Mateus Ntiko and at large the Right Reverend Bishop) have ventured to look for assistance from sister schools and other stakeholders who can assist to see if the school & church can acquire.