HUNDREDS of girls in an impoverished part of Africa are about to walk into a new school building for the first time thanks to a mammoth fundraising effort in Leith.
Ten years ago the Chipembi Secondary School for Girls in Zambia was a poorly equipped building with nothing in the way of resources.
Now work transforming it into a thriving, self-sufficient institution with more than 100 cattle is about to be co
mpleted.
Around £50,000 has been raised in Leith and sent out to the girls' boarding school in Zambia's Chisamba region since 1998.
The fundraising for the remote rural school has been organised by the South Leith Parish Church and the Leith Rotary Club.
The final piece in the jigsaw – a borehole – will be completed next month to ensure the school has a clean water supply.
Deputy headteacher Albert Chituka, who is in Scotland completing a masters degree in agricultural management to help run the school's commercial arm, said there had been dramatic changes since he arrived at the school in 1993.
"From the school's perspective Leith's involvement has helped a lot," he said.
"My coming here (to study] was facilitated by the same links.
"When I joined we had very little and now we have pigs, sheep, cows and chickens and it is self-sufficient with 750 girls attending."
As well as teaching, the school produces food and sells it to make cash. Staff have also been trained to look after the animals so vets no longer have to be called.
South Leith Parish Church's Reverend Ian Gilmour has twice been to visit the school and will take a party of 28 there early next year to see the completed building.
He said: "The idea from the start was to make the school self-sufficient and the borehole is pretty much the final and crucial part of that.
"The school was originally intended for 450 and now is up to more than 700 and there has never been a proper water supply."
In a tribute to Leith's effort, one of the gates to a paddock has been shaped like a Saltire so the pupils are aware of the help that has come from the church and the Leith Rotary Club.
The club's spokesman, Bill McClure, added: "We agreed to donate money to help provide a borehole and other equipment to try and make the school completely self-sufficient which would allow it to keep fees as low as possible."
The full article contains 419 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
