November 1998

Dear Friends of Makeni,

Herewith some of the latest news from Makeni. Please use it as you see fit to encourage support for Makeni Centre.

1. You are aware that we are ready to begin a new adult education course: Introduction to the Use of Computers. Dr Anton Dil in England and Mr Kees v.d. Well in Holland have been acting as consultants pro Deo. We had hoped to get a volunteer for 6 months or a year to set up the equipment and train a Zambian head of department, from VSO, the British volunteer organisation. Regrettably, the person VSO had in mind has had to decline. So the search for a volunteer is still on - anyone you know you can recommend? It is now unlikely that the Course can start in January as planned. The workshop for this new course is presently being upgraded at a cost of about US$3700. We are looking for (a) donor(s) to sponsor this building project.

2. The Inspector of Schools of the Ministry of Education has ordered MEC to upgrade the toilets and to build an additional toilet block. Tenders for this were put out. A company has now been chosen to do the work - at US$5000. This is unbudgetted expenditure, and it is hoped that some kind donors may be willing to contribute towards this unglamorous project!

3. A few months ago, on the enouragement of CHRISTIAN AID, one of our supporters, an Evaluation was done of the Adult Education Courses at Makeni.  Here are some pickings from the report's conclusions and recommendations: I quote -

# the "Centre for the Poor" philosophy of Makeni still holds
# the MEC adult education courses, given the current economic and social
environment, are relevant as far as they address the needs of the poor
# MEC academic staff need further training to upgrade their technical
know-how and teaching skills.*
# MEC will need to work out a formula to increase the teaching staff, given
the financial limitations
# the library needs to be improved in terms of tiles, editions **
# MEC adult education programmes have the potential to address the needs of
many more people than it is achieving to day. +
# the poor quality of soil is affecting the quality of graduates (sic!)

Some comments on the Conclusion section of the report:

* all Makeni staff left, three days ago, for 2 weeks training at the Pan African Institute for Development in Kabwe. The cost of this will be £3,400, half of which is being subsidised by Christian Aid, for which we are most grateful. We are still looking for the other half!

** A Finnish volunteer has arrived to work in the Library of MEC. She has already sent out letters of appeal to book distibution agencies worldwide for gifts of books. Again, any help you can give in upgrading our library would be much appreciated.

+ We are well aware of this. For years we have suffered under-enrolment, but what is the solution? The small fees adults pay do not even cover the cost of lecturers' salaries [at present the adults pay £4 per month]. The factors that cause such serious under-enrolment [see present enrolment figures below] are:
poverty - students and their families can not afford the schoolfee and/or busfares.
distance - many students walk many, many miles to get to the Centre; exhaustion claims many victims. Solution: a schoolbus or hiring a bus daily.... Costs???
increased competion - compared to the 1970's when we started, there are now many more church and commercial adult education centres.

In the next news letter we continue reporting from the Adult Education Evaluation Report.

4. Enrolment figues for the 1998/1999 adult education courses are:
        Homecraft School: 19                    - in previous years 50-70
        Basic Electronics Course: 25
        Agricultural Course: 21
        Agricultural settlement course: 15      - intake limited by us in order to allow soil to rest a little
        Carpentry Course: 14                    - we started with 28!
        Senior Electronics Course: 32

   Enrolment in the Pre-School and POrimary School at MEC: 352 cildren

All for now. Many thanks for your support. Please encourage others to support us!

Warm regards [ it is 35 degress centigrade outside!],

Yours in Christ,

Fr Pierre J Dil

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Very Revd Canon Pierre J Dil,
Chairman Makeni Ecumenical Centre  P O Box 50255,Lusaka, Zambia
Private mail: Private Bag RW304X, Lusaka, Zambia
Tel 260-1-274991  Fax 260-1-272437

e-mail:mecdil@zamnet.zm