Giakonda Solar Schools

Kids love computing

Thanks Macloud for these fabulous photos of Kabuyu Scho

Busy Bees

We’re still busy as we go into 2024. The bee suit

Happy Christmas

Thanks so much for all the support this year and best w

Power to Kabuyu

Muhunya Solar made an excellent job of installing solar

Training at Sinandambwe

We were lucky to have the services of our partner teach

Solar power for Sinandambwe

After a very bumpy off-road journey we reached Sinandam

Busy first day

Day one started with a visit to Miombo Beekeeping Coope

Conference preparations

We’re busy getting ready for a second physical co

Paypal Giving Fund

Help us continue to make an impact. Select us as your f

Video of some of our solar installations

Watch here

Physical Computing Conference

On 29th May our Zambian partner teachers held a confere

Sad news

So sorry to be mourning the loss of our founder, Howard

Lifetime Achievement Award

CONGRATULATIONS  to Howard Kirkman on winning a Lifeti

Developing RACHEL on the Raspberry Pi

Our trustee, Howard has been heavily involved in making

Haiku Day

        Power for rural schools A b

Unexpected impacts

Sometimes our efforts at improving the educational chan

COSTAZ Conference

Yesterday the Computer Science Teachers Association Zam

Feedback from solar schools

We have been gathering feedback from the solar schools

Progress with physical computing

Pupils from Kabuyu Primary School have been exploring t

Talk for Henllys WI

Thanks to Henllys WI for inviting me to talk at their m

Kabuyu Code Club

We are training Zambian teachers to introduce their pup

Ethical Festive Market

This weekend @hubcymruafrica are hosting their Ethical

Powering Potential in Kabuyu Primary School

We are very pleased to have been awarded £1000 grant f

NAQEZ Southern Province conference

Giakonda Solar Schools were delighted to be invited to

Classroom workshops

Beth and Lisa of Learning to Learn are having a success

Siavonga here we come!

Beth and Lisa are getting organised for their upcoming

Learning to Learn

The Learning to Learn pilot project is proving a great

Code Club at Kabuyu

Tags : Scratch

Great to see that McCloud Mwiinga of Kabuyu School has

Zambian Education magazine

We are proud to have an article included in the first e

Endorsement of our project

REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA SYAMWIINGA PRIMARY SCHO0L RE: Benefi

Impact of solar power

Daniel Mangwende of Dibbwi School today sent a letter d

Environmental Competition

Our friends at Siavonga High School are in the final te

Meeting partners

On our travels homeward we met with some of our partner

A desperate need for desks

The new Zambian government is prioritising education. T

More rural schools

Tags : connectivity

At Sianyoolo we were pleased to see the school in line

Visit to rural schools

Tags : internet

Thanks to Ms Ephe Hambabangolwe, the District Education

A boat trip to Munyama

Tags : Munyama choir

On Wednesday we visited one of the less accessible scho

Learning to learn in Siavonga

Tags : Learning to Learn

After a disastrous start, including two key members una

Learning to Learn

Tags : girls educationLearning to Learn

Regarding our Learning to Learn project, we’re ve

Learning to Learn project

Tags : WalesandAfrica

Thanks to funding from Welsh Government through their W

WalesandAfrica grant

Tags : Christmas

Glad tidings to share! We’ve been awarded a grant

Anti money-laundering awareness

We attended an interesting Zoom meeting early this morn

Giakonda Solar Schools YouTube

We have just set up Giakonda Solar Schools YouTube chan

African StoryBook Story Maker App

African Storybook Story Maker App won the 2021 Tech4Goo

Spreadsheets course

This term, Howard has run a Zoom course for Zambian tea

Mentoring

Very excited to have been chosen for @HubCymruAfrica Ad

Phillip Sikilwa

So sorry to hear of the death of Phillip who gave us so

Small Charities Week

Tags : Small Charities Week

It’s Small Charities Week and an opportunity to r

Enabling COVID-safe schools

A grant from Welsh Governments Wales and Africa Scheme

Pupil feedback

Following installation of solar power and computer base

Lighting for Siamwiinga

After a day and a half of work by Muhunya Solar and som

Solar at Siamwiinga

Muhunya Solar are making a great job of installing Sola

Siamwiinga gets ready for new Computer Hub

Siamwiinga Primary School are having solar panels fitte

Computers for Siamwiinga Primary School

Today we sent out Raspberry Pi 400 computers for Siamwi

Physical Computing Using Raspberry Pi

Giakonda Solar Schools is training teachers in Zambia v

Endorsement from NAQEZ

Pleased to have received this letter today regarding re

Adapting solar schools for COVID times

We are pleased to confirm that we have received a grant

Outstanding Grade 12 results in Southern Province

SOUTHEN NAQEZ HAPPY WITH OUTSTANDING G12 PROVINCIAL RES

COVID safe resources for schools

Great news today with the award of a grant from the Wal

Science Group

We’ve had a fantastic response to the setting up

Training with Libre Office Calc

Howard has started this term’s training which is

Happy Christmas

Need for more funding for Zambian schools

We are honorary members of NAQEZ (National Action for Q

Looking Forward to 2021

We’re pleased with the training that Howard deliv

Raspberry Pi PCs en route to Zambia

Thanks to all those who contributed to our recent gofun

Reward for hardworking teachers

Howard has been running Zoom teacher training sessions

ProjectLibre

In 2013 Howard wrote a tutorial on using ProjectLibre f

Ubuntu on Raspberry Pi4

We are super excited that Canonical have released Ubunt

Shopping to help Zambian schools

Every little helps us help rural schools in Zambia If y

Coding

We’re using COVID lockdown to hold twice weekly Z

COVID in Zambia

Schools in Zambia have now welcomed back all pupils and

Thermometers have arrived!

The non contact digital thermometers for schools in Zam

Thermometers

Thanks to generous individual donors, these fifteen the

Thermometers for schools

To support Bbakasa School in this time of pandemic, we

Achievements to date

We’ve come a long way since our first visit to Zambia

The power of Zoom

We’re keeping busy during COVID-19 lockdown prepa

COVID-19 Keep Safe

Many thanks to Hub Cymru Africa

2.6 challenge

Raise money for us The London Marathon is cancelled thi

NAQEZ letter

We are honoured to have received endorsement letter fro

They’re the Bees Knees

Tags : bees

We’re pleased to report back on the success of ou

NAQEZ

We are proud to have received the following notificatio

Developing solar power at Bbakasa School

      Thanks to Welsh Government’s

Training on using Raspberry PI PC

Our Zambian colleague, Joel, held a training session fo

Sharing and Learning with Hub Cymru Africa

This week we have been busy with events organised by Hu

Making partnerships

This month we have been busy meeting several other Wale

Meeting with Health Help International

Yesterday we met up with trustees of Health Help Intern

RACHEL training

Thanks to Daniel Mangwende of Dibbwi Primary School for

School resources bound for Zambia

Thanks to the generosity of a donor who wishes to remai

Giving Tuesday

We’re a few week’s away from #GivingTuesday

Milz at the Hyst

Milz the Teacher, trustee of Giakonda Solar Schools Zam

Siavonga Teachers Visit

A bit of a gap in news doesn’t mean we’ve b

June Visit

Can’t believe we’ve been home for four week

A busy week training in Chilanga

We spent our last week in Zambia training teachers in t

Manchamvwa Inland School

This school is very remote and, as such, the teachers h

Syakalinda Primary School

Syakalinda Primary School is about 4KMs off the tarred

Dibbwi Primary School

Dibbwi is a remote rural school in the Chaanga area whi

Kawila School

Kawila School was comparatively easy to reach i.e. we d

Sianyoolo School

Sianyoolo is the local zone school. It runs from Grades

Nashongo Primary School

Our  visit to Nashongo School was perhaps the most cha

Visit to Chaanga area

Several of the schools where we have installed solar pa

Namumu School

On 12th June we visited Namumu School. Children at Namu

Bbakasa School

Bbakasa is a remote rural school covering a large area

Munyama School

Our second visit on 13th June was to Munyama School. We

Manchamvwa Lakeshore

On 13th June we visited Manchamvwa Lakeshore School usi

Kabbila School

Today our monitoring visits took us to Kabbila and Namu

Katalumba and Game School visits

Today we began our site visits to schools where we prev

Monitoring our impact

This morning we invited representatives from all the sc

Official handover of Malimba School

On Friday 7th June we joined trustees of Friends of Mon

Final Day of Training in Monze

On our final day of training at Monze Resource Centre,

LibreOffice Training at Monze Resource Centre

Today’s training session was based on LibreOffice

Health Help Zambia

While in Monze, we are staying at Health Help Zambia. T

Technical Computer Training at Monze Resource Centre

There was a very good turnout for our first day of teac

Malimba School, Monze District

We’re here in Monze District to deliver some teac

Off to Zambia soon!

We’re extremely busy preparing for our trip to Za

International Development Summit May 2019

Giakonda Solar Schools was pleased to host a stall on 2

Computers on their way to Zambia

Last Wednesday a good friend took 44 PCs and 60 monitor

The activity never stops!

Despite it being a Saturday, several enthusiastic teach

RACHEL / KOLIBRI offline learning resources

Today’s training session focussed on exploring va

Meeting with District Education Board Secretary

This morning we had a very useful meeting with The Dist

Network Maintenance training

The purpose of today’s workshop was to show teachers

Refurbishing an old PC

The purpose of today is to explain how to refurbish an

Solar Installation Training at Siavonga High School

  This training was designed to introduce the prin

Amazon Smile

Don’t forget to support Giakonda Solar Schools wh

Updated instructions for Installing Kolibri

We have been busy updating our instructions for install

Kolibri

We are excited to be installing Kolibri on the laptops

Annual Report

I’ve just submitted the annual report for Giakond

Grant funding for 2019

We are very pleased to announce that we have received t

Training at Monze Resource Centre

We held two training sessions at Monze Resource Centre

Kampuna

We planned to visit Kampuna, a rural school built by Fr

Mwiinga Malimvwa

Solar Panels for Mwiinga Malimvwa School Friends of Mon

Bees Knees!

Rural schools in Zambia are very short of money. With t

Lushomo

We visited Lushomo Primary School in Monze to see how t

Upcoming projects

We’ve been busy preparing for our upcoming projec

Shipment to Zambia

We’ve just had a busy two days picking up a large

Lakeshore schools

Lakeshore Schools Early start as we had to go to the ha

Training in Zambia

Saturday / Sunday Howard finally got Siavonga Primary S

International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day, 8th March, was a very

Solar Panels for Syakalinda

Today was the day to install solar panels for Syakalind

Please Donate

This visit we are installing solar panels at three off-

Solar Installation training

Today we held a solar installation training at Siavonga

Engineers and Python Programming

Buzz Buzz

Bees for Africa One of the many challenges that face sc

Hello again Zambia!

Arrived safely in Lusaka after a long tiring journey. T

Siavonga Raspberry Jam

Saturday March 3rd we are in Siavonga High School runni

SolarPlants pleased to support us

SolarPlants of Baglan Bay have supported our cause by d

Hub Cymru Africa Innovation Award

Hub Cymru Africa Awards 2018 We’re delighted to a

Monitors for Zambia

We are delighted to send a big thank you to three gener

Zambia visit

We’re busy planning our next visit to Zambia in F

Welcome new trustees

A big welcome to our two new trustees, Jason and Malcol

Thanks Hub Cymru Africa

We are very grateful to Hub Cymru Africa for the award

Lusaka National Museum

Statue at Lusaka National Museum On our last full day i

Chilanga Primary School

On our way to Lusaka at the start of our homeward journ

Kariba Secondary School and SNG

Nearly time to head back to Lusaka, but first some fina

RACHEL for Resource Centre

RACHEL

Since 2015 Giakonda Solar Schools have been providing R

Training Zambian teachers

On each visit we ensure that we make time for training

Solar Power for Kawila

The main purpose of this visit to Zambia was to install

Sponsors wanted!

We have a large number of PCs and laptops ready to be d

Zambia All systems go!

With just three weeks before we leave for Zambia, we&#8

Hard drives

We are extremely grateful for a very generous donation

Preparations for September trip

Progress I’ve finally booked the flights today so

Africa Day 2107

Tags : Hub Cymru AfricaSeneddZim Voices Choir

On Thursday May 25th Giakonda Solar Schools attended Af

Katalumba re-visited

In 2010 a group of 29 Scouts from Surry and Berkshire t

Router en route to Zambia

Thanks to a customer donation, a D-Link router is en ro

Every little helps!

We certainly believe that when it comes to giving Every

Donations please!

This is a plea for your donations please! Over the last

Raspberry Pi Zero W

We’ve just bought a few Raspberry Pi Zero W to se

Many Hands Make “Light” Work

When Giakonda Solar Schools made a recent visit to Zamb

RACHEL (Rural Area Community Hotspot for Education and Learning)

Tags : RACHEL

One of the things we do each time we visit Siavonga, Za

IT Training Sessions

While in Zambia recently, we held several well attended

Solar Power for Zambian Schools

We’re now from Siavonga after three very busy wee

Zambia

Landed safely in Zambia 16th Feb Within two hours of to

Solar Panels and Raspberry Pi

We’re busy checking out kit for next week’s

Siavonga visit

Tags : RACHELRaspberry Pisolar

We’re delighted to be heading out for Siavonga ne

Easyfundraising for Giakonda Solar Schools

If you do a lot of online shopping, here’s a way

Swanfrica Network meeting

I attended a most useful workshop today at the Environm

Donated computers arrive in Lusaka

Good news that the boxes of donated computers and lapto

Synology DiskStations for Siavonga

We have long been fans of Synology DiskStation NAS stor

From pupil to master

In 2015 Philemon Chikoonda was head teacher of Kabbila

Hub Cymru Africa Summit 2016

Yesterday we attended the Hub Cymru Africa Development

En route for Siavonga

Thanks so much to SolarPlants of Baglan Bay for their g

Solar Panel Pick -Up

Tomorrow we are going to Baglan Bay to oversee the pick