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African school dream a reality for Leeds teachers
ADVENTURE: Karolyn and Martin Simbeye and children Safila and Ninza pack their belongings.
After five years of dreaming and planning, two Leeds teachers are weeks away from moving to Africa to open their own school.
Martin and Karolyn Simbeye are leaving their family home in Beeston with their two young children, and giving up their jobs to set up the Vinjeru Centre for Learning in Zambia, in the hope of transforming the lives of underprivileged children.
They have raised £80,000 for the project and have built several classrooms from scratch.
Now they are packing up and shipping off the last of their possessions before embarking on their life-changing journey on March 7.
Karolyn, 31, said: “We are taking a lot of furniture and all our personal belongings because we don’t see ourselves coming back. I never thought I would want to move to Africa, but Martin and I really wanted our marriage to have a common purpose, and there’s such a need for affordable, high quality education in Martin’s native Zambia.”
Martin, 37, taught at Priesthorpe High in Farsley and Karolyn taught religious education at Morley High – now Morley Academy – for six years.
She said: “We are both really excited to go because it’s been planned for five years now.”
They will be forging relationships with the local community, finding prospective students and Karolyn plans to learn Bemba – one of around 72 languages spoken in Zambia.
They also need to find a way to raise between £60,000 and £80,000 a year for the next five years to complete the buildings.
Karolyn said the town of Kapiri Mposhi needed 35 secondary schools but only had two, so youngsters often had to end their education aged just 11.
The couple hope to change that, with around 120 11 and 12-year-olds expected to start at their school next year and every following year until it has around 600 pupils.
They have a two-year-old son Ninza and eight-month-old daughter Safila. Karolyn said although they were sad to be leaving her family behind in the UK they were looking forward to living near Martin’s extended family, who helped build the school.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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