Home » Community Development Program » Fostering Education » The Larawatu School
The Larawatu School
This school is in a very remote area of West Sumba where vehicular access to the school is cut off during the wet monsoon months of January through March.
The local people in the region consider the teachers of this school to be superior to those that are teaching in other schools in the area.
In fact there are many students enrolled in this school whose families are from villages many miles away. Those children stay with family or friends that live nearby the school and see their families only during semester breaks.
As motivated as the five teachers are it is unfortunate that the school is in total disrepair and only able to accept 178 students.
There are two classroom buildings at this school, one of which cannot be used because the teachers consider it unsafe. The result is that the school is operating at half capacity. The teachers have built a very basic bamboo and grass classroom with their own money in order to accommodate the new first grade students seeking an education.
In this classroom there are no chairs, only bamboo poles to sit on, and there are no tables to write on, but the students are nevertheless keen to attend class and to eager to learn.
Our goal is to renovate the worst of the two classroom buildings so that it is safe and can be used, and also to build an extension of two new classrooms so that the school can accept a projected enrolment of 300 students. Recently, we completed a well on the school grounds and the school now has clean water.
There are also more than 300 villagers in the area that are also using this well. A block of toilets was built in 2004 by our workers.
The Sumba Foundation has already provided this school with:
- Clean Well Water & New Toilets.
- 60 Tables and Benches for the students, each set comfortably sits two students.
- New Blackboards in each classroom for the teachers.
- A complete set of School Supplies for each child at the start of each semester.
We are seeking private funding to renovate the classroom building at this school. Doing so will create an opportunity for many more students to enter school and receive an education. We have broken down the major portions of the work as follows:
- $3,500.00: to build new floors in the 4 classrooms. 40% of the existing cement floors are now large deep potholes caused by rain leaking from the roof.
- $1,500.00: to repair the walls that are cracked, to reinforce the foundations of the building, and once completed repaint the whole building.
- $3,200.00: to replace all of the windows and door frames of the building.
- $8,500.00 to build a complete new roof with ceilings. The existing roof structure is rotted and rusted through. As it is now a strong windstorm or earthquake could easily bring the roof down taking some of the walls with it.
- $20,000.00: to build two new classrooms extended to the existing building so that the school can accommodate the expected increased enrollment.
All donors will receive quarterly updates on the progress of the project, and as a show of appreciation a brass plaque with the donors name will be mounted to the wall of the school.