The founder of the Margaret Bell School, Berry Kafololo, himself grew up in difficult circumstances after the divorce of his parents and had to cope with extreme poverty as a child. Unlike many other children who has found themselves in a similar position, he was fortunate to be able to have a decent education despite all these problems and has used this experience to help other disadvantaged children.
After becoming a Christian in 1992, Berry Kafololo realised that he should be using his experiences to help other children especially as the increasing problem of HIV and AIDS in Kitwe left more and more children without their parents. Like so many other cities in southern Africa, this is a problem affecting a whole generation of children and causing many problems within society. Denied the oppotunity to have an education because their parents were no longer there to pay for it, many children began to resort to a life of crime, alcohol and drugs to sustain their lives.
Berry Kafololo first set up the school in 1997. Originally the WOA Community School, it started out as a food kitchen providing meals for local children, as well as sharing the word of God and giving English lessons to those who can not read and write. Over the past eight years the school has grown to be a nursery and primary school for several hundred children in the Bulangililo area of Kitwe, and it is hoped to be able to reach out to many hundreds more when resources allow it. Much of the expansion that has taken place over the last few years is as a result of the generous donations from Margaret Bell, for which we are very thankful.
