About Us

Teacher Aid is a small charity of volunteers working tirelessly in Zambia to help uplift rural communities through education. The trustees are in direct contact with, and are the main supporters of Nsobe Community School, helping to build it into the hugely successful “model” complete school it is today.

We are teaching  the girl school leavers silver service waitressing, equipping them with a post school useful skill Our support fund is the backbone of the school, from which the majority of the teachers are paid. To build up the support fund we are constantly inviting people to come on board to support a child or a teacher through a monthly Standing order. We raise funds in different ways and encourage others to hold fundraisers too, please see the Fundraising page. We find grants for buildings through funding bodies. We visit Nsobe once or twice every year, reading with the children, discussing matters with the older pupils. We install computers, electrics, two jungle gyms, monitoring teachers for the Head Teacher.

Here in Cardiff we refurbish computers, send out books and do anything and everything asked of us to help the school become what it is today. Our close contact through email and Whatsapp with Fiona, the founder, has been paramount in achieving great results from 16 children in 2009 to 650 in 2023. Together we have concentrated particularly on the education of girls having funded the building of No 1 Safehouse, with No 2 on the horizon plus a dormitory for girls. We feel the Safehouses are providing the best environment possible for learning, and the most vulnerable girls showing good academic promise are loving living in comfortable, safe surroundings.

The Government recognizes and acknowledges this model school, with many visits from Officials who never fail to show their surprise at the high standard of education and the ever-present wonderful atmosphere of pupils and teachers. Together with Nsobe, Teacher Aid has played a small part in exploiting the many skills that these children are showing. They are growing into sociable, polite individuals with all the skills needed to succeed in life. Teacher Aid intends to replicate this project elsewhere in due course.

Our Work

Through a partnership and strong friendship with Nsobe Community School staff and pupils. Teacher Aid is playing a small part in alleviating poverty through offering quality life-changing education in rural Zambia.

We support Teachers and facilitate the growth and development of quality schools where vulnerable children could not access education before, offering hope through an educated and empowered future.

We are passionate about ensuring that students (especially girls) complete school so that they can access tertiary academic or vocational training and secure future employment or wealth generation through entrepreneurship.

Teacher Aid is based in Cardiff and is a small charity run completely by Volunteers with no admin costs so that every penny raised gets 100% to the projects we support.

"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today" Malcolm X

Our Team

Maggie Beecher Founder and Chair

Email: magbeecher@teacheraid.org.uk

Maggie created the Teacher Aid support fund and later incorporated the Child education sponsorship scheme, which is steadily growing. Continually looks for funding for various projects and grant applications. Organizes fundraisers – the annual Gower yomp and at least 1 other During the year. Personally visit the projects at least once a year, building relationships With staff and pupils, checking on school standards and project Development, taking lessons and inspiring students.

Mike Papadacos – Trustee and Treasurer

Email: mikep@teacheraid.org.uk

Keeps perfect records for HMRC!
Set up solar electricity and Computer lab in the Secondary school. Resourced 40 laptops, refurbished at base, installed educational software programmes. Did IT instruction locally.
Teaches good electrical practice to all at Nsobe. Bought and shipped from Japan the school bus for educational field trips and more. Bought a small car for lighter and more local journeys.
Set up a projector and screen in the new Assembly Hall
Converted a small classroom to an audio-visual room in Primary School,with educational TV, 10 refurbished laptops with benches and stools.

Christine Whipp – Trustee


Email: christinewhipp@teacheraid.org.uk

I am a retired Chemistry teacher and finished my career running the Science department at a large girls' school. I have helped with the science teaching and resources in both the primary and secondary schools as well as having fun with the younger children telling stories and doing music and crafts. As soon as we saw Nsobe Community School, my husband Simon and I knew it was somewhere special that made a difference to the whole community. We shared in devotions at the girls' safe house on our last visit. We have come to love Zambia; we also volunteer at Oasis orphanage and Mountainside School in Ndola. Back home I am a facilitator for courses for women who have escaped domestic abuse and I help with children's work and music at our home church. I have an interest in protecting the environment. It is a privilege to see God at work in the lives of people all over the world.

 

 

Simon Whipp – Volunteer Fundraiser

Email: Simonwhipp@teacheraid.org.uk

I worked at the FCO as an engineering manager and my wife Chris ran a large school science department in Northampton. We are worship leaders at our Church and volunteer at a Child Contact Centre. We retired in 2017 and went to Zambia with “Soapbox” * where we worked in Ndola at the Oasis orphanage and Mountainside School. On our second trip to Zambia we also worked at Nsobe Community School where we met Maggie and Mike. We also served at a centre for young mums and their babies in Uganda through the LIFT organization. Northampton, Chris is a trainer and I am a Trustee for a Woman’s Refuge. These are all fantastic Christian-based projects, led by inspirational people.

Our Projects

Teacher Support

We Fund The Salaries Of The Dedicated Teachers Making Quality Education Accessible To Many Children. We At Teacher Aid Believe Good And Understanding Teachers Are One Of The Keys To Unlocking The Doors Of Poverty And Are Passionate About Supporting

Solar Labs

We Have Set Up A Secondary Solar Powered Computer Lab And A Primary Audio Visual Room (With Thanks For A Wales For Africa Grant) Which Doubles As A Computer Room Giving Students Vital Access To Computer Learning – A First In The Area.