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Hi everybody, in this post we would like to educate you about the “Albert Street Refugee School” project that will benefit from the donations and money from t-shirt sales that we are trying to raise with our longboard tour.

It is a project that Eric and Scott Byington from the Elias Fund have been working with William Kandowe and Alpha Zhou in South Africa. It aims at giving refugee kids from Zimbabwe a perspective in their lives.

What is the Albert Street School?
Located in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa, has been shut down since 1958, during the Apartheid era. It reopened in July of 2008 as a refugee school under the direction of Bishop Paul Verryn and the Central City Mission.

People
15 teachers, 3 administrators, 5 cooks, 2 guards, 1 secretary one maintenance staff person – all refugees. As the school was started approx. 90% of the children where unaccompanied minors.

Situation
The school is a refuge that does not only provide education, but also takes care of day-to-day needs of food, clothes and shelter.Students currently have no home and sleep under very crowded and sometimes unsafe conditions (on cement floors & stairwells) at the Central City Methodist Mission Church, that is currently home to approx. 4000 refugees.

Needs for the Children
Food – daily meals provided to the students and staff at school (sometimes 1 or 2 days without any), clothes, medication, blankets, toys.

Needs in School
Furniture (bookshelves, chairs, desks, tables,etc.) sport uniforms, staff salaries, computers and teaching material.

Needs in General
Cash donations for repair, maintenance, construction and upkeep of the school; work and construction teams to repair, paint, replaster and build additional rooms – great need to clean, repair appliances and renovate the rooms to hygienic, mold-free environment.

Vision for the refugee education projects by William Kandowe (school administrator) and Alpha Zhou (school principal).

Dual purpose education
a) Education for healing and rehabilitation (i.e the psychological aspect).
b) Education for skills development of the refugee or the displaced person that will enable him/her to earn a living abroad and participate in the future economic development of his or her country.

Forced migration destroys a person socially, physically and psychologically
It is therefore these important aspects of life that need to be redressed, and thus the planners of refugee programs should focus on them especially in educational programs.
During migration a person loses property job, family ties and lastly social or cultural ethics. People in most cases resort to prostitution, crime, begging and drug abuse.

We hope you see the importance of this project, and how valuable your participation in it is. In case you have any further questions, feel free to contact us about the project. Already now, we would like to thank you for your efforts! Thank you!

Please find more pictures in our gallery.