African Revival

About us

African Revival is a small charity with offices in the UK, Uganda and Zambia and partners in South Sudan. We believe in providing work opportunities for local people which is why our field offices are entirely locally-run.

Our vision is an Africa where every child has equal access to education, as we believe education is the key to overcoming poverty. We have worked with primary and nursery schools in Uganda, Zambia & South Sudan since 2005 – some of the poorest countries in the world – to allow every child to fulfil their potential.

Our mission is to transform schools in Africa into effective and thriving teaching and learning environments – schools in which skilled and motivated teachers are supported by the parents and community in providing quality education to pre-primary and primary school children.

Our work
We don’t just build infrastructure and implement education and livelihood projects, we empower whole communities – pupils, teachers and parents – to transform government-run and parent-run schools into thriving learning environments that build brighter, better futures.

Projects and programmes
• Read Together Project: The Read Together project aims to support distribution of Book Aid International donated reading books by providing Read Together libraries on wheels, which will ensure books are stored correctly on shelves and easy to access but can also be locked away at the end of the school day for security. The Read Together library is a storage trunk made of steel, to repel rats and termites, with large wheels so it can be moved between classrooms or outside into the school grounds. The two halves open on a hinge (like a book!) to reveal bookshelves to display more than 200 volumes of fiction, non-fiction or reference books. We also provide one-day Read Together workshops – training teachers how to set up a simple lending library and how to read aloud to children, showing pupils how to use and handle books, reading them a story in a fun and animated way to bring the characters to life and guiding fun book-themed activities
• Girls Advocacy Clubs: Building on our multi-year Girls & Sanitation programme to Keep Girls in Education, African Revival set up Girl’s Advocacy Clubs (GACs) at 20 primary schools in the Amuru District. Each club has 30 members, led by two Girls’ Club Leaders, elected by their peer group. The aim is for the clubs to run independently, with the support of Senior Female Teachers. To ensure sustainability, they will recruit new club members from P5 annually (at the beginning of term) but will retain P6 members to train the newcomers. Workshops address issues such as good WASH practices, MHM, puberty, child marriage, assertiveness, and life skills; helping girls develop positive habits from a young age. School packs with training manuals and posters will be supplied so teachers can continue to run workshops after the programme has ended.
• Mega Phonics: Phonics is an innovative, new teaching method, that correlates sounds with letters, providing children with a stronger literary foundation that is central to academic achievement in all subjects. In Uganda, the awareness and acceptance of Phonics as an effective teaching method is growing and is recognised by the Government of Uganda. It is included in the syllabus for training primary teachers, however, it is not focussed on in enough detail and there is therefore a large gap in the syllabus. Most voluntary teachers in rural schools where we work are not familiar with Phonics at all.
• Teacher Training: We are continue to support teachers in the schools in Zambia, Uganda and South Sudan, by providing training and materials to help them in their work and day-to-day lives. We incorporate teacher training into many of our programmes, and have completed a new model Early Childhood Development Centre at Kitgum Core Primary Teacher Training College in Northern Uganda.
• Infrastructure: All our infrastructure projects are built using eco-friendly ISSB (interlocking stabilised soil blocks). We build 3 room classroom blocks so that multiple lessons don’t have to happen in the same rooms simultaneously. Included in the construction of classroom blocks is a lockable staff office, where teachers can store confidential material and exam papers. Where required we furnish classrooms with desk benches.
• Schools Demonstration Farms: In Uganda and Zambia we ran a school demonstration farm programmes to address low quality primary education, food insecurity and poor agricultural productivity. Many pupils find it difficult to concentrate in class because they are hungry, and often parents find it difficult to grow enough food. We work with school communities to establish parent-led farms and give agricultural, marketing and financial training. Profits from produce are split between the school, a group development fund and group members, and eventually the project becomes self-sufficient so our help is no longer needed.

Sara Stewart is the Executive Director of African Revival.

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.