From time to time, as the untiring African sunset fills the streets of the Mwandi community with a warm orange color, a metal bird flies across the sky. 

It is interesting to see how, among the crowd, they glance up on the sky; incomprehensible glances that steadily follows the track of the flight being left behind. It is a state of unconsciousness where they dream and wake up again without even waiting for the plane to be lost in the immensity of the sky. They may think that sometimes it is better not to dream about things that cannot happen.

They all finish like this, dreams end before they even begin.

© Kubuka/2017/Luis Lanchares

From Kubuka we collaborate with people who day after day struggle to boost the motivation in their community, to awaken the forgotten feeling of flying high, to look from above and be able to go as far as you want. All this with the one and only weapon we have: education.

It is now Mwandi, a small community just outside Livingston (Zambia) that is starting to fly. This flight, our flight, took off six years ago with the aim of allowing the minors, their families and the community of Mwandi in general, who is in a situation of social disadvantage, a complete educational, personal, social and affective development.

We are currently working with 105 minors dreamers, where we are facilitating, thanks to school scholarships, access to secondary education that the government imposes. In the evenings we reinforce this education with an extracurricular center where the students have classes in mathematics, English, science, physics, chemistry and biology, taught by four qualified teachers.

© Kubuka/2017/Luis Lanchares

In addition, these teachers encourage healthy initiatives so the children develop values that help them become mature, avoid risk situations and motivate them.

We also work with 94 families where we conduct workshops focusing primarily on involving parents in the socio-educational process of their children and in their empowerment. In addition interventions are carried out within the families with the aim of providing guidance and support, while showing proximity and respect, in relation to the education of the children.

Finally, 16 different schools that are located in the city of Livingston are collecting information from each child and reporting it to the teachers of the school and vice versa, creating coordination between the different teachers, finding problems and solving them similarly.

We have a long flight to reach our destination, but we can proudly say that together we are flying very high.

The sun will go down like every day

It is time to believe

that they are now the ones who must learn to fly.

Nacho Atienza