Zimbabwean School Celebrates 1st World Reader Launch

In January of 2015, Albert Street School celebrated its 1st World Reader Launch. World Missions Possible donated 25 Kindle (wifi-enabled) e-books to Albert Street School's high school students. Each and every e-book was loaded with 100 textbooks, including high-school and college-level business, accounting, computer sciences, medical sciences, mathematics, fiction, religious, and other academic titles - personally selected for the student's specific needs at the school. In 2014, Albert Street School amazed fellow students, staff & peers by bringing in a stunning 100% pass rate on all of the students' Cambridge International Exams - WOW!! Congratulations!

As you can see, the e-books are a huge hit with the students, who are very proud to use their new high-tech teaching tools:

Background of Albert Street School:

The Albert Street School, located in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa, was shut down in 1958 during the Apartheid era. It recently reopened in July of 2008 as a refugee school under the direction of Bishop Paul Verryn and the Central City Mission.

The school now teaches Grade 1 through 12 and comprises approximately 585 refugee children (mainly from Zimbabwe but serving students now from 12 nations). The staff of 21 teachers, 3 administrators, 5 cooks, 2 guards, one secretary, and one maintenance staff person are all refugees from Zimbabwe. There are currently 120 unaccompanied minors, without either parent or any guardian, that are in desperate need of support and sponsorship for uniforms, school supplies and school fees.

At its inception, with only 70 children, the percentage of children who were UNACCOMPANIED MINORS was over 90, so they rely on the school to help them with not only with their education, but also their day-to-day needs of food, clothing and shelter.

Currently, the students and the school staff have no homes, and all sleep in very crowded and sometimes unsafe conditions (on cement floors & stairwells) at the Central City Methodist Mission Church, and are part of the 800-900 refugees that sleep at the church nightly.

The children have no desks and proper school materials, and the school is in desperate need of donations: