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Top award for teacher who fled civil war

Bethan Dorsett
1/12/2007

THE classrooms of a Rochdale school could not be further removed from Chanda Kapesa’s old life in Africa.

The teaching assistant is so well respected at St John’s RC Primary School that he has scooped a top council award.

But it has been a long fight to get here for Mr Kapesa.

The 60-year-old is a former prisoner of conscience, jailed in the Democratic Republic of Congo as his homeland dealt with the aftermath of a civil war.

“I was a human rights campaigner,” said Mr Kapesa.

“I had spoken out because I was unhappy with the way women were being treated within our society and I was jailed for two months because of that.

“There were other human rights campaigners who came to see me.

“When I was released they helped me cross the barrier into Zambia with my family.

“We stayed there but I knew that the army was looking for me so I did not feel safe.”

Despite his difficulties, Mr Kapesa made a huge impact on the Zambian refugee camp.

He helped create seven schools, with 1,000 pupils each, and was headteacher of all seven for a time.

In March last year he moved to Rochdale and began to train as a teaching assistant at St John’s, where his six-year-old grandson Mununga attends.

He has been given leave to stay in Britain, having obtained official refugee status under the United Nations’ Gateway programme.

During his time at the school, he has  become a parent governor, enrolled in several courses to improve his skills and now plays a crucial role in helping children for whom English is a second language.

His hard work has earned him the Nan Jackson Award for outstanding achievement from the council’s family literacy service. The glass trophy was presented to Mr Kapesa by his mentor Gulhruk Masood and headteacher Jed Morgan.

Mr Morgan said: “Mr Kapesa is not the sort of person who would be happy doing very little.

“He has found every opportunity to become qualified and improve his education.”

Mr Kapesa said he was ‘very pleased’ with the accolade.

He has not, however, forgotten his roots as he has built up a link between St John’s and the Zambian schools he helped set up – St John’s has been raising cash to support a new IT centre at the camp.