In 1997, the primary school had only one class of 44 pupils supervised by one teacher. Now there are 13 classrooms attended by 460 pupils, from nursery to Year six. 31 of the original 44 pupils are now preparing their Year six exam.

It all started when members of CAFUMO decided to help the “children of the streets” of Zilma. Land was bought by the cooperative and later some classrooms were built to accommodate the pupils of what was initially called « Ecole Frères Unis des Enfants Pauvres de Zilma » (United Brothers Primary School for Poor Children of Zilma).

	In 2003, our society used the Fairtrade premium to build 6 classrooms in the primary school “Frères Unis”, and a shelter in the primary school “Ste Famille”; a total of 900 pupils have benefited from these small projects. WILFRED JOACHIM, TREASURER OF RECOCARNO.

Gradually more and more members, some of whom are parents of the children of Zilma, joined the cooperative and contributed to pay the salaries of the teachers.

In 2003, part of the FT premium (40,000Gdes around $1,100) was used to build 6 additional classrooms so that pupils and their teachers will no longer sit under a tree in open air classrooms.

The curriculum includes “cooperative activities” and “farming” and the school has established a small savings scheme and its own food-crop farm, with the assistance of the Production Technician.

Zilma School is about an hour away from Mont-Organisé: 30 minutes drive and then 30 minutes walk. Some pupils have to walk 2-3 hours to come to school every day.