Our Projects

The Spirit of Paul McGirr works with the Chainda community in Lusaka to design, fund and construct buildings which create safe spaces that enable community members to realise their full potential. To date the charity has been involved in building and maintaining schools for: children up to 16 years old with special educational needs; a preschool for orphaned children and a primary school. The current project is a secondary school, which will provide a pathway for children in the local community to progress through all stages of statutory education.

As at June 2022, the charity has sent out 16 shipping containers of equipment to Chainda; donated items in the past have included:- a Massey Ferguson tractor, paint, tiles, doors, bicycles etc, medical equipment, as well as many other smaller items, such as educational supplies, in the form of text and exercise books, stationery, school chairs, school tables, play equipment, to name but a few.

If you feel that you may be able to donate items that would contribute to our current projects - building and resourcing a secondary school and establishing a health and nutrition hub - in the Chainda community, please contact us through our Facebook page.


Chainda District, Lusaka, Zambia


Community Centre

St Theresa’s Community Centre is the first project that the charity was involved with. The Community Centre houses the Special Needs School and the Preschool. The Community Centre is a multipurpose building - fully seated, it can hold 1000 people for church services, where the numerous community choirs rehearse twice weekly - and has rooms available for meetings and a physiotherapy unit for the pupils in the Special Needs School.

Special Needs School

The Special Needs School was the first of its kind in the area. It is designed to cater for up to 20 children with a range of special educational needs. The children are fed daily and any mobility equipment the children need is provided free of charge for them.

St Theresa Primary School

The primary school is two storey block-built portal framed building at currently caters for 220 local children. The school currently employs 12 full time staff with more classrooms planned. It was officially opened in 2018 by the Loreto to Lusaka project - a collaboration between Loreto Grammar School Omagh and The Spirit of Paul McGirr.

Tyrone School Zambia Secondary School

The secondary school is currently under construction. Phase 1 of the build is complete and we anticipate that Phase 2 will be completed by Autumn 2022. It has single storey courtyard design, intended to provide secondary schooling for up to 400 children. COVID 19 restrictions have meant that the opening of the school has been delayed by a year.