About mechanics for africa

Transforming lives since 2002

We focus on the individual. Our committed staff work hard with each and every student to see lives transformed.

We were established as a college in 2002 by visionaries Charlie and Sharonne Watt, with the support of Milford Baptist Church in the UK. Charlie and Sharonne ran the college until leaving in 2014 when Charlie took a senior role in Zambia’s mining industry. Jason and Claire Stonier led the college from 2014 to 2018, and were succeeded by Sarah and Harry Weld-Forester, who took charge from 2019 to 2021.

Gwanire Kalombe is the current CEO for Mechanics for Africa. Milford Baptist Church and Christ Church, Sutton continue to be major support links between the UK and Zambia. 

Our focus

Our main subjects are Automotive Engineering and Clerical Operations course, but we also teach a variety of other valuable Life Skills, including Basic Computer Skills, Entrepreneurship, English, Health and Safety and First Aid. 

We focus on mentoring individuals, and through those individuals we hope to impact the wider families and communities of Zambia as our students graduate from MfA as men and women of good character and great potential.

We are a Christian college, although you don’t have to be a Christian to apply, and we always talk about Mechanics for Africa as being like a family. Our students soon find out why this is: they are not just faces in a classroom, they are the very reason we exist. 

We do what we do because we take Christ seriously when he says “The first and greatest commandment is this: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. The second greatest is this: love others as you love yourself…” (Matthew chapter 22).

Throughout the two year course, we give our students opportunities to explore Christianity and to build the strong foundations of ethics, hard work, and discipline characteristic of the Christian faith.