In June I had the incredible good fortune to visit Zambia, a journey that stirred deep emotions – it had been a long time since my brief monitoring visit with another NGO in 2002. Returning to the land of my birth, where my family had lived for six years in the late 1960s and early 70s, was a poignant experience. In Lusaka, I stayed with Bob Liebenthal, ZOA-Zambia board member. Listening to Bob’s captivating stories about his early days in Zambia, around the same time my parents arrived in 1968, was fascinating.
The aim of my trip was to visit ZOA’s partner schools, Chibolya and Twavwane, to witness first hand the impactful of our projects. This provided a unique opportunity to engage with students and teachers, capturing photographs, videos, and case studies that will significantly enhance our future fundraising and reporting (pictured, I am interviewing a ZOA-supported child in Lusaka).
My first visit was to Chibolya School in Mazabuka, Southern Province on 7th June – a three hour journey by car from Lusaka. I travelled with Patricia, ZOA-Z’s Project Coordinator, Foster Banda, ZOA-Z’s Finance Officer and Hudson Chirwa, a freelance photographer who ZOA-Z had contracted to take photographs during our visit.
Our arrival at Chibolya School was met by school leaders Innocent and Sedlock with the most beautiful singing from the student choir and their charismatic conductor- what a welcome!! (You can hear the singing by clicking on the video of the children’s choir).
We were given a tour of the whole school starting with visiting the classrooms during lessons. This included a science demonstration with Grade 12 students and their teacher Dr. Brian Mwanza (pictured in checked shirt).
We also visited a computing lesson with teacher Ms. Dester Muzyamba and with Grade 9 students who told us the school is experiencing huge issues with unreliable power/electricity and how it affects their teaching and the students’ learning. This year’s drought has put enormous pressure on the country’s energy system – Zambia relies on hydropower so with low water levels many areas have been without power for days at a time.
We then visited the preschool classroom where we met with teacher Ms. Lenty Mabuto who was doing an amazing job despite teaching so many children in her class with very few learning resources. She told us how she would welcome more resources/materials to enhance the kids’ learning. Despite lacking teaching resources they managed to use recycled bottle tops as counters and water bottles to draw numbers and letters in the dirt outside.
This is the first year that Chibolya School has been able to send students to college. We met with four tertiary students who told us about their background and studies including Oscar Ngoma (pictured wearing a striped shirt) who is 22 years old and a double orphan. He has been supported by ZOA since he started school and is about to start studying for a two-year diploma in Water Supply & Operations at Livingstone Institute.
Oscar said “It makes me feel so excited to have the opportunity to study. I never thought I’d be supported in this way! I am very excited and motivated”.
We met some disabled students and visited the boarding house they stay in so that they can access school more easily. There we met Joseph Banda (pictured wearing blue shirt) who is 19 years old and in Grade 9, he has been on ZOA support for 11 years. When Joseph first arrived at Chibolya School he couldn’t walk, we have photos and a case study from when he was younger so it was great to follow up with Joseph and find out how he was doing. After receiving regular physiotherapy treatment he can easily walk, play football and is a budding artist.
Joseph said,”I feel so good now I can walk easily and take part in lessons with my friends. I use the physiotherapy equipment every day. I would like to be a doctor one day to help others. Thank you for your support!”
At lunchtime it was great to see some of the older students helping the cooks with the stirring of Nshima (the maize porridge that is a staple of the Zambian diet) in the kitchen. It is an impressive job feeding so many and school meals are a really essential and important part of the school day, for more and more students their only meal of the day. We had many discussions with teachers about children arriving at school hungry and how the drought has affected them and their families. On the menu was fish (from the school fish farm of course), nshima and vegetables. Each student shares a plate between two.
We met with Mr Humuchiliba Kisco, Fish Farm Co-orindator who showed us around the fish ponds
We also saw the fish ponds and had a demonstration on fish being caught with a large net then weighed. Mr Kisco (the coordinator of this project) discussed some of the challenges of fish farming and also learnings and progress made.
We walked into the local village and met with four families who have children attending Chibolya School. It was clear from all families that the biggest challenge was the ongoing drought and challenges trying to feed their families. One of the families we met with has two daughters in Grade 12 – Susan, and Grade 9 – Prisca. There are six children altogether. The family told us how they use a well to get water, they eat two meals a day and collect firewood from the bush to sell for a small income. Their weekly income as a family is 160 kwacha (about £6). Their house has just two rooms.
Susan told us: “My father says without support we would not get an education. We would just be at home. Our biggest challenge is lack of food. It is very hard, we can’t afford to buy mealie meal. We just buy one small bag when we can but it doesn’t last. At least we can eat food at school”.
The next day we met with a group of tertiary students at the ZOA-Z office in Lusaka. The students talked to us about their background, their studies and their hopes for the future. One student who graduated in 2023 is Foster Chintu, who completed a three-year diploma in Registered Nursing from the Kafue Institute of Health Sciences and Research. Foster is an only child whose father is dead. She chose nursing as she had lots of illnesses as a child so wanted to help others. She is waiting to be deployed by Government and is hoping to volunteer to help others while she is waiting.
Foster told us, “I am very thankful, the support has changed my life, helped me be more independent, there is no need to ask others for support now. I wouldn’t have reached where I am today without the support. The experience of studying was challenging, there were ups and downs. I enjoy wound dressing the most! It is interesting to see how the body is made. My mother is very thankful for the support also.”
We also visited Twavwane School, located in Kabanana compound in Northern Lusaka. We spoke with caregivers who were preparing lunch including Irene Phiri (pictured wearing a brown jumper). Irene is a volunteer and helps prepare lunch for the students every day. She also takes care/mentors 10 children – each caregiver has 10 children they monitor. Irene doesn’t have any children of her own. She lives 5km away from the school. There is an oven in the kitchen but because the electricity is so unreliable they are cooking outside on an open fire.
Irene told us “These children have a lot of good change because now they can concentrate on school work rather than just being in the compound. The meal helps the children because when they go home there is no food. For some this is their only meal of the day. The kids eat beans, sausage, vegetables or sometimes chicken and egg, maybe porridge”.
We met with some of the volunteer teachers. In particular, Mr. Banda (pictured wearing grey top) who has been teaching at Twavwane School for 14 years. Mr. Banda teaches Geography.
He talks about the challenges of teaching at Twavwane “The biggest challenge is the inconsistency with teachers as they are volunteers. Yesterday we had a whole day without power, that becomes a problem when trying to teach.
We teach computer studies but have no computers. Some pupils that are on ART (HIV medication) don’t have food at home and don’t come to school as they go out to work. They sometimes find it difficult coming here – they are used to piecemeal work so carry on doing that rather than come to school.”
We met with Priscilla Chanda (pictured with braids), a 13-year-old student at Twavwane in Grade 7. She lives with her mother. She is the youngest of six siblings. Priscilla talked about the importance of hand-washing, sanitation and hygiene, especially in terms of the recent cholera outbreak.
“It is important to wash hands after using the toilet because once you wash your hands all the bacteria will die with the soap. Cholera really affected the community here. I didn’t know anyone that had it. Actually it affected me a lot because I had to start school late in January- we didn’t go back to school until February. We need to keep the environment clean, we need to wash our hands to kill the germs. Our teachers tell us how to wash our hands properly. We use soap and water”.
We spent the afternoon talking with some of the students, asking them questions about their background, how Twavwane is helping them and the variety of programmes they benefit from such as free school meals, Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM), counselling, HIV testing etc.
Students are pictured making reusable sanitary pads, an initiative that is helping to reduce period poverty by supplying girls with the products they need to allow them to attend school. Boys are also involved in this work, learning about the challenges that girls in order to break down stigma and reduce teasing.
Mainess Kumwenda is another ZOA-supported student who talked to us about MHM, sexual health, early marriages etc. Mainess is in Grade 9 and would like to be a journalist when she leaves school – I think she will succeed – she is very confident and articulate! It was great to see how ZOA support is helping children like Mainess achieve their potential.
We finished the day with a demonstration by Mr. Hudson Lungu, who is a teacher at Twavwane School. Hudson is pictured using an eyechart to screen a students. He was able to do this because he has received training to screen students’ eyes to identify visual problems. This is a new project that is helping the school embed eyecare services in the community, ensuring that children are identified early and referred for necessary treatment.
Hudson explained, “The eye care orientation training was very good as sometimes we have pupils who have been performing poorly in class and now we know it is due to poor eyesight or vision”.