Our Impact

Our impact

ZOA is a small charity with BIG ambitions for the young people we work with. We pride ourselves on being a small, nimble charity that can adapt our approach as necessary, working closely with our local, grassroots partners who are our ear to the ground. COVID-19 has proved the importance of our approach. It has meant we’ve been able to respond quickly to the changing situation to keep reaching the most vulnerable, despite the challenges involved.

Accountability

The way we work means we can keep our support costs low allowing more of your donations to be spent in Zambia on the orphans and vulnerable children who need our support the most.

Our supporters are what make it possible to give a helping hand to the children we work with. Without your help, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.

Our annual Trustees’ Report and Financial Statements show how, with your support, ZOA is helping orphans and other vulnerable children to change their future through education

Our annual report includes our audited accounts, explaining where our income comes from and how we’ve spent it.

2021/22 in numbers

Women receiving reusable sanitary pads

young people sensitised on sexual health issues

trained to provide psychosocial counselling

peer educators recruited

children supported in school

adolescents screened for HIV

people with disabilited
reached

recipients of nutritious school meals

recipients of emergency food packages

recipients of bars of soap to mitigate COVID

pupils benefiting from new waterworks at Lubushi School

psychosocial counselling sesssion

Our Work

We work with grassroots partners to educate the most vulnerable children in Zambia. Our approach is inclusive and holistic, providing good nutrition as well as social support to deliver the best results.

Sustainability

We engage with communities to achieve long-term change, empowering orphans, vulnerable children and youths through education to contribute to Zambia’s development.

Although we have sent £2 million in grants to Zambia since 2006, we ultimately want to take ourselves out of the equation. We don’t want to create donor-dependency, which is why we partner with grassroots, community-based organisations who are our valuable partners.

We work with our local partners to develop their capacity and, when appropriate, encourage them to develop other income streams to help them move towards financial sustainability.

For example, we supported our local parter, Chibolya Community School (CEHOZ) start a fish farm to provide an income to help become more self-sufficient. Surplus fish are cooked as part of the free school lunch provided for vulnerable children at Chibolya School in Southern Province, an area that often experiences food insecurity.

How we work

ZOA-UK employs rigorous governance and accountability structures to ensure donations are used effectively. We work in partnership with our sister charity, ZOA-Zambia, who are based in Lusaka. They lead on strategic programme development and management, monitoring and evaluating. We support them to fulfil programme objectives and work with them to build capacity where needed such as regional resource mobilisation, technical support, impact assessment and research. Since 2018 we’ve been evaluating our impact using the Child Status Index so we can make evidence-based decisions on the allocation of our limited resources. We are governed by a Board of Trustees, including British Zambians, and led by a small team of part-time, home-based staff, a structure that keeps our over-heads low allowing more donations to be spent in Zambia. Zambians are involved in decision making across the organisation. All our grassroots partners are registered NGOs and have their own bank accounts and the ability to provide documentation proving funds have been spent appropriately

Help change a child's future

Your help can support children through primary andsecondary school, provide nutritious school meals so pupilsaren’t learning on an empty stomach and support those that canthrough tertiary vocational training. We provide a holisticapproach so also provide mental health support and other inputswhere needed.