How the EVE Project Is Helping Children in Rural Zambia Stay in School

Owen Choongo was only 17 years old, but he was the only supplier of his brothers and sisters since his mother left them over two years ago.

Expanishing this burden was not easy for the teenager, and he often skips school to do odd jobs to win what he can. He did exactly that when Nowsweek Visited his school, the primary school lies in the rural district of Namwala in Zambia, in July.

When he showed up, he said Nowsweek Thanks to a translator that he must accept jobs when he can get them, because otherwise, he and his brothers and sisters will not be able to eat.

Choongo is one of the students identified as at high risk of abandoning the school by the vulnerable children’s empowerment project with education (Eve), an initiative implemented by non -profit education above all the children’s program and the world vision of the zamboration foundation with zambia of education and the forum for African Women EDUCULATIONS OF ZAMBIA (FAWEZA).

Launched in October 2022, the project worked to keep children like Choongo at school.

Zambia has made significant progress in improving access to education in recent years, after having implemented an education policy compared to all free studies in 2021.

But there are still significant challenges due to the costs of uniforms, books and other expenses, especially for children in rural areas and other factors, including long distances in school, early marriage and pregnancy in adolescents.

In the Namwala district, one of the most marginalized areas in the country, the abandonment rate in 2019 was 5.3% – 60% of them, according to World Vision Zambia.

There, the project took action to meet these challenges, in particular by providing 900 bikes to the students who, otherwise, have to walk for hours to go to school every day. Nine wheelchairs have also been given to disabled children to help them stay in school.

A key aspect of the project is an “early alert system” used to identify children at risk by following their attendance, their behavior and their course performance. The stay committees, made up of parents and members of the community, were also mobilized to work with school officials to identify and monitor students at risk of abandoning.

How a bike changed the life of a student

Webster shampuwo, 17, a student at Shamutiki school, said that his new bike had been invaluable to help him stay in school. A trip that took him more than an hour to walk now less than 20 minutes.

“Now I’m still on time,” he said Nowsweek through a translator.

Nowsweek Also visited the shampuwo house in a village called Sichepa, where it has demonstrated how it also uses bikes to make chores such as recovery of a well and gardening water.

Nearby, the shampuwo mother, the patient shampuwo, worked in a field with a baby attached to her forehead. A single mother of nine years, she had trouble affording the costs associated with the sending of her son to school, but is satisfied with the progress he has made.

He said that he had been encouraged to return to school by the school stay committee after abandoning in 2015, when he lived with an uncle who, according to him, kept him at home to make cattle to keep away.

“It was painful because my uncle’s children came to school and I stayed at home,” he said.

Another student who returned to school in October with the encouragement of the committee is precious.

Himweeba, 22, from the Chibule region, had abandoned after falling pregnant at the age of 15 and then getting married. But she left her husband after seeing that he was not able to support her son, she said Nowsweek through a translator.

It is important for her to stay in school now, said Himweeba, when she dreams of becoming a nurse.

“I hope a better future, I want a good life,” she said.

Create a driver’s environment

The project also focused on creating an environment conducive to students, said Sydney Simubwa, Eve project manager at World Vision.

In order to prevent girls from staying at home while menstruated, shower and washing facilities have been built in schools, and clubs have been set up where students run reusable sanitary towels.

“They have access to these modern toilets, they have access to these modern shower rooms,” said Simubwa Nowsweek. “So we saw that they encouraged learners to return to school.”

Shamikobo Kebby, chief professor of Shamutiki school, attributes the interventions of the project to the student population of his school which double in just three years. There were 365 students attending school in 2022, but it has now climbed to 645, he said Newsweek.

“We have seen the reduction in the absenteeism of learners,” said Kebby. “Class performances have started to increase.”

Teachers were also trained on how to support children at risk of abandoning, and savings groups have been set up to help mothers start and develop their own business.

“We really favor, a kind of business spirit within the groups of people with whom we work,” said Marc Nosbach, National Director of World Vision of Zambia Nowsweek. “It helps them just like a springboard to increase, diversify their livelihoods.”

The project should end in October, but the initial objective of reaching 7,000 children at risk has already been achieved, said Nosbach.

He said that in a severe drought in Zambia last year, the project also provided meals to more than 100,000 children.

“We have actually seen a lot of children potentially abandon from school or be threatened to stay at home, because there is simply not enough food in communities,” he said. “It was really important, because otherwise, the children would have completely abandoned the school and would have remained behind.”

Another success of the project is that the stay in school committees also guaranteed that more than 1,000 children who had abandoned the school were brought back.

It is a “really remarkable and positive consequence,” said Derek Langford, principal specialist in education engagement, Newsweek.

The project was targeting the children “who are at school but who are dangerously close to abandonment,” he said. “But they actually scored more than 1,000 children outside.”