January 2011, the start of a new school year for Africa.
Mrs. Mbumwae - shown here is the ZMF-C agent responsible for the sponsorship of 14o students - grade 2 - college and in approximately 15 different schools/colleges. Currently we sponsor just over 70 of them at Kalomo High School - just a few km. from where we live. I ran the program for 2007, 08 and some in 2010, while Mrs. Mbumwae was away.
She runs a tough program and is VERY effective with these kids. They MUST perform VERY well in every aspect of their life - and they are monitored CLOSELY. Academically, they must be working hard as evidenced by grades above 50 and encouaraged more towards 90 - 100%. Village kids have tremendous challenges - as their foundations are often not there. Can you imagine going to school from grade 1 - 7 when much of the time there is no school - too far to walk, no books, sick, looking after siblings, no teachers....and then miraculously - (actually, by God's design) you pass the strict government exams at grade 9 and then are assigned to Kalomo High School - a boarding school of 1500++ kids. And then you have to start to doing high school math, chemistry, physics and you are still using your fingers to figure out multiplication tables. (this is NOT an exageration!)
If you are sponsoring a student, please pray for him or her. Challenges come many times a day, every day.
The photo above is taken at Seven Fountains farm yesterday where Mrs. Mbumwae and I worked with 40 of our precious kids - at the field (my job) or at the container or with Oscar (a ZMF-C graduate of University of Zambia - economics) at the other field. Volunteer work is critical to the development of these kids - they need to understand that sponsorship is precious, like gold. As they work the farm - with their hands - they contribute towards generating income for the farm and that in turn helps out ones like Baby Michael!
Pray also for Mrs. Mbumwae - for health, strength and energy!
1 comment:
Times have certainly changed since we worked with Mrs. Mbumwae and the sponsored kids that went to KHS. (Not the job we went to do but one of many we helped with.) At that time all our sponsored kids were moved to mission schools except for a couple at Zimba. Too bad for some of the kids at the time like Stanley who was SO talented in drawing was taking art at KHS. It was not offered at the school he went to but we gave him art supplies and encouraged him to continue. Anyway, where is Mrs. Mbumwae's chitange?? Or are pants the norm now? Loved the read..Mrs. Beel
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