It’s Official! Azadeh’s inspiration to start her own non-profit organization has turned into reality.
Based on our research (in addition to just seeing the obvious) we felt that there is a significant, unfulfilled need for educational assistance in Zambia. Education Relief Network’s mission is to promote sustainable socio-economic development by facilitating universal access to quality education.
In the immediate future, the objective is to raise funds and sponsor students’ school related fees such as: tuition, uniform (and shoes), and exam fees. If you are interested in contributing, or learning more, please email us at: ERNZambia@gmail.com.
Below is a brief description of the situation of schools in Zambia and our idea on how to improve this situation:
Government (public) schools in Zambia do not have the capacity to educate all of the children in the country. There are enormous areas of the nation (and even large areas of the capital city - Lusaka) which have no government schools. However, even the population that lives in the vicinity of government schools, is often unable to send its’ children to those schools, because of tuition and uniform fees. The fees are in the range of about $25-$100 per semester and the great majority of the people cannot afford to pay that.
As a result, people living in poverty have teamed up and created what they call “community schools”. Most of these “community schools” are in very bad shape (overcrowded and inadequate infrastructure – see pictures). Moreover, even these schools are inaccessible to the most vulnerable children because these kids cannot afford the $5-$20 annual tuition fees that the schools charge.
Observing this situation led us to the idea of establishing an organization that would provide assistance to the most disadvantaged schools and students. We’d like to help build/improve “community schools” and assist students with their fees. In particular, our current focus is students in grade 8 and above, given the following situation: Usually, “community schools” go up to grade 7. Thereafter, students have to switch to (expensive) government schools or QUIT. The fact that students completed seven grades shows dedication and the understanding of how important education is. Further, the switch from community to government schools is truly difficult for most families.
Given that we lived in Zambia, we are planning on "starting" with Zambia, but we are certainly looking forward to becoming involved in other countries/regions in the future.
If you have followed this blog, you may have seen these pictures before. For those of you who have not been following, here are a few examples of “community schools” and the condition they're in:
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