African Hope Fund

We were introduced to Uyoba Community School in Mfuwe, Zambia in 2008. The school had been built by a church in the middle of a poor village and had only three classrooms and a small teachers' office and storage area. It supported 300 students, grades 1-6 in a three-classroom building with three teachers and three teacher's assistants. The children attended in shifts. They had no electricity and until 2010, no water. The children sat on the floor. The budget includes:$5,000 to build a library at Uyoba School; $3,200 to provide Internet Service at the Student Center for a year; $2,400 to pay for the salary of two teachers at Uyoba School for a year; $800 to pay for clean water at the school for a year.

In Zambia, secondary school (high school 8th to 12 grades) is not free and most students live far away from an available secondary school. The cost of the tuition fees and supplies alone is beyond most children and their families in Zambia, thus few children attend school beyond grade 7. There are two programs provided by AHF: (1) Boarding Program for those students who live too far away to walk daily to school, (2) School fees, uniforms, and school supplies totaling about $250 per year for students who live within walking distance.The cost for a year of secondary school is currently $825 ($175 for school fees, $50 for uniforms and school supplies, plus $600 for boarding). AHF has found sponsors for thirteen students to secondary school as well as sponsors for four college-bound students and one student going to a trade school in the capital city of Lusaka. It is our goal to increase that number in 2013 to twenty to secondary schools and eight to college.

Project Luangwa is an organization created by Lodges of the Luangwa Park area to manage assistance to the many schools and children supported by the staff members of all the lodges. AHF works closely with Project Luangwa and the Uyoba School and provides funds to the organization to support their many good works. An International Rotary Chapter was started in Lusaka, Zambia, in 2012 to provide support to the local programs the AHF works with. This also provides access to financial support available from the Internation Rotary which further strengthens the education and conservation programs in Zambia.

The Chipembele Education Center was built on land given to a couple from the United Kingdom by a local chief in order to provide a place to teach adults and children about conservation and the history of their community and region. The center includes classrooms and a discovery area containing information about the plants, trees, animals and insects of the area. Chipembele offers classes to children on a regular basis through the schools in the Mfuwe area. We support Chipembele financially each year. Chipembele Student Center Anna Tolan, Director of the Chipembele Wildlife Education Center, asked AHF for the funds to build a Student Education Center across the road from Mfuwe Secondary School (the equivalent of high school) in order to have a place for the Conservation Club to meet after school and a place to allow students to learn to use computers and the internet. AHF funded the cost of installing a satellite dish for internet and donates the funds to oeprate it on an annual basis. This Center opens a whole new world for these secondary students as they use the internet for learning and to communicate with their sponsors.