The Elizabeth Bowers Zambia Education Fund

Educating the "Whole Girl" and her community of Lumwana West in remote rural NW Zambia through a successful secondary school/college scholarship program, through building and stocking the Memorial Library, through initiating and developing a thriving preschool in the community, and through constructing a secondary school for sustainable education for all.

EBZEF is a very small, all-volunteer 501(c)3 organization. Our achievements are the result of a clear and careful focus on the education of women in a single community in remote, rural NW Zambia.
Our success is due in large part to the careful selection of significant partners, such as World Vision Zambia (to retain accountability for our scholarship funds), the Peace Corps Partnership Program (to build the Memorial Library), Books For Africa (to stock the library), Caritas (to help ship books to Zambia), Baal Dan Charities (to help build a pre-school), Engineers Without Borders (to build a science lab for the secondary school), and World Vision USA/Int/Zambia to help construct the secondary school--plus many more.
Our direct communication with the community via the Basic School Headmistress, the Secondary School Headmaster, the Librarian, and the Lumwana West PTA/Community Committee, established during our personal visits to the village, has assured a continuing, oversight conversation to keep projects balanced and moving.
Most importantly, however, in keeping with our beloved daughter Beth's commitment, is that EBZEF has followed Peace Corps' values in working with a "grassroots" respect for the community's wishes, dreams, abilities, and support. EBZEF is helping the village community to achieve its long-held and deeply desired hopes and dreams.
Thus, our community partners have a deep sense of ownership for and appreciation of the developing educational system for their children and the surrounding area. The Lunda people want to be a literate community.

Our organization's goals are driven by the passion of transforming the deep grief of losing a beloved child/sister/niece/friend into positive action by helping women on the other side of the world to achieve their full potential. This inspires us, small as we are, all-volunteer as we may be, to persevere in the face of all sorts of challenges in working on the other side of the world with a culture we know little of and a language we know even less.
The resulting dedication and transformation has made our story accessible to others around our community, our state, our country, and the world, as volunteers and donors are drawn to support us in the process. When we needed an engineer to help us put solar panels on the new library and bring the first "light" to the village, he came to us from California.
When we needed someone to help us set up a viable pre-school curriculum in a country with few resources, she came to us from Minnesota. When we needed the funds to build the Memorial Library in the village, they came to us via an unexpected legacy from Beth's grandmother. As people who work with authentic non-profits know, when you need it, it will come.
In the meantime, our steadfast Board members, volunteers, donors, and advisors, all work as hard as we can to meet the requirements of supporting a project as complex as EBZEF's work in Lumwana West. The astonishing achievements of the past 15 years encourage us to forge ahead with the momentous secondary school project. As a result of our hard work, ingenuity, and perseverance, Phase I is just about complete!
EBZEF maintains a sharp, clear focus in our work with education. Our records are complete and transparent. We are able to find the professional support we need as the need becomes apparent. It is our dedication and commitment to realizing Beth's vision that allows us to meet our goals.

EBZEF and the Lumwana West community have accomplished the following:
1. Full secondary school scholarships for 315 Beth's Girls
2. Thirty college/vocational school scholarships for Beth's Ladies who have graduated and for Beth's Girls who are currently studying.
3. The largest library in the NW Province fully active and meeting the needs of the entire community and beyond. People come from all over the Province to use our library.
4. Sixty-five children per school year attending pre-school, with several graduated classes already attending Basic School most successfully.
5. Phase I of the Secondary School Project almost complete.

To be completed:
1. Phase II of the Secondary School Project, which includes 2 three-classroom blocks, 7 teachers' houses, an office block plus furniture, water, girls' lavatory.
2. Phase III of the Secondary School Project, which includes 1 three-classroom block, a computer lab with computers, a school hall, and Internet/Solar facilities.
3. Continuing scholarships for Beth's Girls for college/vocational school.
4. Possible endowment for continuing college scholarships for women from Lumwana West.
5. Furniture & supplies for classrooms 2 & 3 of the pre-school now under construction
6. Continuing salary for Memorial Librarian (until the Ministry of Education hires her officially as a teacher/librarian).
7. Major fund-raising effort for Secondary School project.