A rare snowfall purifies the environment in the Willamette Valley as EBZEF survives summer wildfires and faces the continuing coronavirus. On the other side of the world in NW Zambia, Beth’s Girls have all returned to college/vocational school, with everyone making up a lost first semester of 2020 due to Covid-19.
EBZEF currently has 22 scholarship recipients including three new Beth’s Girls for 2021. Ethel is studying Public Administration, Abigail studies Nursing & Clinical Medicine, and Karren is studying Medicine & Surgery. Zambia as a nation is duly diligent with Covid precautions.
The opening of Lumwana West Secondary School was postponed until February 1st. The Pre-School is now open as well with 35 girls and 28 boys studying in separate sessions to maintain social distance regulations. Teacher housing construction continues, while construction of the three-classroom block for secondary school is just getting underway.
GlobalGiving donations are helping EBZEF to develop our projects in Lumwana West. EBZEF has been accepted into GG’s International Women’s Week Campaign. As a small, all-volunteer organization, we need your help to continue educating the “Whole Girl” in this remote rural community. Small donations are invited. Your donation will be matched by GG @ 50% up to $50 on these dates. Please send your donation to https://goto.gg/43633 between March 8-12. Thank you for your continuing support!
Links:
EBZEF has fortunately survived the terrible wildfire crisis in Oregon with flames raging close to Salem. While smoke, ash, and hazardous air quality have plagued us for weeks, the October rains are finally retarding the fires and clearing the air. Meanwhile, the corona virus has required isolating all over the world. Beth’s Girls missed Term #1/Semester #1 classes as Zambia responded nationally to the viral threat.
EBZEF is relieved to report that 19 Beth’s Girls are currently back in school as active students with 5 teachers, 5 nurses, 2 clinical technicians, 1 electrical engineer, 1 welder, 1 midwife, 2 in early childhood education, 1 pharmacist, and 1 physician. Those scheduled to complete coursework in December 2020 may need to add an additional term/semester in 2021.
Thanks to GlobalGiving donors, EBZEF has been able to support community construction of desperately needed teachers’ houses for the secondary school. A second duplex is almost complete with a third on the horizon. In addition, Beth’s mother, Linda, has donated funds from her hip replacement recall surgery settlement for the construction of one more 3-classroom block for the secondary school. Construction should begin in about a month.
With the support of GlobalGiving campaigns and donors, EBZEF is moving forward with our scholarship and construction programs in Lumwana West, Zambia, in spite of local and global crises. We are continuing to educate the Whole Girl and her community on the other side of the world.
Links:
[Insert Photo #1 of Beth's Girls]
Corona Virus Update: In response to Zambia’s Corona Virus safeguards, Beth’s Girls did not attend classes for first term/semester of 2020 (The school year begins in January.). Only senior students were permitted to take their exams. Classes are currently opening again for second semester with virus precautions. There are 16 Beth’s Girls in school this year.
[Insert Photo #2 of Teachers' House]
With EBZEF’s help, the community is building its own desperately needed teachers’ houses, including making its own bricks. The Provincial Education Secretary is overseeing construction and lending skilled workers where needed. This structure will house two single teachers. A second house will be built as soon as this one is completed.
[Insert Photo #3 of Library books]
EBZEF’s longtime partner Books For Africa has sent another pallet of books to develop the Elizabeth Bowers Memorial Library’s collection. Included was their new Girls Empowerment Collection with books by and for women. Librarian Sandra and Secondary Teacher Priscovia (both original Beth’s Girls who knew Beth when she lived in the village) are excited by the books they are unpacking!
Join us for GlobalGiving’s (GG) Major Gift Project on July 15th Bonus Day. Donations from $100-$499 will be matched by GG at 15%; from $500-$749 at 30%; and from $750-$1,000 at 50%. Please donate early (donations begin at 9:00 a. m. Eastern Time and 6:00 a. m. Pacific Time) as matching funds are limited to $250,000 first come first served! Thank you for helping EBZEF to move our project forward.
Links:
GlobalGiving Report #1
March 1, 2020
Lumwana West Secondary School Three-classroom Block
Secondary school for 2020 has started in the community of Lumwana West in NW Zambia. As Headmaster Mr. Mbongo Njolomba reports, ”On classroom accommodation, we now have an average of 90 students per classroom. The grade 12 class has an enrolment of 104. The grade 11 class has 96, the grade 10 class has 87, the grade 9 class has 82 and the grade 8 class has 102. This means that in a total classroom space that we were supposed to have 270 students for the six classrooms, we now have 471 students with an unbelievable 201 excess students.”
Overcrowded secondary school classroom
The village population has grown from 5,000 (2016) to 8,000 (2019). The enrollment for 2020 is over 100 students per class! Importantly, as Beth’s Girls model the opportunities for an “educated woman,” 45% of these students are female. Even double student shifts will not handle the increased enrollment. Additional classrooms are desperately needed. With GlobalGiving’s help, EBZEF has raised over $8,000 toward our $35,000 goal. You can help us to build an additional three-classroom block to accommodate the growing population.
Because of our focus on the Whole Girl and her community “to break the cycle of poverty through education,” EBZEF’s project has been selected to participate in GlobalGiving’s Girl Fund Campaign, which works to “accelerate women’s equality around the world.” The campaign runs from March 6th to the 13th. Friday, March 6th is Bonus Day when GG will match EBZEF funds up to $100. It is a privilege to be selected by GG as one of 200 organizations to participate in the Girl Fund Campaign.
Nursing Student
Science Teacher
Librarian
With GlobalGiving’s help, EBZEF has raised over $8,000 toward our $35,000 goal. The sustainable success of this project will fulfill Beth’s dream to “give back” by educating the Whole Girl and her community, from pre-school to basic school to secondary school to college/vocational school. Today, EBZEF scholarship recipients (Beth’s Girls) are teachers, nurses, social workers, an electrician, a welder, a physiotherapist, a radiologist, a pharmacist, and more. One of our village girls is even studying to be a physician! Nineteen girls are currently on EBZEF college scholarship. EBZEF models how, with supportive partners like GlobalGiving, a small NGO can make such a difference on the other side of the world.
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
We'll only email you new reports and updates about this project.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
