Making a Difference in Zambia

The JTYAF was delighted to help a local young lady with travel expenses so that she could take part in a volunteering trip to Zambia. We were thrilled to receive details of her experience as the group had obviously made a huge difference to the people in the community they visited.

In September 2019 I travelled to Zambia with seven of my fellow university students in order to set up several charity projects. We organised this trip entirely by ourselves (one my friends spent his gap year teaching at a school out there and so had some local knowledge), so the task of organising logistics, coupled with the prospect of fundraising, was quite daunting. JTYAF kindly gave me an award of £277 to put towards my travel expenses, which was a massive weight off my mind and meant I could focus my efforts on planning the voluntary projects themselves.

We spent two weeks in Chipata, the biggest town in the Eastern Province, running three projects in the district of Navutika. This is one of the poorest areas of the town, where most young people find it difficult to find employment when they leave school. These were the people who we were initially aiming to reach, but in practice we worked with Zambians of all ages.

Based at the church and school of Mary Mother of God, we set up three educational programmes; these were free to attend and we were delighted to see the turnout increase each day as word spread. The first course aimed to improve computer literacy and classes ranged from learning the basics of Microsoft Word and Excel to learning advanced coding. The second project taught people how to make soap from the basic materials of animal fat and caustic soda. This was hugely successful; several of our students are already setting up their own soap-making businesses. The last project taught people how to read sheet music. Zambia has a vibrant music culture, but lack of theoretical knowledge means that songs are rarely notated. We identified our most promising students from all three programmes and gave them some training on how to teach these courses themselves. Therefore, even though we were only there for two weeks, the projects will continue into the future. We remain in contact with the new leaders and will keep supporting them in any way we can.

What struck me most during my time in Zambia was the cheerfulness of the people there, despite the extreme poverty they are exposed to every day. Working with such a positively-minded group every day encouraged me to see my life back home from a different perspective, particularly my busy university routine. The experience definitely changed my current outlook, and I am incredibly grateful to JTYAF for supporting me along the way. I can’t thank them enough!