Teachers at Zamtan happily holding new supplies donated for their classrooms and extra-curricular activities

It’s World Teacher Day, so it’s time to celebrate women and men who choose to uplift others through education! The teachers at our three sister schools in Zambia are compassionate and creative leaders who we are proud to partner with. Their dedication to empowering orphans and vulnerable children is inspiring, and they use their many talents to help shape good citizens both in and out of the classroom! Along with their day-to-day class duties, many of the teachers support wrap-around programs and extra-curricular activities so the students have well-rounded opportunities for learning and fun.

At Kasompe Community School of Peace, Ms. Musonda and Ms. Musanya (pictured below) help care for the garden and incorporate lessons it into their curriculum so that students learn to grow nutritious foods.

At Mapalo Young Peace Makers Community School, Head Teacher, Mr. Mumba (far left, pictured below) assists with tutoring the KIT Club students receiving high school scholarships, so they do well in their studies and graduate with distinction. Mr. Chipyango (far right), KIT Coordinator, also provides tutoring and integrates co-curricular activities to enrich students’ learning experience.

Mr. Kingsley (front, pictured below) leads the choir at Zamtan Community School of Peace, giving students a chance to sing and dance after classes!

All of our teacher colleagues deserve to be celebrated and recognized for their empowering work! We are thankful for our teacher friends, and extend our gratitude to teachers across the world uplifting young world-changers!

One of many learning stations in the Mapalo ECE classroom.

This week we are celebrating literacy programs for all ages! Each year, on September 8th, we celebrate the opportunities that literacy provides.

At our sister schools in Zambia, literacy begins in the ECE (preschool) classroom. Mapalo ECE teacher Ms. Mubanga has made colorful, tactile, and exciting tools for students to learn their letters and sounds! Her brightly colored classroom is a haven for young learners as they make connections between, letters, colors, sounds, and actions. You may have also seen our recent blog post about the importance of songs as learning tools, where you can see our little friends in action with Ms. Mubanga! These lessons learned in the first few years are the building blocks for students’ continued learning and success.

In Malawi, DR Congo, and Luapula, our colleagues at the community centers are building up literacy programs for adults who may not have had access to literacy lessons earlier in life. School fees, book and uniform costs, and family resources all pose barriers to education, so having free access to books, literacy lessons, and caring support systems at the community centers can make a world of difference! The ability to read and write is a big step towards empowerment, which is why our colleagues have identified it so strongly. From writing one’s name to reading medicine bottles, literacy is a skill that can’t be undervalued.

We are grateful for the continued push from colleagues, supporters, and students to keep learning and building towards a brighter future!

While visiting our colleagues in Africa in June, we had the privilege of honoring two leaders who have served over thirty years as volunteer community health workers! In the photo you can see Chama Chola (left) from the DRC Wasaidizi group and Gabriel Muposhi (right) from the Luapula, Zambia Kafwa group. These special volunteers were among the first health workers our co-founder, Sherri Kirkpatrick (center), trained in this area and they have faithfully served ever since. Seeing her mother’s dedication to the community, Chama’s daughter has also joined the Wasaidizi as a second-generation health worker!

Sadly, however, our friend Gabriel passed away a few weeks ago. Gabriel had a kind and gentle disposition and he was highly respected in the community for his dedication to uplifting the women, children, and families around him. He was also a proud Kafwa volunteer, and enjoyed opportunities to learn (you can see him proudly holding a health worker training certificate, pictured below). Gabriel was lovingly honored by his family, friends, fellow Kafwa, and HealthEd Connect colleagues from afar. We were thankful to have the opportunity to recognize his years of dedicated service publicly while we were together in June. While we are deeply saddened to have lost a friend and fellow community advocate like Gabriel, we are grateful for our dedicated health worker colleagues like him who have mentored younger health workers and empowered community members.

Gabriel Muposhi

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It’s nearly time to go back to school! Our community health worker friends in Rai, Nepal know how important it is to be well-prepared for classes, which is why they requested support to provide school supplies to vulnerable children in the area. Coordinator Pinkey Malla makes the trip out to the mountain village and prepares the supplies alongside the health workers. They alternate types of supplies each year, providing stationary and writing supplies or bookbags and larger items students may need. This annual event means that every student in the community can come to school prepared for a successful year! 

Youth from the football club in Mulundu, Zambia.

This Saturday is International Youth Day! We celebrate the young people around us and recognize the importance of “bringing youth issues to the attention of the international community and celebrating the potential of youth as partners in today’s global society.” (UN)

In Zambia, our community health workers and school colleagues do an amazing job of celebrating youth and partnering with them in exciting ways! At the community center in Mulundu, Kafwa members organize both educational and recreational activities for the children nearby. Some come during the day to learn the basics of literacy and math, and others participate in the football (soccer) program they host at the center! Many of these children helped dig up roots and level the ground where the football field is now, fully invested in creating a space that they now enjoy.

At our three sister schools, environmental conservation clubs, choirs, and traditional dance groups have formed, giving students new ways to get involved! The youth in the conservation club are learning to protect the natural world around them, and students in the dance groups are learning traditional dances from around the country. The teachers volunteering to lead these clubs are excited that important habits and skills are being enjoyed and continued into the next generation.

Our community health worker colleagues in all four countries where we work advocate and facilitate programs for the health and well-being of children. We are proud of the youth that we see learning and growing in programs led by the community health workers and uplifted by supporters like you!

We learn our ABC’s and parts of the body (like head, shoulders. knees and toes) through song and dance as children because it makes it fun and easy to remember. This teaching style still works when we become adults!

For example, in the beginning grades at our sister schools, students learn that each letter of the alphabet has its own sound and dance. You can see their song below! Our little friends, though shy, seem to be having no trouble remembering each letter, sound, and action. This will make it easier to remember as they continue to build on this information and learn to read and write!

Similarly, the Sinkhani in Malawi and the Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) from the Malawi government use easy and repeating songs to teach mothers about the importance of immunizations or child spacing. These are important lessons that could easily be forgotten if taught in a lecture-style, but hard to lose once it’s stuck in your head or stored in your muscle memory. We love to see learners of all ages using tools that will help to make their futures brighter!

Our first “Training of the Trainers” was a success! HealthEd Connect is at an exciting point in preparing the next generation of trainers to facilitate our volunteer community health worker (CHW) curriculum. The best part is the selected trainers are indigenous to the country and culture in which our CHW programs are located. Twelve participated in the Training program – six Malawi Sinkhani CHW leaders, and six nurse scholars from Malawi and Zambia connected with our CHW programs – to learn and practice the training topics before facilitating lessons the following day with 52 Sinkhani volunteers who had traveled from various regions for several days of learning and community-building.

It was incredible to watch the newly trained facilitators lead the Sinkhani CHW training and address questions in their own language and context. Three of the nurse facilitators are even daughters of CHW volunteers!

We’ll be sharing more in upcoming weekly updates about these exciting days of training in Malawi, and site visits with our CHW teams and sister schools in Zambia. For now, we’re sharing with you two videos, linked below, of Vinjeru Banda and Jean Jere, both nurse facilitators and daughters of Sinkhani volunteers from Malawi, leading songs during the Sinkhani training. Songs are not only a fun part of the group gathering; songs are used as educational tools. We’ll share more about that in next week’s update!