NGOLI Project
What we do in Ngoli
Ngoli is a typical rural village in Northern Zambia. There are 10,000 people in the catchment, 25% of whom are under five years of age.
Malaria, childbirth, AIDS, TB and cholera challenge day to day life.
Almost everyone in Ngoli is a subsistence farmer. The best paid job in the private sector pays $40-$50 a month but these jobs are rare.
By way of contrast, a qualified teacher or nurse will earn as much in a month as these workers earn in a year.
We help support the school and the health centre and we also provide scholarships to ‘vulnerable but viable’ students, giving bright children the possibility to break out of the poverty trap.
In the past we have built houses for teachers, mended the health centre roof and provided equipment for the school and health centre (from books to beds, chalk to chairs and laptops). We source locally, thereby also feeding money into the local economy.
-
Special thanks to the Reinsurance Group of America for donating laptops for the school.
Christabel starts High School in 2019 with a ZMCP Scholarship - she wants to be a doctor
Head teacher, Martin, now has a laptop to plan his lessons and help run the school
Children are keen to learn - all we do is give them a chance
NGOLI Scholarships
Giving children a chance to achieve their dreams
Each year we take a group of children with potential. These are selected by the teachers and all are considered ‘vulnerable but viable’.
They all come from subsistence farming backgrounds, most have lost a parent; all are bright but none can afford to pay for a secondary education (in Zambia this is not free).
From this group we try to select between one and three students who are offered a variety of scholarship opportunities, for example:
A scholarship to the secondary school in the local town for Grade 9 pupils.
A scholarship to stay on at Ngoli High School, for Grade 9 puplis.
A scholarship to college, for Grade 12 pupils
As of January 2021, 23 students are currently active in the program. Here is how they are doing:
-
Samuel – Has qualified as a teacher with a Bachelor of Education. He is soon to attend his graduation ceremony at Rusangu University . Find out about Samuel's story here
-
Sula and Victor – graduated as nurses from Chengelo nursing college 2021
-
Christopher, Tenant and Patience – second & third year nursing college.
-
Francina - Second Year Nursing College
-
Friday - Second Year Batchelor of Public Health degree
-
Brian - Second Year as Medical Degree Student
-
Bwalya - First Year as Medical Degree Student
-
Yvette, Memory - re-sitting Grade 12
-
Maybin, Lloyd & Cornelius - starting Year 1 Nursing College
-
Moses, Prisca, Christabel, Nicholas and Fredrick – all progressing well through secondary school
-
Beauty - year 1, further nursing qualifications
-
Three more students were started on the scholarship in March 2021
A year at secondary school costs £200 (2021), while a year at nursing college costs £600+ and a year at university costs £1,700 – this is an impossibility for these students’ families, but together we can help these children fulfil their potential.
These students want to work. When they achieve employment much of their salary is used to support their extended families, ensuring the benefits of education trickle down to the wider community.
We partner with the US charity Zambia’s Scholarship Fund to administer these scholarships.
You can find out more about how our scholarship program works and how we are trying to make it sustainable by clicking on our Terms of Reference or by visiting our Documents Page.
Special thanks to Derby Rotary Club for sponsoring three students.
Congratulations to Victor who has just passed his nursing qualifications at Chengelo college and is now looking for work..
Samuel is now a qualified teacher. He came back to Ngoli to help with our selection process in 2018, giving students the chance to ask him what help he had received.
To hear more about Samuel's journey click here.
NGOLI Science Block Project
In Oct 2018 ZMCP released funding for a new science block at Ngoli school.The build went well and the block was officially opened in July 2019. The school had been trying to provide a secondary school curriculum but lacked the infrastructure to deliver all the lessons.
The two-room science block cost c. £25,000 and we have fitted it out with the equipment needed for the curriculum. ZMCP provided the funds and the skilled labour, while the community provided raw materials (sand, stone, gravel, mud bricks) and the unskilled labour. ZMCP has set aside a 2 year budget to provide the equipment needed to continue to be able to deliver the curriculum.
This is part of ZMCP’s long term plan to help the school develop in order to deliver a quality of education which is on a par with that being delivered by the schools in the local town. This would mean students could be educated in Ngoli and would not have to travel. The 2019 and 2020 exam results look promisingly better than in previous years.
June 2019
The building is complete and science lessons have started. Take a look at the video...
Amazingly the local town, Kasama, has a science equipment store, complete with gold leaf electroscopes.
NGOLI Mother and Baby Ward Project
Ngoli has a part-completed mother and baby ward. Mothers currently have nowhere to rest after giving birth and consequently have to return home, often on the back of a bicycle, a few short hours after giving birth.
The project was started by DAPP and we are working with them to complete the facility. This will have a significant health impact on the community.
There are more than 500 pregnancies a year in the local community - ZMCP are working to complete this part-built mother and baby ward.
