Eight students have gathered to take up Agents of Change in northern Zambia, after Charity Mulenga Tembo came to the end of her studies in December, and inspired the other students to re-launch.
Based at St Albans Church in Solwezi, the group have also been able to include a member from another congregation based in Meheba refugee camp.
Agents of Change is taking great steps forward after the first year of pilot programmes reached students across the Communion. Now even more Anglicans are taking up the programme as the stories of success spread.
Charity has used the programme to work on a project for schools in the mining communities of the Copperbelt. She noticed the low levels of post-secondary education in many of the rural areas around Solwezi during her community census at the beginning of the course.
She said, “This poses a real challenge for real economic development and poverty alleviation in these areas.”
Now she has come to the end of module six, Charity is able to complete her project proposal. She aims to set up a ‘Career Movers Club’, which will provide mentorship and guidance to students in secondary schools.
Charity aims to smooth the transition from secondary school to college and University, and hopes to see a number of students qualify for further education once they have taken part in her programme.
Alongside this innovative project, Charity will develop a mobile library, to provide the same students with access to the resource and learning that they need in order to succeed in their studies.
This hub will also provide students with access to information about further education, and help them through the application process. It will allow them to see all of their options for further education or vocational training once their secondary education has finished.
A pilot project for this ground-breaking scheme will run this year in two schools in the region. After this, results will be evaluated and the project rolled out to other rural areas.
Charity is keen to see increased achievement from students in the schools, as well as better opportunities for professional training and development for post-secondary school students.
Charity’s leading-edge project will empower local Zambians to be instrumental in their own economic development and see an increase in school achievement in the region.
And we are all looking forward to the success of Solwezi’s new student groups after the re-launch of their programme in January!
In the picture: Charity Mulenga Tembo, third from left, with some of the Agents of Change students in Solwezi, Zambia.