Learning for Life aims to provide underpriviliged children education. These are children who would under normal circumstances not be able to attend school. Children in the program are attending local schools in the Lundazi region. Learning for Life provides them with the school fees, school requisites, pta fees and other necessary funds. Our sponsors either donate a yearly fee or monthly donate for 1 child to attend school. We also receive extra donations for special projects and f.i. medical bills.
Our aim for 2014 is to build a Resource Centre where the children can find some peace and quiet to do their homework, read books and if necessary receive extra lessons.
Why Lundazi? Lundazi* is a very small town in the Eastern Province of Zambia. Lundazi is, as almost every town in Africa, a very poor town where the majority of the children do not have the opportunity to go to school. Getting a 'good' education is vital for the development of each child and the development and future of Zambia.
From 2005 till 2008 several VSO** volunteers were based in Lundazi to do voluntary work for different organisations. They were struck by the poverty of the families and the inability of these families to send their children to school. Thanks to the support of friends and family in the U.K, U.S.A and the Netherlands we are able to help some of these families that are in need. We are very proud that Learning for Life in 2013 has just over 40 children in school.
With funds from a special gift we have set up a small library in 2011. These books are educational as well as just nice story books. We have set up an administrative rotation system so all children can have the books in order to help them improve their reading. The plans for the Resource Centre build on the success of this small library.
In 2011 we also started another project: revolving funds. When any of the parents/guardians of our sponsor children see a business opportunity they can apply for a small loan. The purpose of this loan is to give them the opportunity to indeed start this business by supplying funds to pay for the necessary start-up costs. A small contract is being signed and they commit themselves to repaying the funds within a certain period of time. All the loans given in 2011 have in the same year been paid back to Learning for Life.
The purpose of this website is to keep the donors and all the people interested in the Learning for Life children updated on the progress. If you read this website and you want to know more about what we do or if you want to sponsor a child, please send an email.
*: Lundazi is located in the far east of the Eastern Province in Zambia, just 10kms from the Malawi border. The size of Eastern Province is equivalent to the size of England in the UK. Zambia itself is about 29 times the size of the Netherlands. It takes between 12 and 15 hours travelling time by bus to get from Lundazi to the Zambian capital Lusaka. Zambia has approxamitly 11.8 million inhabitants. Lundazi town has just over 10,000 inhabitants. **: VSO stands for Voluntary Service Overseas (www.vso.org.uk or www.vso.nl). VSO sends volunteers to fight global poverty by sharing their skills and experience with people in developing countries.