On Tuesday morning, we woke to the news that the Zambian government had ordered all schools to close by Friday in response to COVID-19. It was not unexpected; our board had essentially come to the same conclusion the night before. Still, it was difficult to imagine – at the time Zambia had no recorded cases and we were not sure that people would know why schools were closed, and what they could do to protect themselves.

Unlike usual, I wasn’t looking forward to our weekly management call that morning. I’d have to tell a dedicated team of people who have been working closely to ensure a smooth school term for 6,000 of our students that we needed to drastically shift gears. I was worried that they might feel overwhelmed at the prospect. But… I was wrong. They are an impressive group, that spent the morning listening to me, agreeing to all sorts of difficult demands, and then going one step further and identifying other ways that we can help.

Together, we formulated a plan to be executed over the following three days to ensure the safe closure of our schools. The team printed over 12,000 flyers and information packets describing COVID-19 in the local language, along with pictures for those who are unable to read. They went to each of our suppliers and somehow procured as many bars of soap as possible to give each student and household a chance at fighting this illness. They printed 42 different homework assignments (6 per grade level!) to help provide students with some school work during this break. And then, they put together an aggressive plan to distribute this to all of our students at all of our schools. This is a Herculean effort – our schools are located in very rural, remote areas, and in some areas, it’s hard for one person to even get to 2-3 schools in a day. We have never disseminated this much this quickly.

A huge thank you to our incredible management team and teaching staff. They are a humbling group to be around and I am immensely proud of them.

-Reshma