Hello! My name is Grace Buechler and I am currently interning at Impact Network. For this week’s newsletter, I would like to share my positive experience with the organization and how it has left such a lasting impression on me.
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Earlier this year, the first African (and first Black person) won the Pritzker prize, architecture’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Diébédo Francis Kéré hails from Burkina Faso, and he strongly advocates for the role of design in creating “peaceful cities.”
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The majority of our field management staff use motorbikes as a source of transport to get around the schools in the quest to support the provision of quality education. As a matter of fact, this requires each one of them be a licensed motorbike rider before they can safely start using a motorbike. As such, taking up riding a motorbike comes with a set of serious safety considerations distinct from other vehicles.
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One of our strengths at Impact Network is our ability to equip our teachers with the latest pedagogy by conducting teacher training in all our four districts in Eastern Province of Zambia. Our teacher training centers on subject-specific training and general topics and leads to the holistic development of our teachers. Training helps to increase our teachers’ motivation, commitment to teaching, and confidence in the classroom.
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The NBA playoffs have me remembering a phenomenon that reenters the news periodically. In particular, back in 2016, a rookie player for the Houston Rockets, Chinanu Onuaku, made headlines in a preseason game. Any ideas why? No, not an incredible dunk, or a 50-point game. Not for an amazing trade deal, or political comments. For something far more innocuous. A free throw.
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The operations coordinators have many responsibilities for the schools in their assigned clusters. Among them, assessing the infrastructure and solar systems is something they do each week. Where minor maintenance repairs are required, they will budget for materials and generally carry out the work themselves.
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After the New Dawn Administration came into power following the 2021 national election, Zambia’s new president, Hakainde Hichilema, announced the abolishment of school fees at all Zambian public schools. Previously, secondary school fees ranged from a couple hundred kwacha per term to several thousand per term, making advanced schooling out of financial reach for the majority of families in the communities we serve. The end of school fees was a major advancement for universal access to education in the county.
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Today marks World Malaria Day, first established 15 years ago to advocate for community-based malaria programs for prevention and treatment. This year, it’s particularly important as we learn that over 1 million children in Africa have been vaccinated in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi through a pilot program developed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
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According to a report by Global Forest Watch, “In 2010, Eastern province had 717 kilo hectares (kha) of tree cover, extending over 14% of its land area. By 2020, it lost 2.68 kha of tree cover equivalent to 856 kilotons of Co2 emissions
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A few weeks ago my son, Kian, started learning about a marathoner named Eliud Kipchoge. Immediately, Kian was enthralled by his story – it so motivated him that when he heard that Kipchoge grew up running to school for fun, Kian wrote in days on our calendar that he needed to run to school too. Over the weekend, we watched Kipchoge: The Last Milestone together, and learned so much more about the legendary runner!
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I recently listened to a podcast during Women’s History Month on Marie Curie and was fascinated by her story. Born Marie Sklodowska in Poland 1867, both of Curie’s parents were teachers, and she excelled at school in her formative years. Though she graduated near the top of her class, she couldn’t attend the University of Warsaw because of her gender.
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On Mondays at every Impact Network school, the last block on the upper grade timetable is allocated for a Life Skills and Sexuality workshop. A period whose importance cannot be over emphasized; our aim is that these classes equip our learners with necessary life skills, as well as knowledge about sexual and reproductive health.
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Today was the return of the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon after the 2020 and 2021 race were canceled from COVID-19! This year, Impact Network was allocated charity spots for the race and had five runners participate as part of Team Race for Impact. The team was made up of Michael Weiss, Sid Banthiya, Deepti Zalavadia, Frank Wu, and me (!) and we raised over $13,000 for our programs in 2022.
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As I emerge from an incredible few weeks in Zambia, I wanted to reflect on a recent loss in the international world – Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health. Farmer was a doctor, a humanitarian, and a writer, who helped shape the global health landscape in ways that every international development organization can learn from.
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Bwanji!
What a week. I can’t tell you how inspiring it is to be back among our staff, our teachers, and most importantly, our students, this week! It has been a bit of a whirlwind, and I wanted to share some of the big and small moments stemming coming from our work over the last two years.
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Last week, we marked International Mother Tongue Language day on February 21st. Meant to promote linguistic and cultural diversity, this day has been recognized by UNESCO since 1999.
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When our classrooms opened for the 2022 school year, our Katete West schools welcomed nearly 200 Grade 1 pupils who had previously attended preschool classes. This is a first for our schools and is the result of our addition of 14 early childhood education (ECE) classes for three to six year-olds in 2021. We are excited to track the growth and progress of these young pupils and have high hopes that their participation in the ECE program will accelerate their progress as they transition to primary school.
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I recently came across an old copy of a Dave Eggers book called What is the What, detailing the life of Valentino Deng, a Sudanese refugee who came to the US two decades ago. I first read it a 15 years ago, while traveling through South Africa, and was surprised to read about what had happened to Deng after the book’s release.
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It is a fact that providing classrooms and latrines in good condition is significant for student achievement. With the zeal to promote quality education in rural schools, Impact Network management as always put into consideration all aspects that would make this dream sustainable and a reality to the schools in communities we are working with.
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In late 2018, we received funding from the Sahm Family Foundation to significantly strengthen the ways that Impact Network served girls in our community. It was a multi-year grant with numerous components introducing school supports such as counseling, child protection workshops, and reproductive health workshops as well as the construction of additional latrines for girls and learning spaces for early learners. The core of these programs went on to form the foundation of our work with Impact Girls today, and we are immensely grateful for the support from Sahm Family Foundation.
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