Respecting each child’s right to education and protection are core values of Impact Network. So as we reflect back on the year, we would like to highlight Caroline Chibale, one of our child protection warriors.
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As this school year comes to a close in Zambia, I wanted to take a minute to highlight “Go Green Day” – a fun-filled day focused on environmental conservation, with a ton of hands-on projects. Part of this work is generously funded by the Addax & Oryx Foundation, who have helped us launch various environmental projects – including rainwater harvesting, tree planting, and upcycling activities. Our teachers and staff helped make this day come alive in so many creative ways and I wanted to highlight just a few of them today!
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One of the key responsibilities of the operations team is to provide technical support to the program, such as safety and hygiene practices across Impact Network schools. We consider this to be a prerequisite towards achieving quality education because the lack of safe learning spaces and adequate hygiene facilities can translate to lower attendance and decreased educational achievement. That is why the operation team takes pride in ensuring safe learning spaces for our students to learn in.
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Today we highlight Mr. John Mutunduwatha Phiri, the head teacher at Sivwa Community School in Sinda District. Mr. Phiri is employed by the Zambia Ministry of Education and in 2021 he was assigned to be the Head of Sivwa, one of the schools where Impact Network operates.
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The NetGirls season recently ended for 2022 and what a great season it was! 80 teams, comprised of approximately 1,200 girls and young women from more than 20 villages in Katete participated in the league this year. This was the most teams the league has had in 2 years due to COVID-19 restrictions.
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The email this week comes from School Support Manager, Caroline Chibale. Caroline helped to plan a Parent Engagement Day at every Impact Network school during the last week of October. More than 1,600 parents participated in the program.
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I hope everyone is having a great fall. My kids are making their way through a kids’ book on Sonya Sotomayor, and I was reminded of her amazing autobiography, entitled “My Beloved World”. For those unfamiliar, Sonya Sotomayor is the 11th Justice of the Supreme Court in the US, serving since August of 2009. She’s the first Hispanic justice, born and raised in the Bronx, who knew at age 10 that she wanted to be an attorney. She entered Princeton University on a scholarship, and was one of the few Latino women there at the time
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My son has been really into these short biographical novels on famous people, leaders, and thinkers. I found myself picking up one on Mahatma Gandhi recently and learning more than I ever have about the leader in a short amount of time.
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This week, we will celebrate World Teachers’ Day, and we want to thank all of the Impact Network teachers that make our work possible!
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While searching for new books to read over the coming weeks, I came across some of the lesser known titles of Chinua Achebe. Achebe caught the attention of the world in 1958 with his first novel, Things Fall Apart, widely read in classrooms across the globe (including mine when I was in college). Raised in an Igbo town in southeastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship to attend Nigerian’s first university. His novels focused on the traditions of Igbo society, and the clash of Western and traditional African cultures during colonization.
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As students in both the US and Zambia start school earlier this month, I read an endearing letter from one of America’s most prolific writers. Over 15 years ago, students in Ms. Lockwood’s English class at Xavier High School in NYC were given an assignment. It was seemingly simple – write a letter to your favorite author and convince him or her to visit the school. It also seems like a fun experiment for an English teacher – the best case scenario is that someone is persuasive enough to get a beloved author to come to the school.
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Last Thursday September 8th marked the 55th annual celebration of International Literacy Day. Across the world, people planned special programs and projects to remind us of the importance of achieving literacy for all people and populations, as well as to celebrate the power of literacy to enrich and transform lives.
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Last month, a long-time scientist and public health advocate announced his retirement. Anthony Stephen Fauci may not have become a household name here in the U.S. had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic. But because of the last 2+ years, we have also had the great privilege to learn about his life’s work and mission.
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You can do or be anything at any age, no matter how young or old you are.
Today we highlight Edith Phiri, one of our NetGirls Zone Facilitators. Edith truly inspires us with her desire to help young women and girls in her community.
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Four years ago yesterday, then 15-year-old student (now 19-year-old activist) Greta Thunberg started striking from school ahead of the Swedish general election. She wanted the Swedish government to reduce emissions and protested by sitting outside the Swedish parliament for three weeks straight during the start of her ninth grade in school. After her demonstration gained the spotlight, and after Sweden’s general elections, she started striking every Friday, and over the course of a few months, helped to lead 20,000 students in protests over almost 300 cities.
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Last month, the world lost a basketball hero who transformed the Boston Celtics Basketball team from 1956 to 1969. During that time, he was a cornerstone of a team that won 11 championships in 13 years, he was a five-time MVP, and he both played and coached the team for three seasons. His jersey #6 is going to be retired going forward, not just for the Boston Celtics, but across the NBA (though current players, such as LeBron James, may continue to wear #6 until they retire). He was not the first Black player in the NBA, but arguably he was the first to reach star status.
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Too often, people assume that students from rural schools will not easily learn to use English because the only place the learners are likely to hear an English word is from a teacher. Looking at where our schools operate, it is very hard for most learners to break through to the second language of English in all aspects: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
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I hope everyone is doing well! We are continuing our adventure in Zambia this month and this week I wanted to highlight one of our most impactful and interesting programs to date – Read Smart Cinyanja! You may recall that I wrote about this program back in March when Katie and I observed it for the first time. Additionally, Read Smart was shortlisted for Global School’s Forums Impact @ Scale Labs as a top innovation to improve learning recovery in a post-COVID 19 learning environment.
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I had the incredible opportunity to watch the NetGirls Zambia league kickoff on Saturday with ten teams playing five different games in Zone 3! It was a highly competitive match and was extremely well attended – I have never seen so many netball fans gathered. For those that may know, netball is a hybrid between handball and basketball, and is the sport of choice for girls across Southern Africa.
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Heroes’ Day in Zambia is meant to honor citizens (heroes and heroines) who sacrificed everything for the independence of their country in 1964. One such freedom fighter is Alexander Grey Zulu, born in Chipata not too far from where our schools operate.
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