The School Club Zambia

Yesterday was World AIDS Day and we held community events at 5 of our partner schools. These events were organised by the young adults, their parents and grandparents that are taking part in our Intergeneration Girls Alliance, bringing the AIDS pandemic and its impact on the whole family to the forefront in our community’s minds. It is estimated by UNICEF that 320 children and adolescent die every day from AIDS related causes in Southern Africa. It was therefore an inspiring occasion to see our communities coming together with nurses from their local clinics, to encourage one another to test for HIV and take preventive measures. #endstigma #aidsawareness #pandemicimpact #familysupport #communityengagement

The Eco Life Club training manual has officially been released! This resource will be used in training 120 individuals in climate adaptation and mitigation. These trainees will become our champions of change, utilizing their skills to engage a wider audience through community outreach initiatives. #UNDPZambia #GEF-SGP #SDG13 #ClimateAction #climateadaptation #initiative #champions #eco #zambia

We are thrilled to share some exciting news from the Zambia team. We have successfully drilled a borehole at the Skills and Climate Justice Centre, marking an important milestone! This is our first step toward running a climate-smart agriculture training at the center, as well as establishing a demonstration garden and orchard. 🌱🥑 #smartagriculture #climatejustice #milestone #zambia

In our intergenerational alliance project, we implement a peer-to-peer outreach initiative where participants share their knowledge with the community in areas such as information and communication technology (ICT), agriculture, entrepreneurship, and sexual reproductive health and rights. We also collaborate with a nurse from a nearby clinic to facilitate discussions on topics like family planning and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), utilising her professional expertise. On the 16th, we conducted an outreach event at Mweemba Primary School in Sinazongwe District, successfully engaging approximately 178 individuals. The parents and village leaders expressed their satisfaction with our project and requested that we expand our outreach efforts, as they have observed the positive impact of these initiatives in combating teenage pregnancies. #peertopeer #familyplanning #SRHR #initiative #community #school #Zambia

Learners utilizing the facilities at Siansowa School's e-learning center. "Your support has made our work easier," Hinzilo - teacher #learners #support #teacher #hope #school #zambia

Today, we celebrate the incredible dedication and hard work of our educators who shape the minds and futures of our students. It's a day to express the gratitude we have for their patience, creativity, and passion for teaching. Let's take a moment to thank them for their invaluable contributions and reflect on the positive impact they have had on our lives. Here's to all the amazing teachers who continue to make a difference every single day! #curiosity #loveforlearning #teaching #teachers #work #school #gratitude #zambia

The official launch of the Eco Life Project, funded by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Green Economies and UNDP Zambia. #UNDPZambia #GEF-SGP #SDG13 #ClimateAction #education

Sunny, SCZ's Senior Programme Manager gave us his reflections this week on the drought which is currently crippling Zambia "Sinazongwe district is one of the districts situated in the valley of Southern Province. The district receives average and below average rainfall in each given rain season. The 2023-2024 season was different as farmers experienced unprecedentedly low rainfall. This has been called the worst drought in living memory. During the season under review, not a single farmer managed to harvest anything from the fields despite planting a lot of crops. Most of the farmers had planted maize, millet and sorghum. To the people of Sinazongwe district, this was a double challenge to fight with after recovering from an outbreak of Anthrax which claimed lots of livestock from farmers. Due to this background, the drought in Sinazongwe has led to an unprecedented hunger situation to both humans and the livestock that have already just survived an outbreak of Anthrax. Moreover, in a district where most of the people that live along lake Kariba and Zambezi River depend on fishing as a source of income, the low water levels in the lake have led to the depletion of fish, hence making it hard for fishermen and women to make ends meet. Those that live on the far side of the lake and are engaging in crop farming and did not harvest anything, selling livestock in order to buy food is the only alternative that they have. Does everyone have animals to sell? No." Can you help us to provide young people and farmers with the knowledge and tools to adapt and mitigate the impacts of the ongoing #climatecrisis? We are still fundraising for the new Skills for Life and Climate Justice Centre where every donation will go such a long way in helping us to establish a centre which will be the first of its kind in Sinazongwe. The first part of this project will involve establishing the tailoring centre and climate smart agriculture demonstration garden, housing drought resistant but highly nutritious crops. The communities we work with do not want handouts or to live each year on the whim of the rains. Can you help us to upskill them with knowledge of climate smart agriculture which we have already seen from past projects can reduce extreme poverty by over 20% https://lght.ly/0i7em6e A huge thank you to everyone who has already shown their support during this difficult time

Family planning session at Mweemba and Siansowa Schools, which use on our proven intergenerational approach to reducing rates of teenage pregnancy. Did you know that rural young women in Zambia are twice as likely to be mothers by the age of 21 compared to girls that have grown up in urban areas (37% versus 19%)? We have seen first hand how engaging the whole family - mothers, grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers in these workshops makes family planning a more accepted topic in the family conversations. #familyplanning #family #education #health #forourfuture #school #zambia

The current Sexual, Reproductive, Health and Rights (SRHR) training is part of the Intergenerational Girls Alliance (IGGA) program and is being implemented in five schools. The training focuses on 25 boys and 25 girls who were previously school dropouts but were reintegrated into the education system through our intervention. Additionally, it includes 25 mothers, 25 fathers, 25 grandfathers, and 25 grandmothers from each school. Each training session lasts for 4 days per school. #trainingsession #program #hope #school #zambia