A library. A computer center. A science lab. Pre-college courses. All staples of a modern high school. But not in the rural areas of Zambia’s Western Province. There, schools often lack electricity, internet, and basic resources such as textbooks and desks are often limited.

It’s time to change this!

This summer, WISE Zambia will begin construction of a full-service Learning Center at its Education Campus in Kaoma, Western Province, Zambia. This Center will include a library, computer center, science lab, and classrooms for pre-college classes (“A-level courses,” in the vernacular of the British education system used in Zambia). Finally, WISE Zambia’s 500+ secondary school students and 62 post-secondary students—as well as other students in the vicinity—will have access to these basic resources.

Please help these deserving students! It takes 7,000 cement bricks to construct the building, and we can fully construct and furnish the building for just five dollars ($5) per brick. Purchase a brick, or even a wheelbarrow full, here, and help us complete this vital structure: https://wisezambia.harnessgiving.org/campaigns/9413

More information on this new Center? Watch the video above, and keep reading….

The Computer Center:  Basic computer skills is now a required part of the high school curriculum in Zambia. But most schools in rural areas of the Western Province of Zambia do not have electricity, let alone internet or computers. The basics of computers are often taught by blackboard:

Computer class at Kalumwange Secondary School.

WISE Zambia will teach hands-on computer skills to its scholarship students (as well as other adult education courses). WISE Zambia students often first use a computer once they attend college. They find themselves having to learn Windows, Microsoft Office, and other basic computer skills while their bigger city counterparts are already literate in these basics, putting our students at a disadvantage. One of WISE’s core missions is to ensure that rural students have equal access to education and the computer center is a vital cog to achieving this mission.

While mastery of computer skills is a primary goal of the computer center, it will also be the focal point for introducing WISE Zambia’s students to careers and opportunities in Information Technology and other technology-related fields.

The Library:   The new Learning Center will house a library, which is far more than simply a place for students to go for books. Rather, the library will be the nerve center of WISE Zambia’s multiple literacy programs. High school courses in Zambia are taught in English, but many rural students have limited English proficiency, exposed primarily to the local traditional language. WISE’s “reading is fun” program is designed to improve English literacy, as well as expand our students’ horizons and encourage leisure reading. Reading more about our Reading Is Fun program here:  https://wisezambia.org/reading-is-fun-and-fundamental/, and about the challenges involving the transition from traditional language to English here: https://wisezambia.org/the-geography-of-education-in-africa/.

“A Levels:”   A Levels, short for “Advanced Level,” is a component of the British education system, the model for the Zambian education system (a relic of Zambia’s former colonization by England). A Level courses are not required to obtain a high school certificate. But they are required for entry into any four-year college in Zambia. And there is no school within hundreds of kilometers of WISE Zambia’s main campus or the communities it serves that offers these courses. Thus, any student in this area—including WISE Zambia’s scholarship students—must travel to places like the nation’s capital, Lusaka, solely to take the high school classes necessary to attend college.

The new Learning Center will include classrooms for A-Level instruction. These courses will be available to all college-bound WISE Zambia scholarship students, saving WISE Zambia considerable expense and easing the ability of these students to take such classes. In addition, these courses will be made available to nearby non-WISE Zambia students, as they too are handicapped by the absence of these classes.

Science Lab:   Just as the community schools lack any sort of computers, they also do not have any hands-on science equipment. Thus, the new Learning Center will include a science laboratory, where WISE Zambia students can see scientific principles in action during chemistry, physics, and biology mentoring sessions.

One building will transform hundreds of lives. Buy A Block—Building A Future! Help us get this new facility constructed and operational before the end of 2023!  Click on the illustration to add your support.  Some funds may be used to support our students in the use of the new learning center.

Thank you!