KUCETEKELA AND SOCIETY

Having gone to Ibex Hill School for my Secondary Education, I excelled academically and finally graduated with a division one pass in my final year. After my graduation, my quality education which I was made to have by Kucetekela Foundation finally began to pay off. The starting point was the time when I started doing Community Service.

Being part of the scholarship helped me gain life skills from workshops and a Community Retreat we had at Ndubaluba. Using the communication skills and confidence that I acquired, I am able to work with intrigue at a Private Medical Centre. If not had for me to deal with big people in society because I know that I have the knowledge.

I am working as a Receptionist and a File Manager. My boss is so proud to have me work for her. Above all, I love the job that I am doing because it gives me the experience that I need like how to conduct oneself at a working place and I have learnt so many etiquettes and I appreciate a lot. 

I feel so grateful to Kucetekela Foundation for making me the person I am today and for making me realise that there is more to life than just our ambitions.

Finally, I am so hoping to start my Tertiary Education at the University of Zambia and I can see myself becoming a lecturer already and I look forward to work with Kucetekela Foundation.

MY RESTLESS EXPERIENCE

Being a restless volunteer has really changed my life and it has helped me discover some of the abilities that I have but did not know about. I have since been able to stand up for what is right and also help my fellow youths to voice their concerns on any issues affecting their communities so as to bring about a better Zambia were every voice is heard.

While on the Program, I volunteered as a National Volunteer with three other youths, one was also a National Volunteer and the other two were from England. We carried out most of our work in Chalata a rural area in Mkushi District. Our work included facilitating lessons on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Financial literacy. We also organised events such as awareness, Indaba and Tikambe. Workshops were also part of the Program and generally having talks with community members on problems affecting them. Still in the communities, we were responsible for running the youth friendly corner at the clinic that is giving advice to the young people on sexually transmitted infections or any other concerns that they had.

For our work to go well, we had to be in contact with the community leaders such as the Chief, Headman, Councillor, a Chiefs Representative, Heads of Schools and also Health workers at the Clinic. This made our work very easy in that we were able to hear the youths cry out and later addressed all their problems to their leaders who promised to change how things were run in the community and to get the youths involved in developmental issues, because looking at our population, most of the people are young and young people have the power and passion to bring about development in the country.

After going into placement and carrying all the work that I was required to do, I gladly say thank you to KF for introducing me to Restless Development because I know that I have achieved something from this Program that has brought a positive change in my life. I am now able to stand in front of a large crowd to address them on any issue. I have also improved my public speaking skills, gained confidence and courage. Once again my biggest thank you goes to KF for without it, I would not be where I am.

RESTLESS DEVELOPMENT VOLUNTEER

During placement on the program, I learned how to appreciate people of different cultures and backgrounds’ more. In addition to that, my confidence levels have increased. This is due to the fact that I was a facilitator, the one needs to stand in front of people to talk to them and cat confidently.

The program offered a great opportunity for me to work with people. I lived with two internationals and one national volunteer. This created a platform of learning as we shared ideas. Eventually, this increased my teamwork abilities. In addition to this, I learned how to work with youths. This was after the formation of the youth group that I helped organize. These youths are keen into changing and developing their community. This made me realise the importance of involving young people in decision making and any matters that affect the nation at large. I got to realise this during our main events such as the Indaba, Awareness Raising and Tikambe. These are events intended to bring the community and decision makers together.

However, not all was successful we had some challenges. The first was Language barriers. This was so because not all pupils and the basic Schools could speak English and so this was a hindrance. Secondly, the College, our extension school, was against us teaching information on Sexual Reproductive Health, as they thought we would be encouraging immorality. The biggest challenge was lack of information. I felt the information given to us was not adequate. This was because of two main reasons, inadequate resources and the fact that most information was given to the advocates for action.