JUSTINE'S REPORT

During my three months of gap year community service I have been involved in quite a number of organizations and ideas; the Unite for Climate Zambia as a Youth Climate Ambassador, Wildlife and Environmental Conservation Society of Zambia have also introduced to the Chongololo and Chipembele Society to help initiate Environmental Conservation Clubs in schools, and I have also worked under a Swedish group with fellow youths to create a youth magazine in Zambia. I find all the three programs very interesting and skill developing in different ways.

I enjoyed the Swedish program the most and it taught me a lot of new skills. Unlike the other two programs it was totally a new experience, which made it challenging, and therefore very fun.I joined the group late and my first attendance was actually their second meeting as a group, therefore, I had missed out on the highlights and the planning. However, it did not make me any less active compared to the other members.

I joined the group with the intention of assisting in the technical duties of the group but i was shocked to hear my task was to produce a story for the magazine. I was even more shocked when I realized that by produce they meant I had to write an article by myself.I had a thousand reasons why I should hate the task and not do it, including the fact that i was surrounded by good writers and not only good writers but good writers who love writing. On the other hand I only had one reason why I should go ahead with the task; I don’t quit, quitting is for losers. I find it funny that one out-weighed a thousand.

My first challenge was to suggest a possible story for the magazine that was in line with the theme; work. The challenge wasn’t to suggest a story; instead, it was suggesting a story that would be put in the magazine. I managed to suggest a story and it turned out to be one of the stories we would put in the magazine.

My suggestion was “Voluntary Unemployment”; it was a human interest story relating to the fact that not all unemployed youths have no job opportunities instead they are unemployed because they have high job preferences. This story required me to find a young person who has a good academic reputation, graduated high school with good grades, either has worked before or was offered a job and refused because of the conditions, is still unemployed but really wants a job. A week later, the second meeting came without me making any progress with my story and this led to the facilitators thinking the task was too hard for me.

It was then suggested that I should do a story focusing on a prostitute, the story should be able to bring out the fact that circumstances led to the lady doing that job. I was also expected include the dreams she had before she found herself in that situation and find out from her if at all she plans on changing her career. I attempted twice to carry out this task but it is very hard to talk to these ladies if you don’t plan on offering them any money. Two days before submission of the stories I decided to go back on my first story, I had lost hope but I was not willing to be called a failure and so I put my all into it, and I started searching for the perfect person. Fortunately, I was introduced to a person who marched all the criteria we set. The following morning I went to interview her and by the next day I had a full story to present to the group.

Peder, the magazine’sphotographer, remembered that I had mentioned my passion for photography during my first meeting when I was trying to escape from writing the story and he offered me to help him take the magazine cover photo. That immediate Monday we drove through Lusaka hunting for the best photo that could illustrate the theme of the magazine.  By lunch we managed to capture a lot of good shots of which two were selected to be used; one as the cover photo and the other as the full page photo.

I had a lot of fun being a journalist and even more fun learning how to use a professional camera. The experience taught made me realize that a lot of thing can be considered before a photo is called good.

Lessons From Kalikiliki Compound

My name is Edna Lungu .I am a KF Gap year student .Being a gap year student is very exciting and I have really enjoyed it so far.

This Gap year programme has given me an opportunity to engage myself in another productive and helpful activity. I am involved in a community service teaching project in Kalikiliki (Kalikiliki Literacy Project) with some of my fellow Gap year student, namely Mude Mweene and Bwalya Kasanda. A friend by the name of Kumbukani Musukwa, a former Hill Crest student joined us, too.

The teaching of young children aged between five to fourteen is exciting and interesting especially the fact that it is my first time teaching such a large group of children of all ages .This activity  is teaching me a lot of things.  I am now able to assess myself whether I can deal well with children or not. I have learnt to be more patient in life because the children  I am teaching all have different levels of understanding. However , it is difficult at times to really understand how to handle children who do not speak nor write English, may be due to my lack of training as a teacher.  Nonetheless I am loving  every bits of my teaching experience.  Recently, we carried out interviews on the families of the children in Kalikiliki compound to assess their needs and vulnerability.  The mothers interviewed all expressed a wish to empower themselves economically and in education so that they can help their children succeed in life.

Apart from the teaching, I am also trying hard working hand in hand with Mrs. Florence Nkowane, KF Executive Director and Jill Ross, The Princeton in Africa Fellow to get and fill in scholarship applications. So far, I have completed my application to the Master-Card Program at McGill University as well as The African Leadership Academy program.  And from what Mrs. Nkowane told me, I might be applying for the Indian bursaries as well.

My experience as a Gap year student has been fun and fruitful. At least the teaching project is keeping me busy rather than just sit at home doing nothing more constructive than helping others especially with their education, because education is very important in life and key to success.  I also feel I am giving back to the community what I got from Kucetekela Foundation the last five years and this is very rewarding.

If at first you don't succeed

Mercy at work with her students at Chibelo Basic School

I started my gap year in January at Mother Theresa, a teaching project where I taught young children between the ages of 2 and 6.  They had a personal teacher and I was required to do a bit of work which, unfortunately, I felt was not helping much.  This caused me to look for another opportunity to give back at Cheshire Home, where I moved to in February.  This is a place where people with disabilities are taken care of.  Some of them live there and others stay at their various homes.  I taught one Grade 9 and four Grade 7 pupils there, but even they already had teachers and so I felt a bit redundant.  After my two experiences at Mother Theresa and Cheshire Home, I still felt that I was not making as big an impact as I wanted to so I decided to move on to Chibelo Basic school.

I began at Chibelo in March where I started by coaching netball.  It was quite successful and our team was able to compete against two other schools.  In these games, Chibelo lost one game and tied in the other.  Unfortunately, I could not continue coaching netball due to the fact that the netball court was not in good shape (it had only one ring and was not demarcated).  Furthermore, the team had no jerseys and equipment to use, such as netballs.  Because of the lack of resources, I decided to start teaching a group of Grade 9 students and a handful of Grade 8’s at Chibelo.  This experience was quite impressive because most pupils were interested in my extra lessons and were willing to learn.

Over the course of my gap year I faced a few challenges.  One was finding a place to carry out my community service.  I had to move from location to location and, once I found a stable place, they did not have the necessary facilities.  Beyond this, organizing the pupils was the most challenging part of gap year.  This was because most of the pupils lived far from the school and were not motivated to return after lunch for extra tutoring.

Above all, gap year was a good experience because I learned a lot about myself.  I now know some of my weaknesses and strengths.

Restless Development

I attended the Restless Development program from April 4^th to July 20^th, 2012.  After being taught as peer educators by Restless staff, I and three other people were sent to Mututu community of Chisombo district in Kabwe.  The aims of the program were to bring development in the community as well as to educate in-going school youth.  They were to be taught on such matters as entrepreneurship, sexual and reproductive health, and what steps were to be followed in the event of a civil rights violation. 

Facilitating to youths was very interesting, especially concerning sexual and reproductive health issues.  They were very open to ask and answer questions during sessions.  They understood very well.  When it came to events and workshops, the young people presented very well to others. 

We had meetings with men and women of the community.  We taught them entrepreneurship and financial fitness.  Some groups of people began to improve their ways of living after having been given our ideas. We also worked with community stakeholders such as the Member of Parliament (MP), Headmen, Community Development Fund (CDF) officers, teachers, Chief, counselor, women’s’ club, and clinic staff.  These were important as they helped us identify the needs of the community.  Some of these needs were taken to Parliament by the MP because they needed the government’s attention. We helped at the clinic with the recordings, weighing of under five children, packing of medicine, and giving lessons to pregnant women.

The program was great and I learned to be confident when presenting issues to a large number of people.  Listening to people’s views helped me cooperate and work hand in hand with various people.  At the moment I am working on my community service project.  I am helping Grade 12 students with mathematics and, when they complete their exams, I will cross over to the Grade 11’s.  Next year, I am hoping to go to college to study Environmental Health.

Project Literacy

Sonia teaching students at the Kalikiliki Literacy Project

Completing high school was so exciting.  I couldn’t wait for the day, but it finally came.  Most people, pupils rather, at my school were looking forward to being in society and forget about all the pressure which comes from school, like getting up early and doing all of our assignments.

A lot of my friends were talking about the plans they had for their gap year.  This included finding jobs, doing computer courses, and some talked about going somewhere on vacation.  Well, for me it was a whole different story.  With the help of the Kucetekela Foundation, my two friends Abram and Japhet and I decided to continue the literacy project we started while we were still in school.  This project is based in Kalikiliki compound.  Many thought it was not a good idea, but it’s actually awesome to help out in the community.  At first we had difficulties with accommodation, but thanks a million times to KF and Egmont Trust for paying for rent at the new building where I teach the kids from. 

Being a graduate is both exciting and challenging, so make the right choices for your gap year!