Some organizations focus specifically on HIV, some on providing uniforms to primary students, some on entrepreneurship.... but nobody is looking at the whole child or youth, looking comprehensively at her or his challenges and looking at how to best open doors for the students so that they can leverage their potential to the fullest and take their future into their own hands.

When asked why they decided to sponsor students, Holly delivered an emotional response: “For both of us, education is so important. To learn that these children don’t even have access to simple secondary education for lack of funds, it makes me so sad. They’ve all lost members of their family.”

60% of the population in Zambia lives below the poverty line. Luckily, Zambian primary school education is free in the beginning, but this changes once students hit 8th grade and are obliged to pay a fee few can afford.

So here I am at work during my lunch break. It’s the day before our departure and within a few hours we’ll be settling in Washington, DC to stay for the evening. At this time tomorrow, we’ll be in the air heading to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, our first stop on the journey to Kafue.