From Zambia to America: The Story of Ngambela and Maureen
By Annabel Mumba
Annabel Mumba is AEP’s Donor Relations Coordinator in Zambia. She is a Scholarship Fund recipient, high school graduate, college student and also one of our Success Stories.
Co-written by Pamela O’Brien, AEP’s Development Director, who is mentoring Annabel as she pursues a journalism degree.
Ngambela, Dr. Steady Moono, President, SUNY Schenectady, Maureen and Julie-Anne Savarit-Cosenza, AEP Executive Director on the day the scholarships were announced.
To have an opportunity to study abroad in the United States is just a dream for many Zambian youth. For Ngambela and Maureen, the two students who have been awarded a scholarship to study in New York this coming Fall, it is an awakening moment, an opportunity that both will live to tell about and remember for years to come.
The youth that attend our Learning and Leadership Center in Kafue, Zambia crave for opportunities that will help them realize that innermost desire, the desire for an education and the opportunity to study abroad at an international school.
Ngambela and Maureen received this opportunity through the recent agreement signed into place by the African Education Program (AEP) and the SUNY Schenectady County Community College. They were among the eleven students in AEP’s College Prep Program who applied to SUNY Schenectady's Joan R. Dembinski '10 Study Abroad Scholarship, a full scholarship towards a two-year diploma.
The Letter’s Blog will regularly share updates on Maureen and Ngambela’s adventure. To start, this is their story and their journey that led them to this point in time. These two young people will inspire countless youth in Zambia to follow in their footsteps and continue to dream big.
Meet Maureen
Maureen was born and raised in the rural village of Chanyanya which is located near the Kafue River approximately 16 miles from Kafue and known for its fishing and farming activities. In this ‘fisherman’s village’ there aren’t many opportunities for girls and oftentimes young girls are married off early to men old enough to be their fathers or grandfathers. This marks an end to their dreams and aspirations in life.
Maureen is 21 years old and was raised by a single mother of four children, three girls and one boy. Being the second daughter to a fish seller, expectations of success and transforming the family for her were high, both from her mother and the rest of her siblings.
Maureen volunteered her time teaching Biology and Mathematics classes at the Learning & Leadership Center.
Upon writing and passing her grade 7 exams, Maureen was privileged to be awarded a scholarship to continue secondary school through AEP’s Scholarship Program in 2016. As a beneficiary of the Rural Outreach Program, Maureen was able to attend secondary school without having to worry about paying school fees as they were mandatory at that time. AEP’s Rural Outreach Program was created to provide the most marginalized girls and boys from Chanyanya access to high school and AEP’s after-school programs. Education in Chanyanya ends in 9th grade unless a family has the resources to have their children attend school in Kafue.
From the time that she completed secondary school, Maureen decided to dedicate her mandatory gap year between high school and college to volunteering at AEP’s Learning & Leadership Center, teaching the 12th grade Biology and Mathematics classes.
Meet her family
Maureen’s oldest sister, Jane, works as a hairdresser in a rented shop in Shikoswe. After completing secondary school, she had taken up the responsibility of providing for her younger siblings and mother who has continued with her business of selling fish in Chanyanya.
Jane describes her younger sister as a very determined, focused, and a social butterfly. She is confident that her little sister will excel and achieve her dreams. Her only concern is that she will miss her as she has always been fond of her from the time they were kids.
In the U.S.
Maureen and her sister, Jane (left) pose for the camera.
Flying in a plane and seeing snow for the first time is on the bucket list for Maureen. Her biggest fear is failing but this is not new for Maureen. From the time she was little, she has always been a high achiever.
“I am scared of disappointing my family and AYC (that is Amos Youth Center). The two have always given me hope and confidence to go after my dreams. And I want to make them proud, proud of all their investments,” she shared.
Maureen plans on keeping a journal of her new life in the U.S. so she can be reminded of everything that she has done to get where she is now. What will comfort her is that she will have Ngambela by her side as she begins her brand new life at SUNY Schenectady in New York.
Maureen will be studying Math and Science at SUNY Schenectady. She has chosen this program as it will help her achieve her biggest dream, to become an Electrical Engineer. When asked why she chose electrical engineering, she said that the lack of electricity in her village was her motivation.
Meet Ngambela
Ngambela loves to cook for others and volunteered to cook for the Nutrition Program at the Learning & Leadership Center.
Ngambela is a 26-year-old chef in the making. Being the eldest child in a family with three children, he was always given the responsibility of cooking food for his siblings. Following the death of his mother, Ngambela moved in with his maternal grandmother along with his siblings. Like Maureen, Ngambela experienced challenges paying his secondary school fees and applied to AEP’s Scholarship Program. In 2018, after graduating from secondary school, Ngambela began his College Prep Program service project volunteering at AEP’s Learning & Leadership Center by tutoring the students in Sciences, but never enjoyed it because his heart was longing to be in the kitchen. When he decided to help cook the daily meals served at the Center as a part of AEP’s Nutrition Program, he started seeing it as more than just a chore but a potential career.
Once the switch was made and he took charge of cooking meals, he never turned back. Through his daily meal preparations, he discovered that he loved cooking and he soon desired to study Hospitality Management so that he could one day become a professional chef.
Meet his family
82 year-old Esther Mukombwe is Ngambela’s grandmother who has raised him since he was 4 years old. It was at a time when his mother was not able to care for him and his mother eventually died in 2008 when he was 12 years old. ‘Ba Nene’ is what she is fondly called by Ngambela and all who know her. The name ‘Ba Nene” means ‘grandmother’ in one of the local languages, Tonga. It is given to an elderly surviving person in a family. Ba Nene (that is Esther) is a well-known broom maker in the community. It is a family business that she also introduced to Ngambela while he was growing up. She, alongside the other dependents, live off the profits of her business selling and making broom sticks to the local community.
Ngambela with his niece and grandmother, Esther, and Julie-Anne.
Esther is ecstatic to learn that her beloved grandson has been awarded a scholarship to study in America. She beamed with happiness as she explained what this opportunity means to her and the entire family. She shared, “I am filled with joy and so is everyone else. We are indeed very happy and I am wishing him the very best.”
In the U.S.
Ngambela will be traveling to the U.S. alongside Maureen to study Culinary Arts at SUNY Schenectady and he describes the opportunity as a once in a lifetime chance. “I want to become a professional chef. Studying culinary arts at the college will turn that dream I have had for a long time into a reality. I am very excited to travel to America. It is a dream come true!” He shared.
He has prepared a bucket list of everything that he wants to do once he arrives in America. He wants to play in the snow, make new friends, and discover new culinary dishes as a way of connecting with different cultures. Ngambela’s favorite meal to cook is fish fillet and he loves to bake cookies. He says that he can cook the two with his eyes closed!
“Moyo Wangu Wakomana mani’gi. Twalumba.” which translates to “My heart is overjoyed. Thank you.”
Ngambela is also interested in joining the Athletics team because he enjoys running. He feels inclined to take care of Maureen as the two have been friends from day one. “I will miss my family and all the meals that I made for my friends at the Center. I will always carry them in my heart, I will miss my grandmother the most,” Ngambela shared.
Maureen and Ngambela, a village girl and an orphaned boy raised by his elderly grandmother, both had the odds stacked against them but are ready to show that hard work and determination are the true testament to their success. We can’t wait to share more updates with you as their stories evolve.