Empowering Zambian youth to lead positive change

OUR NEWEST COHORT OF YOUNG LEADERS GET OFF TO A FLYING START

At the start of each year, we select a group of students to become our next young leaders. Competition for places is tough and our selection process is challenging. We are looking for young people who have the determination, problem solving skills and resilience to complete every stage of selection and become successful students. Finalists are invited to our bootamps and we made our final selection choices in early March.

We make our decisions quickly, so as not to waste time, and onboard them within two weeks. It was a real pleasure to see them arrive. We selected 18 students for the Young Leaders Programme from around 200 applications. They come from nine of the twelve provinces of Zambia and have a range of interests including international relations, economics, psychology, medical related careers, art and design, computer science, engineering and environmental science.

It is always sad when we have to turn away students, especially those who make it to the selection bootcamps. This year, we have invited them to take part in an online programme, including working with them on their identity and mindset change, and get them involved in community service. We will give them access to information about university opportunities and our Young Leaders will, as part of their community service, help them with university applications. In this way, we can impact many more young people.

Meanwhile our second year students have been very active interning at a range of companies, from large, well-known multi-nationals to smaller private companies and non-profits. The feedback from all the students is that they are learning such a lot from the work they are doing, as well as putting into practice some of the things they have been learning with us. Mirriam says,

“In the beginning, I was pretty nervous because I didn’t feel like quite a grown up. But, it hasn’t taken me long to realise that I am truly capable of taking work responsibility. I am having a really exciting journey.

I am enjoying the work environment and everyone’s support has made it easier for me to learn new things.  I am gaining valuable skills both in the programs and finance department. I am developing skills in data analysis, filing, auditing and health education, giving me a realistic view of my vision of becoming an agent of change in my community.”

Equally important, their employers talk about how pro-active our students are in their attitude to their work. The head of one company talks about how impressed he is with their maturity and says they are as impressive as the employees they take on after university. We are very grateful to all the organisations that sign up to become our partners in an internship.

While some of our second years are still making applications to university, seven already have places at university. The only decisions that have been released so far are from the US. I mentioned in the last report that two of them had places at Dartmouth College and Swarthmore. We now have Mercy going to Vanderbilt to study International Relations, Eveter to Northwestern to study Economics, Davies to Tufts to study Computer Science, Martin to Notre Dame to study Computer Science and Christine to Swarthmore College to study Economics. We hope to hear more good news for the other students.

This period has also seen us welcome four new trustees (two towards the end of last year and two in January this year). They bring with them diverse experience, and come from Zambia, India, South Africa and Nigeria. We are very excited to be working together with them.

The next three months will be a period of growth for our Young Leaders as they take on the challenges of our programme. Working with them while they explore themselves and their interests, seeing them transform as they start researching problems in Zambia they are passionate about learning more about and identifying solutions to those problems, and become physically stronger as they work out several times a week.

Thank you all for your support of Our Moon. Whether you are supporting a student on their 18 month journey with us, or providing them with internship clothes so they can dress appropriately in the office, we are all very grateful to you.

I look forward to updating you in three months’ time!

Helen