Help Emmanuel attend University!
My name is Allie Hypes and in 2016, a team of students including myself and faculty from The University of St Andrews travelled to Zambia to assist teaching at Kazemba primary school. In addition to our work in Zambia, we also fundraised to provide Kazemba with wifi, electricity, structural supports to the building, and sponsorships to those students who could not afford the costs to attend secondary school but had passed the grades to do so. We worked at Kazemba for six weeks assisting lessons on the english language, computer science (for which we donated 6 laptops), maths and more across grades 1 through 8. On my first day in Kazemba, I met Emmanuel.
The first thing Emmanuel (far left in the picture above) asked me was whether I had a dictionary. Because I did not have one I explained that my head could act as a pretty accurate dictionary and that he could ask me any word he wanted to know about. He then started listing scientific terms he would soon learn in my science classes, but this conversation was my first lesson. Talking excitedly to Emmanuel about atoms and the chemical makeup of the world around us felt like a conversation I might have with any friend about something that intrigued us. And it was, this same type of interest would occur again and again and by the sixth week I had a crowd of students hanging around the front porch of our house talking about genetics, DNA, and how god plays a part of it all. These were topics they brought up themselves and I was honored and thrilled to be apart of their growth in curiosity and wonder. Before I explain why I am here to fundraise, I want to share with you some of the stories from my time in Zambia.
Here you see the grade eight classroom. The boys you see huddled around the map are from the left, Future, Emmanuel, and Angel. One of the many lessons I taught in this classroom was focused on creativity. One problem I identified early on was that the students who struggled lacked confidence, this stemmed from significant holes in their english skills thereby stifling their voices. When your entire curriculum is taught in a language you do not understand you start to give up. Another side effect of this was an overwhelming lack of self expression. They did not know how to communicate their own thoughts and ideas so they never tried. To remedy this I led tutoring sessions with students who were truly behind. I implemented interactive study tools and games that relied on students working together which stimulated peer led tutoring. And I introduced creativity. Genuinely, it needed its own lesson. I saw how the students did not see their opinions or ideas as worthwhile and I was determined to change that. The creativity lesson was about celebrating and exploring creation. I lectured on the way our very lives depend on creativity and innovation, and how necessary failure is to success. I then had them discuss creativity and things they create or have seen created. Then came presentations. They had never been taught public speaking, but that day I heard thoughts from even the quietest students. One I recall vividly was a boy named Lungson, he sheepishly let people talk over him until I yelled from the back, "every student deserves to be heard and I want to hear you from America!". They laughed and quieted down to let Lungson repeat his simple yet unique creation. "I create happiness". The roar from the class was proof enough.
The above picture was my grade eight english class. The blue book you see there is my remembrance. A remembrance is a gift shared upon departure as a way to immortalize the memory of the person who is leaving. I gave each student a notebook like that one, an opportunity to continue my daily reminder to wonder. Upon realising that I didn’t have one, the students made one for me, each one writing a page for me. In my book, the last note ends with the phrase, "continue to be kind wherever you go". This is one of the many precepts I gave to students as a way to tackle and unlock the meaning behind writing. The picture above was taken at my last class and as we all yelled, "condwela". This, in nyanja, means "happy".
My time in Kazemba is what brings me here now. Emmanuel, seen on the left in the photo above, one of my best students and closest friends, has graduated highschool and needs your help. Since I met Emmanuel he wanted to be a doctor, and today he aims to attend the University of Zambia to do just that. One of the beautiful things about sponsorship is that as soon as Emmanuel can afford to, he will sponsor another student from Kazemba to go to secondary school. As he intends to pay it forward, so should we provide him the ability to do so. Emmanuel is one of the brightest, kindest, and most determined people I know, and he deserves to attend university, continue pursuing his dream like so many of us, and make the world a better place.
Our goal is to pay for Emmanuel’s school tuition for his entire degree! Help us send a truly deserving person to University!
The University of St Andrews is a registered charity and will be helping to facilitate the funds raised here to the University of Zambia for Emmanuel’s tuition.