– – After hours of driving along water-logged dirt roads, pitted with potholes, at an average speed of no more than 5 to 10 kilometres per hour (and then to think that Josien does this just about every week) we suddenly arrived at an oasis in the middle of the bush. Hundreds of children were waiting for us at several impressive-looking buildings: the very first secondary school in this immense area!


“Ba ZAP bamtu balama mapensi a bantu balababeleka” or “ZAP solves peoples’ problems by working hard” the children sang with their beautiful voices and wonderful sense of rhythm when we arrived. And “saluti to ZAP, we are so happy, we are so happy, thank you, thank you for coming to Nkulamaziba”.

Because of the impassable roads, it took a long time for all the representatives of the Ministry and the District Commissioner (governor) to arrive. And therefore we started on a “warm-up programme” of some 3 hours (!) performed by the school’s theatre group and the school choir, and supported by the hundreds of children on the sidelines, until all the dignitaries were present.

The District Commissioner, Felix NDopu, stressed in his speech how important this secondary school is for the district. “ Education is the key to success. Thanks to this school, hundreds of children will now get the opportunity to follow more than just primary schooling. This is going to have a tremendous impact”.

He also called on the headmen and the parents to make sure that they send their children to school every day. “Stop marrying off girls at a very young age and stop exposing 10-year old boys to making malascha (constructions of charcoal). The future of the children is in your hands”.

The contribution of Jones Shimbela, director of the Centre for Young Leaders in Africa, was very personal and had a huge impact on the children. Jones himself grew up in Nkulamaziba, and he described how he walked to school barefoot every day, twenty kilometres back and forth. That just goes to show that it is possible to climb up from the Bush to important functions in Society by working hard.

After the official opening, Josien’s thank-you speech and the handing over of two goats to ZAP, the party really got started, but we, in order not to have to drive back in complete darkness, set off on our 8-hour drive back home.

We found it a special and emotional experience. It was our third time in Zambia and we cannot emphasize enough what terrific work ZAP does. Josien does not pay herself a salary and every euro goes into the projects. Money is urgently needed for the second phase of the school project and the boarding school for the girls. ZAP has started a successful programme to keep the girls in school and consequently to stop them being married off prematurely.
This (simple) boarding school is by no means a luxury, because it is quite risky for these often very pretty young girls to have to walk back and forth through the bush every day. – –