The School Club Zambia

Giving 100 out-of-school or at-risk children the support they need to return to school and complete their education.

In Zambia, 27% of girls living in rural areas will never receive an education and across the nation, 29% of women aged 20-24 years were married by the age of 18. Sinazongwe District, where The School Club Zambia operate, it is even higher at 45%. Without many economic opportunities for young women in Zambia, many families take the decision to force their daughters to marry and thus reduce the burden on their income. Many women are also simply unaware of the opportunities that could be available to them.

In their Egmont-funded project, The School Club Zambia is equipping 50 girls and 50 boys that are not in school or are on the verge of dropping out, with the financial, practical and emotional knowledge to return to and complete their education as well as educate the wider community on the importance of education.

The young people take part in extra curricular literacy lessons to help them catch up as they return to education as well as additional training in IT and organic agriculture.

Alongside this, TSCZ is establishing Mother, Grandmother, Daughter clubs and Father, Grandfather, Son clubs where participating young people are trained alongside their family members in entrepreneurship and savings and supported to set up family businesses, to increase household income, increasing the chances of the young people successfully completing their educations.

These clubs are also learning about child and sexual and reproductive health rights and gender based violence prevention and trained in peer education to enable them to share this information with their wider communities through outreach events.