African Education Program

Julie-Anne Savarit-Cosenza is an education and youth empowerment professional who has used her knowledge and experience to help countless at-risk young women and men in Zambia realize their full potential to become agents of change. Her focus is on creating quality educational opportunities and access to leadership development so that youth lift themselves, their families and their communities out of poverty. Since the pilot project in Zambia opened, she has created a wholistic model in collaboration with the youth themselves.  Programs focus on access to quality education and academic tutoring, leadership development, HIV/AIDS and health awareness, nutrition and food security, the arts and creativity, girls and women, and gender equity -- anything that might prevent a young person from realizing their full potential.  The young women and men that she works with in Zambia are brimming with ideas on the changes that they would like to see in their communities.

In marginalized communities all around the world, young people do not have access to a quality and inclusive education that considers the child as a whole. This is due to lack of educational resources and access points, poor teaching training, teacher centered approaches, and outdated curriculum. Aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 4, the proposed project takes a results-oriented approach to create opportunities for young Zambians to reach their full potential by having access to quality, wholistic and inclusive education and leadership development. The project encourages the young woman or the young man to invest in themselves, strive for the future they want and a future they need, to take a bold step out of poverty.  This project elevates humanity because it aims to break cycles of poverty at the root with the young people of each community driving the change by empowering themselves and becoming leaders.

Globally, 260 million children were out of school in 2018 — nearly one fifth of the global population in that age group. More than half of all children worldwide are not meeting minimum proficiency standards in reading and mathematics. Zambia is a country of young people with the majority of the population under the age of 18 (53.4%) who cannot rely on their primary or secondary education alone for success. 95% of Zambian students do not reach international proficiency levels in reading and mathematics, putting them at a distinct disadvantage with their international peers. The Ministry of General Education’s vision, “Quality, lifelong education for all which is accessible, inclusive and relevant to individual, national and global needs and value systems,” aligns with SDGs, but the following problems inhibit achieving goals. First, lack of access to quality education for marginalized groups; 50% of disabled children lack access and in rural areas 27% of girls lack access. Second, lack of teacher training in competency-based curriculum; 67% of history teachers are unfamiliar with competency-based curricula. Third, poor student learning outcomes compared to international proficiency levels; 55% of 4th graders are functionally illiterate and 54% of 9th graders don’t pass the national examination.

The  project empowers Zambian youth through education and leadership to break the cycle of poverty in their communities. The project’s hub is a community youth center which was created with  local leaders and the youth themselves to tailor to the youths’ and community’s specific needs to bolster access to a quality, inclusive, and wholistic educational environment. The youth center provides equal access to quality education for vulnerable youth and provides extracurricular programming to cater to the whole child. Members of the community youth center are empowered through direct scholarships to attend school and partake in educational, as well as extracurricular activities to broaden their learning process and ultimately enable them to realize their full potential. The project is in tune to the social emotional learning side of the young people to nurture them from the inside out. The youth center also provides opportunity after graduation by expanding programs to include career development to benefit post-graduate members and ensure they have the opportunity to use their education to elevate themselves, their families and their community out of poverty. College alumni come together to donate financially and volunteer their time at the center to continue the cycle.

The African Education Program’s pilot project serves Kafue, a periurban community outside the Zambian capital of Lusaka. When it first began, organizers listened to the voices of the youth and community leaders to learn that many young people did not proceed beyond 8th grade due to mandatory school fees they could not afford, so it awarded yearly scholarships to deserving students. When girls and boys came to the  youth center after school for academic support and extracurricular programs, they showed up hungry. A child can not learn with an empty stomach so a nutrition program to provide them a nutritious meal was created. To address HIV and other health challenges in the community, health programs to facilitate life-skills and self-esteem building classes while raising awareness about health and hygiene and combating stigma were developed. When young girls explained that they would not attend school during their menstrual cycle, the project partnered with a local NGO to provide menstrual health and reusable pad training so no girl would be faced with period poverty. Every step of the way, the project is the result of listening to the youth to create a wholistic program that has impacted thousands of young people.

The project elevates opportunities for all young people, especially those traditionally left behind, by creating programs addressing adversity for marginalized and at-risk youth. A beneficiary, Febby, started the program in 9th grade while living with relatives because her mother suffered from mental illness. Febby wanted to help young people with disabilities - physical or mental. Her hard work and dedication, coupled with resources and scholarship provided at the youth center, allowed Febby to graduate from university with a special education degree and return to work for the project, opening our special education hub teaching academics and life-skills to differently-abled children.

The idea behind African Education Program began when a group of high school students from the United States, who needed a Senior project to complete graduation, decided they wanted to help kids in Africa. We knew our football coach was African so we asked for his help. The coach connected us with his brother, Amos, who happened to be a community leader in Kafue, Zambia. After speaking with Amos, we learned young people needed computers and books so we set out collecting enough supplies to fill a shipping container. Shortly thereafter, we were granted a trip to Kafue by a local organization and soon found ourselves sitting amongst our Zambian peers in Kafue. This is where the idea was birthed; the young people in Zambia shared that they would never be able to access the books and computers that were shipped over. They did not have a youth center or library where they could use them and they feared that these items would be locked up. They were right. It was their idea to create the African Education Program. That was in 2006 and the beginning of my journey to change outcomes of marginalized youth in Africa.

I am very passionate about this work because I have seen what little is needed to create an opportunity for a child that can have a lasting impact, literally a life-changing impact. Knowing the kids in our program, and the backgrounds they come from, they have everything inside of them that is needed to make a difference. All they need is that one opportunity for them to go from surviving to thriving.  For this reason, I see myself being a catalyst for change. I am not making the change for our boys and girls, but I am the catalyst for change. For example, Smart grew up in a two room shanty structure with his mom selling vegetables at the market. Our project awarded him a high school scholarship and a college scholarship at the University of Zambia. He graduated with a BA in Demography with Economics.  Smart is now the Data Associate for the Ministry of Health and Center for Disease Control in Chipata.  Not only that, he is inspired to give back to our program to continue to create change in his community.  If we invest enough time in individuals, we can actually see the cycle of poverty broken.

My passion for helping young people in Africa began in 2004 when the idea of helping kids in Africa was birthed. Upon finishing high school in 2005, I attended American University School of International Service to study International Relations focusing on Africa and Education. I traveled to Zambia each summer to work on the African Education Program until my graduation Magna Cum Laude with Honors. I spent a semester abroad studying at Cape Town University and a year full time after graduation in Zambia, immersed in the culture and working with the local community, hiring full time staff to run the daily operations of our youth educational resource center, now named the Amos Youth Centre. I returned to the States to work with an international communications firm managing projects in seven different African countries. This experience proved valuable before returning to lead the African Education Program full time as Executive Director in 2015.  We now have a Board of Directors in the U.S. and Zambia and a full time staff of seven in Kafue. Four staff members are graduates of our program and the others are community leaders who have grown up in the community who are focused on empowering young people. I have also used my skills and expertise to provide consultation services to international NGOs working in Africa on education and youth empowerment with a focus on training change-makers. Zambia is now my home for nine months out of the year.

One example of my ability to overcome adversity and transform obstacles into opportunities happened a few years ago. Parents and guardians in the community expected scholarships to be awarded each year. We did not do a very good job of engaging parents and guardians to help them understand the wholistic work we were doing and that we all had a role to play to be successful. Community expectations were high and parents essentially wanted a hand out, not a hand up, due to past unsuccessful experiences with NGOs. It was an expectation that every year we would award scholarships without their understanding of the wholistic programming and approach that we have to uplifting children in the community. We faced many issues when certain families would not receive a scholarship, including jealousy and resentment.  However, this opened a door for us to engage with parents and guardians. We created a parent association in a more formal way for them to buy into the whole model. Now, they know what the “end goal” is in order for their child, and our program, to be successful. And, it has been a much stronger partnership thanks to the difficult situation that we initially faced.

A past experience that demonstrates my leadership ability happened in 2017 when I met a young blind student named Rose while visiting a local community school. My attention was immediately drawn to her as she recited a poem advocating for the rights of children with special needs. I could tell Rose was incredibly bright and was impressed how smart she was knowing what little education she had. Weeks later, I learned Rose had liver failure and our year and a half journey through hospitals and doctors offices began as intensive testing tried to understand why her health was failing. I managed her medical care while fighting the clock. Rose was always upbeat and grateful, but we lost her way too soon. This experience of helping one child transformed into an opportunity to empower others to make a bigger impact and planted seeds for our special education hub, Read for Rose, and to one day change the landscape of special education in Zambia. It inspired my entire staff to become better leaders and a better team. Leadership opportunities represent a challenge bigger than me. I learned the strongest leaders empower those around them to reach their fullest potential and lead themselves.

What makes the African Education Program innovative is its approach to not only providing a new solution to attain the Sustainable Development Goal 4 by 2030, but to lift young people out of poverty by helping them discover their true potential through our unique programming model. We know the cycle of poverty will not change in Zambia if the status quo continues. We know that the quality of education is poor and the teachers are under-qualified for the most part, leaving many children behind. Without the intervention of our programming and its wholistic approach of treating each child as an individual, Zambian children will not break the cycle of poverty. We are unique in our approach as our model considers the issue areas that each child is facing to overcome their particular challenges. Our program opens doors on a daily basis through many touchpoints to tackle the basic challenges holding a student back. Our program is not a quick fix, it is a decade long investment and sometimes longer depending on when a child is introduced to our program. Once fully immersed, if a child should want to pull themselves out of poverty, they will need to take advantage of the resources provided in order for them to succeed. Through this process, we help them discover their own unique gifts and talents and help them uncover doors of opportunity so they may lift not only themselves, but their families and their communities out of poverty.

Theory of Change (Numbers Below Correlate 1->1->1):

Activities

1. High school and college scholarships for girls

2. Academic support

3. Extracurricular activities in the arts

4. Health Awareness

5. Boys Empowerment 

6. Leadership Development 

Outputs (Short-Term)

1. Girls are less likely to drop out of school or marry early due to economic burden

2. Better results on national exams and overall academic success

3. Youth are creative, innovative and expressive 

4. Girls are more aware of their reproductive and menstrual health 

5. Boys have more self-esteem, good role models, respect women as peers

6. Youth partake in community service projects
   

Outcomes (Medium to Long-Term)

1. Girls are empowered, educated, and more likely to be self-sufficient and financially stable. 

   1. Education is particularly crucial for girls because women with a high school education typically earn more than twice as much as those without one. Women with a college education typically earn nearly five times as much. (World Bank)

2. Educated students are more gainfully employed.

   1. 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty - a 12% drop in global poverty - if all students in low-income countries left school with basic reading skills. Also, one extra year of schooling increases an individual's earnings by up to 10%. (UNESCO)

3. Research has proven the arts develop neural systems that produce a broad spectrum of benefits ranging from fine motor skills to creativity and improved emotional balance. (https://www.healing-power-of-art.org/art-and-the-brain/)

   1. There is an increasing amount of scientific evidence that proves art enhances brain function. 

4. There is a decrease in family sizes and girls are less likely to contract HIV, less likely to become pregnant, and more aware of family planning. Self-esteem improves.

   1. Adolescents need reliable information as they deal with new experiences and development (WHO)

5. When men respect women as equals, domestic violence is down and stronger partnerships are formed.

   1. School-based programmes can address gender norms and attitudes before they become deeply ingrained in children and youth.(WHO)

6. Young people become critical thinkers and change agents lifting themselves, their families, and their communities out of poverty.

   1. Empowerment makes people powerful, able and active to participate. Then they will get the power and the ability to work for poverty eradication. (United Nations)

Our project currently serves over 400 youth that attend our educational resource center on any given day. This includes: 

• 40 young learners age 5 - 10

• 75 7th graders

• 249 high school students through scholarship, including 130 girls and 119 boys

• 15 college prep students doing their year of service giving back to our program and the community

• 42 college and university students through scholarships

In one year, this number will remain the same as we hope to promote quality over quantity and increase our touch points with each student to provide a deeper impact. This is what makes us different. We hope to finish our new building and this will allow the youth to stay at our center all afternoon, rather than just coming in shifts as they currently do.

In five years we seek to provide 100% sponsorship to all high school graduates with either an opportunity to go to college or to provide entrepreneurship and vocational training. We also plan to start a second site and duplicate our model elsewhere.

My goals within the next year and within the next five years will be to see how many young Zambians I can inspire, how many young Zambians I can provide opportunities to, and how many young Zambians I can open doors for, so that they are able to reach their full potential and become agents of change. As I mentioned before, being a Global Hero to me is not just about me as a leader creating change.  And it is not about reaching thousands of people at one time. We may, in fact, double our numbers in five years, but in the young people we reach, we are maximizing the changes of every child in our program to become a change agent or a leader. So, to me, it is about making systemic change at the root of poverty in the communities the African Education Program finds ourselves in. We do n0t plan to change humanity by the thousands but by one child at a time, one community at a time.

The barriers that currently exist for us to accomplish our goals in the next year and in the next five years are mostly financial as we seek to make the organization financially sustainable by decreasing reliance on private donors and diversifying our funding channels. Like many projects around the world, COVID-19 has made our organization even more susceptible to financial uncertainty. 

We also have a technical barrier when it comes to monitoring and evaluating our programs in quantifiable measures. To date, our impact is largely measured qualitatively. 

 
Specific barriers that limit our impact also include the whole educational system challenge in Zambia. When there is such poor quality of teachers, we find ourselves focusing more and more on basic academics and education instead of focusing on our youth's innovation, creativity and leadership development.

To overcome our financial barrier, we have taken key findings from our fundraising SWOT analysis showing AEP’s internal strengths include committed Board members, a loyal and generous donor base, strong personalized promotional content resulting from impactful programs, and strong content for appeals, campaigns, grants, corporate sponsorship, and online giving. AEP’s weaknesses include limited funding diversity, under utilization of donors as champions, Board contact saturation, unclear Board roles and expectations, and lack of grant/corporate sponsorship/major gift funding. We intend to prioritize the following tactics:

1. Bolster Board of Directors

2. Enhance donor outreach and experience. 

3. Bolster annual events and campaigns 

4. Seek grants, partnerships, and corporate giving

5. Formalize and grow Volunteer Program in Zambia

6. Enhance Zambian fundraising.

7. Expand capacity of donors 

8. Research and promote Legacy Giving  

9. Plan Endowment Fund Campaign

To overcome the technical and education system challenges, we seek partnership development. 

1. James Madison University: We are partner with the School of Education on research grants focusing on the effects of COVID-19 on young girls in Zambia and Kenya, partnering with Lifelong Learners for mission trips and our Zambian team members had the opportunity to have entrepreneurial and educational exchanges on the Virginia campus.
2. Penn State University: AEP is a case study for various Penn State Great Valley classes including Social Entrepreneurship & Community Leadership and New Ventures and Entrepreneurship. Students seeking their master’s degrees in business or leadership worked on course-long projects focused on diversifying AEP’s funding channels and social media outreach.
3. Copper Rose Zambia: provides menstrual health awareness trainings for our young girls that includes showing them how to make reusable pads so that they do not have to miss school due to their period. 
4. Conservation Music:  provides field trips and mentoring to AEP students to create music about environmental conservation. 
5. M. Night Shyamalan Foundation: Recognized as a leader, I have been vetted by this foundation, proving that I can persist in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. "The commitment each of our leaders has made to their communities goes beyond good intentions. Their efforts to tackle issues of poverty and inequality are shaped by research, experience, and collaboration. And they get results."
6. GoAbroad Foundation: We are growing the Volunteer Program which will include internships, study abroad, gap year, and multi-country mission trips, as short and long-term revenue generators.

We do not believe this question pertains to our nonprofit organization however we are working on a project to include a possible social entrepreneur aquaculture project that may one day allow our organization to be self-sustaining in Zambia.

The African Education Program was in a financial position to hire their first Development Director at the beginning of 2020, however the COVID-19 pandemic has not allowed us to realize our full potential due to the strain of fundraising during these difficult times. We have managed to create fairly successful virtual fundraisers after cancelling our in-person event. We have increased the number of grants we are applying to in 2020 and creating personal appeals to all major donors for their support. Our major foundational support comes from the M. Night Shyamalan Foundation who has agreed to help us meet our overall goals this year. Our Board of Directors has been tasked with creating a Capital Campaign to fund our new building structure in 2021 on a plot of land granted to us by the local government. Finally, we are reviewing a possible social enterprise operation that will help our young people with food insecurity. An aquaponics system is being projected to not only teach our young people a sustainable business but to one day provide enough food to sell at the local market for profit.

Our expected expenses for 2020 are USD $322,000.

I am applying to The Elevate Prize for many reasons but, most importantly, I know how far these funds will go to build upon our success in Zambia and provide a multitude of resources for our boys and girls. These funds will help me and the African Education Program overcome our financial barrier by expanding upon our successes and a)provide more college scholarships for our young people, b)create a strong vocational training program for young people that decide not to go to college, c)create more opportunities for learning by building upon our programs and including STEM and agriculture-based learning projects and, d)develop our first sustainable aquaponics project to teach our young people how to run a small business.

Global Partnership for Education: We believe that by partnering with educational institutions such as Global Partnerships for Education and Education Out Loud, we can help the local communities create systemic change.

While we do not have specific names, we seek partnerships with organizations specializing in reproductive and menstrual health, competency-based curriculum and student-centered approach teacher training, and community-learning agriculture models.