Foot traffic to our offices increases exponentially during the first months of the year. Parents/guardians and children move as though in a revolving door to access one service or another. Be it queries about sponsorship, follow ups on payments and requirements or handing in of acceptance letter or report forms.
Through all this, you will find that 95 percent of guardians coming to the office to accompany their children are women and the sighting of a male guardian is not quite as frequent.
Mercy and Joyce came through to our offices to hand in their reports books and accompanied by their father, Mr. Davey Muyaya. Mr. Muyaya (48) lives with his elderly mother who is 78 years old, his wife (40), as well as 7 children and 2 dependents.
He narrated how he came to hear about the sponsorship program, detailing a particularly difficult time in his life. “I had just been let go from my job at the time and I was very low in spirits. An acquaintance from Church told me about Response Network and the good works they were doing and that they had a sponsorship program to help girls in school. I made a follow up to the office that was in Zambia sugar compound at the time and consulted and thankfully we were successful. This was really an immense relief to me because I was really desperate and lacked money. I was really worried about how I would manage,” he narrated.
“The support was in the form of uniforms, school fees before free education was adopted, and the occasional food relief as well in the form of the Christmas hampers.”
Mercy and Joyce Muyaya, both 13, attend Christ The King Primary School and are in Grade 7A, so it’s a big year for them. The cousins smile as they share their ambition in life is to be a Doctor and Nurse respectively. Mercy shared that her favorite subjects in school are Mathematics and English while Joyce favors Science and Technology. “When I’m not studying, I enjoy listening to music. I listen to music everyday when I’m doing any type of activity and it just puts me in a good mood,” said Mercy. Joyce on the other hand enjoys a watching TV shows and this can be seen by her exuberant personality. Mercy and Joyce dream of attending Linda High School and David Livingstone Secondary School respectively once they successfully complete Grade 7.
“I would like to appreciate the work being done by Response Network. The burden that RN has lifted from my shoulders is immense. Girls in our society are often overlooked and boys are the ones usually pushed further ahead in life. I am so happy to see girls and young women being helped through school. It’s truly a gift from God and pray you continue in the same spirit.