In a world where education is the key to opening a lot of doors, one woman took it upon herself to put self-consciousness and prejudice aside to continue her educational journey.

Precious Munkombwe Mudenda is a 34-year-old inspiration to both young and old. Precious is well on her way to achieving her dream of attaining formal education as she is in Grade 11 at Highlands Secondary School. Clad in a uniform as she walked into our offices with her child to collect the Christmas Hampers currently being distributed, one could have easily mistaken her for one of our older Sponsorship “Kubala” Girls.

Precious detailed how she dropped out of school after writing her Grade 7 exams as her father passed away and her mother was unable to continue paying school fees for her and her siblings. A few years ago, she heard of a literacy initiative in Mwandi Compound and thus began her re-entry story. She started Grade 8 through the same literacy initiative before heading to Highlands Secondary School in Grade 9.

“Its impossible to find a job without some kind of education and I would really like to encourage others who like me, had dropped out or given up on their education to go back to school,” says Precious. Asked how she was faring in school, Precious detailed how before in school, she used to struggle a lot especially with subjects like Mathematics but they are now a breeze to her. “There’s nothing that can stop me as I understand everything so much better after going through real life then going back to school,” she said confidently.

Precious is the proud mother of four children aged 15, 11, 9 and 3. Two of her girls [Tryness (15) and Royce (9)] are under the Sponsorship Program. She expressed how happy and proud her children are of her going back to school. She shared how at first her husband was not ecstatic about her going back to school. “At first my husband wasn’t happy but as he saw how determined I was in school, he quickly became very supportive,” detailed Precious.