Friday, January 17, 2014

Having arrived in Chingola, a former copper mining boom town (a boom at least for the outsiders who came in to exploit the resources and the indigenous people who lived here), we made our way out to the school in Kasompe yesterday.  We could see by the chart on the wall in the Kasompe head teacher's office that every single student in the school was either an orphan (many double orphans) or an otherwise vulnerable child, most likely from a home of extreme poverty.  Educating a child, especially a girl, in these communities offers a quick break in the cycle of poverty because a literate girl is 50% more likely to go on to raise children who also will learn to read and write.  If the incredible women we met at the NGOs at the beginning of our trip are any indication, or the women we've met as Kafwa or school teachers, that educated girl also will likely go on to change the world. (Posted by Michael Lewis)

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