UPCOMING EVENT ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2024 IN SOUTHPORT, NC
Thank you to our 2023 donors, attendees, auction winners and committee members!
Current Projects:
Sponsoring Educational Opportunities in Zambia
The Educated Zebra is currently sponsoring ten students to attend Kool Kidz, a small independent school with students ranging in age from 2 years (baby class) to seventh grade in the Highlands of Livingstone. The teacher-student ratio is 15:1 compared to 48:1 in the public school system. Seventh graders at Kool Kidz have a much better likelihood of performing well in the national exam at the end of elementary school - a good performance in this exam secures entrance to the high school level. Eight of our sponsored children have graduated from Kool Kidz. All passed the 7th Grade National exam in Division I or II placing them in competitive secondary schools.
We currently sponsor five students (who graduated from Kool Kidz) at Chimilute Boarding School in Livingstone Zambia. This school provides excellent academic and extracurricular opportunities while also providing a stable living environment.
We are also sponsoring one ambitious and deserving student to attend the Acacia International School in Livingstone, Zambia. This student was accepted after a rigorous screening process and has excelled beyond expectation. Acacia offers the Zambian National and the Cambridge International Curriculum. The Foundation is providing full tuition, uniforms and school supplies for our sponsored student.
Finally, we are sponsoring one of our students to attend Banani International School in Lusaka, Zambia. This school is very competitive and selective. This student graduated from Acacia with outstanding academic and athletic achievements.
Learning Hubs in South Africa: Providing an early childhood development support center and a library of educational learning kits
Many small children from impoverished backgrounds in South Africa spend their preschool years in front of a television in overcrowded, inner city daycares in a caregiver's home called "creches" while their parents are at work. With lacking special attention to their development, they have missed several milestones compared to their peers by the time they start elementary school. A child’s brain is wired to explode with new capacities in a safe, caring and stimulating environment. All the skills needed to thrive are formed, or not, before the age of six—concentration, memory, persistence, imagination, coordination, cooperation, and experimentation, to name just a few. Success in life is predicted by success in first grade. In conjunction with Adopt a South African Preschool in America and PEN Early Childhood Development in South Africa, The Educated Zebra is sponsoring a learning hub for preschool children in Ysterplaat, a northern suburb of Cape Town in South Africa.
This project involves providing educational toy learning kits that focus on areas of the National Early Learning and Development Curriculum. Caregivers from nearby creches are invited to borrow these educational toys while being mentored in early childhood education. The toys and training are aligned with a preschool curriculum and each child’s cognitive, physical, emotional and social development is tracked. Caregivers become teachers and children reach developmental stages required for success in first grade. The Educated Zebra plans on sponsoring more of these informal daycare centers and training of caregivers.
Previous Projects and newsletters:
Promoting Entrepreneurship
To encourage long term success and providing ongoing opportunities for young people, The Educated Zebra believes in the power of teaching entrepreneurial skills to upper school students.
To this end, we sponsored the publication of a book on social entrepreneurship by Dr. Nico de Klerk, founder of StreetBiz Foundation, a non-profit online business school in his native South Africa.
