Trident Foundation Boosts Education in Mine Catchment Area, Supporting 26 Schools Through Key Initiatives in Partnership with Ministry of Education

Trident Foundation supports Education within the Mine catchment area with a total of 26 schools, through collaboration with the Ministry of Education. The support is in the following activities; Scholarships, School Infrastructure Support, Teaching and Learning Resources, Teacher Continuous Professional Development (CPD), Schools Standards Monitoring, Differently-Abled Children Sponsorship, Sensitization Campaigns, Parents and Teachers Associations (PTAs) School Governance and Girls’ Development programs.

Key Highlight

• Launch of ‘EDGE’ (Educating and Developing Girls for Empowerment) in 2022. The program is aimed at sup- porting and enhancing girls’ education and empowerment with focus on the less privileged girls from the host community. The program focuses on building capacities and accessing training opportunities that are critical for character development of a girl child.
• Facilitated the training of 260 PTA members from the 26 TFL catchment schools on School Governance. The platform was also used for sensitization on Civic Education and other governance issues.
• Supported the Ministry of Education through District Education Board Secretary (DEBs) in the facilitation of Literacy Assessment compilation and feedback for 22 TFL catchment primary schools, 45 lower primary school teachers from 21 schools participated. Quarterly assessments are done to ascertain the literacy levels of learners.
• Lastly, facilitated the application for Government of Zambia (GRZ) TEVETA bursaries for enrolment at Luanshya Trades & Business College (LTBC) for over 500 places, under different technical skills programs (courses).

SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

As Trident Foundation we know the bright future is in the young generation and by educating the children in our local community, we are assured that the community will have leaders that bring development and contribute to the welfare of their society. We are building leaders through our scholarships at all levels of education (Primary, Secondary and Tertiary). Since the beginning of this initiative in 2015, a total of 678 students have benefited from this program. The scholarships also extend to the differently-abled children, who we believe have the potential to contribute to the welfare of their communities as well. Currently, we are supporting 24 children with special disabilities in primary education and this support covers all tuitions fees, monthly stipends, clothing and medicals.

Since our aim is to facilitate the development of responsible future leaders, we have a mentorship pro- gram that focuses on mindset change of the scholars so that they are more responsible and have the right attitude towards their work. As they integrate into their communities, this mentorship program ensures that the scholars have the desired leadership qualities, knowledge and informed contributions to various issues. Our support further extends to facilitating attachments into the Mine or any of the existing contractors. Additionally, we are committed to ensuring that all gaps are closed when it comes to child development and one initiative we are implementing to support this is the engagement of scholars’ parents and guardians to fully participate in the welfare of their child’s learning. To ensure the sustainability of the scholarship program, we have developed a cost-sharing initiative, which enables parents to make a 30% contribution towards their child’s education. These contributions are made either in-kind or through cash. So far the program has been very successful and there is a duty of care from parents. This cos-sharing mechanism has enhanced the mentorship of the children and instilled the right mindset for responsible young persons.