WHO WE ARE
Our Moon is a grassroots charity on a mission to unleash the potential of Zambian youth, helping them to become pioneers for change in their communities, country and continent.
WHY ZAMBIA?
With an average age of 16.8 years old, Zambia has a very youthful population that is rapidly expanding. 60% live below the World Bank’s extreme poverty line of $2.10, below the Sub-Saharan average of 41% and a UK average of 0.2%.
Zambia also has one of the lowest numbers of graduates in the world. Based on combined data from Zambia’s Higher Education Authority and World Bank Data, only an estimated 1.1% of 20-24 year olds graduated from university with a bachelors’ degree in 2022.
While the percentage of young Zambians graduating from secondary school with a leaving certificate is still woefully low (around 18%), numbers are rapidly rising in line with high population growth.
Zambia wants change — and who better to influence change than the young people themselves, who have first-hand experience of chronic poverty and the problems it creates?
However, there are still obstacles to overcome, and urgent action is needed.
Financially disadvantaged, bright young people — potential future leaders in their fields — are those hit hardest. Often having fought to stay in school and finish with outstanding grades, these bright school leavers must wait a year until they’re eligible to go to university in Zambia — and that’s only if they have a place to study and a student loan.
During this waiting period, there’s little to do. There’s pressure on them to earn money, but jobs are scarce, and they don’t have the privilege to travel or attend programmes. They become bored and lose hope. Many girls become pregnant and are forced into early marriage. Boys resort to anti-social behaviours, and the cycle of poverty continues.
To add to their burden, there’s a two-year gap in the Zambian school academic level compared to most countries, making it harder to get a place to study outside of the country.
This is why we need to act: to harness the power of bright students to be the future leaders for change.
OUR PROGRAMMES
Our Young Leaders Programme helps young people fulfil their academic potential and become critical thinkers, with a social conscience and awareness of the issues around them.
Through Value Added Volunteering, we develop the employability skills of youth within Our Moon’s local community.
Our Moon’s Identity and Expression programme develops the critical thinking and problem-solving skills of those going on to study at Zambian universities, while also giving them the resources they need to explore their own identities.
Our rich network connects graduates with postgraduate opportunities to help them fulfil their academic potential, while developing their networks to help them become changemakers.
We create connections between alumni and provide them with information about further scholarship opportunities and internships while studying, helping them develop the resilience and confidence to succeed in life.
OUR VALUES
As a grassroots charity, community is at the core of everything we do. We believe that by valuing community, we instil the other values in our students and staff, helping them contribute to lasting change.
HALI ACCESS NETWORK
Since its inaugural indaba in Zimbabwe in 2016, Our Moon has been a proud member of HALI Access Network, an association of non-profit grassroots organisations helping high-achieving, low-income (HALI) students access higher education.
In 2023, the Indaba took place in Zambia for the first time, held in Taj Pamodzi Hotel in Lusaka. The organising committee was headed by Our Moon CEO Helen Leale-Green, and attended by 75 advocates of higher education access to discuss the topic “Building an Impactful Network.”
The 2024 Indaba will be held in Rwanda, and will discuss “Global Learners, Local Leaders”.
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“There are tremendous benefits to the most brilliant youth in Africa learning at the best global universities. But we must get it right in supporting these brilliant Africans to return to their home countries, in various ways, to develop society here.”
Misco Mungai, Programme Director, HALI Access Network
Commenting on the Indaba, Helen says, “The fantastic thing for me and for Our Moon is that we all have the passion to help brilliant young people who, just because of where they were born, struggle to fulfil their academic potential.
“We share best practice, advocate for our students, challenge each other to always improve our offerings, and the more experienced of us provide mentorship to our newer members. We involve universities in the Indaba so we can get to know each other better, and scope out which universities are the best fit for individual students.
“There’s an online pre-departure programme that all our students attend, where I connect the students in the network going to the same universities together. Thando (Class of 2018-19), who attended Smith College, says that one of her best friends is a student from the HALI organisation who she connected with before she travelled.”
As well as presenting at the event, Duolingo provided English test vouchers for students through the HALI Access Network. Unifrog also gave a presentation, and we’re now using their platform to simplify the university guidance process and put more control into our students’ hands. We’d also like to thank CollegeBoard for providing SAT test vouchers through the network.
HALI STATS
Sustainable Development Goals
Our work is in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #4 of providing a quality education to all. While we are not a provider of scholarships, we are committed to helping young people in Zambia access available scholarships and succeed when they get to university.
“The Sustainable Development Goals Framework emphasises the potential value of promoting international cooperation in higher education noting that by 2020 ‘there should be a substantial global expansion in the number of scholarship programmes available to developing countries for study in developed and developing countries’. Our Moon is committed to the furtherance of this goal and ideal. In a world of gross inequalities, such work is worthy of support”.
Chris Yates, Lecturer in International Education, UCL
OUR CURRENT TARGETS
1
Expand our Young Leaders Programme from 8-16 students in each cohort
2
Implement our Identity and Expression with other partners and around the country
3
Develop more sustainable funding sources
4
Increase our internships
5
Empower our alumni to run the alumni and graduate programme with assistance from Our Moon
6
Expand our Value Added Volunteering Programme
7
Complete our Learning Forum