New Year, new beginnings! It is no longer a holiday to some of our girls we supported in secondary school through scholarships but rather a new beginning to a new life. They sat for their Form 4 examinations and are now at home helping parents with household work as they plan the next chapter in their lives.

Last Wednesday afternoon as showers of rain drops were all over Kasungu, I started off for Makanda village to have a chat with some of the girls JMV supported to complete their secondary education through  scholarships – thanks to your support. It was a slow trip as there was water all over the roads and they were more muddy pools than roads! We entered Makanda village and I was welcomed by the grandmother to Miriam Bwanamili our former JMV scholar at Santhe secondary school. It is a village located 18 kilometers away from the all-weather-road and is surrounded by natural trees.

Miriam was busy pounding maize into flour with her grand mother and her sister in-law. She looked tired because of all the household work she now has to do in this village – after being spoiled at Secondary School for the past few years where she got to focus on her studies! She has to go to the farm early in the morning and do some household chores everyday being the only young girl.

Miriam passed her Form 4 exams and is now looking to continue her studies even further. Miriam is now 19 years old and has so many more opportunities than she would have had if she had finished her schooling in primary school. “I want to go keep studying.  I don’t think I can manage living this hard life in the village - I am young and still fresh!”, Miriam tells me. She wishes she will go to college eventually.