The School Club Zambia was founded as a not for profit organisation in Zambia in 2011 and registered as a charity in the UK in 2014. Our founders were a group of professionals from the UK and Zambia who jointly recognised the huge financial and technical gaps in the support available for many of Zambia’s schools, especially in the rural areas. After many years of working for and with community schools across the country, the founders strongly believed that an alternative and sustainable financial model for these vulnerable schools was needed in recognition of their severe lack of resources and dependency on infrequent hand-outs. A school without external support will on average operate on less than £100/K1,000 a term, which will often equate to less than 0.48 pence/4.8 Kwacha available to invest into a child’s individual education per year.

At the heart of School Club Zambia’s work is our Self-Financing Schools programme, where we provide the financial and technical expertise for schools to launch income-generating enterprises. With little or no external support, sustainable sources of income are vital to ensure the schools can continue to operate long into the future. These enterprises also form the foundation of our Vocational Education programme, where the children and local community members have access to practical, vocational skills that will provide them with alternative livelihood opportunities and business skills. Since 2014 we have also incorporated two new core areas into our model: Literacy Development and Girls Education.