Education Ministries

Extra Lessons / Tutoring

NLC offers tutoring in Math, Science, and English for secondary students. This ministry was started in response to seeing that many local students, including ones that we sponsor for school, were not passing their exams and needed the extra lessons.

Currently all three subjects are taught by local Zambian teachers. Tutoring classes meet four days a week and students are fed a lunch before going to the 2.5 hours of lessons.

Since the inception of this program, we have seen a huge increase in the number of students who pass their exams. We’ve seen an almost 100% pass rate for the students that come regularly to the tutoring lessons and who have come back to share their results with us. This has opened up more opportunities for these young adults to further their education and job potential.

If interested in helping support this program, you can donate through our Paypal account and add a note that it’s for extra lessons!

School Scholarships

Funds for educational scholarships for students are given through NLC donors. These scholarships are for local secondary students who come from families unable to pay the annual school fees. Although the need for a scholarship is great, our main focus is for orphaned and vulnerable children. This also includes our UMC pastor’s children.

Tuition for one year of schooling for a student is $200. These sponsorships provide kids with the opportunity to finish their secondary schooling, which then opens up the opportunity to continue with further education and/or have a greater chance at a better-paying job. Without these scholarships, the chance for these kids to finish high school would be greatly reduced. If this is something you would be interested in donating towards, please contact Sandy Groves Sandy@NewLifeZambia.com

ED Project

As Sandy (the NLC founder) worked for years with the tutoring program, she saw that many of these older students were struggling with their English skills and were playing catch-up. Since all the student’s exams are in English, if a student doesn’t have a good grasp of the English language, they will not succeed in any of their subjects.

Sandy saw that we really needed to catch these kids at an earlier age, much earlier, and help them with a strong English foundation. She shared this idea and vision with Cathy Hatcher, a retired teacher and school counselor, who has worked with NLC for many years. Cathy caught the vision and saw how she could lend her skills and experience to this. They also saw a need for the preschool teachers to be better trained. So Cathy started the ED Project click here for more info.

Since 2015 potential preschool teachers were identified and Cathy was able to train them with a week-long training program at NLC that gives them the skills needed to establish a successful preschool class. She also gives them a starter pack of school supplies – books, pencils, crayons, toys, and lots of ideas and new skills! As the relationship grows, we find other ways to help the preschools. This may include things like cabinets, tables, chairs, and additional training sessions.

Seeing the need for books that Zambian kids could relate to – where the characters look and live like they do, Cathy decided to author her own book series and recruited Emily (the NLC ministry coordinator) to become the illustrator. Thus the Mulenga series began! This children’s book series depicts a Zambian boy named Mulenga and his life adventures. The books are sold on Amazon for the education of children worldwide. Part of the proceeds of the sale of the books goes toward supporting the ED project and providing the books to Zambian teachers. All Mulenga books can be found on Amazon by searching under “Mulenga” or “Cathy Hatcher.” The latest book can be found by clicking here.

Pre-Schools

The NLC Preschool opened in January of 2018. This ministry was started to offer a high quality educational start to children in our community of Garneton, and also to serve as an example of how a preschool can be self-sustainable. We currently have one class of students with a teacher and an aid. The students pay a fee to attend the school which allows the school to be self-sustainable, needing little outside support.

Our preschool aims to give children ages 3 to 5 years old a good start in their education. Our curriculum combines the government curriculum with a stronger emphasis on speaking, reading, and writing English and adding in extra Bible lessons.