Our charity partnership with Play It Forward improving girls education.
Eliza
Marketing Manager
Published on
31 Jul 2023
Updated on
19 Feb 2024
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In March 2023, we launched our new ‘Positive Impact Initiative’ whereby we donate $50 per person travelling with us to one of our partner charities as part of our commitment to ensure that all our holidays have a net positive impact. As part of this, we are delighted to announce our ‘Hopeful Horizons’ Partnership with Play It Forward.
Play it forward
Who are Play It Forward?
Play it Forward is a charity that since 2012 has been providing opportunities through education, health and gender activities for young people in Southern Zambia. In many of their projects, they use ‘sport for development’ approach as a means to achieve sustainable social change.
Girl playing football
Hopeful Horizons: Brighter Futures for Girls in Zambia.
In our first partnership with Play It Forward, we will be supporting 20 girls who have a passion and desire to pursue their education but sadly lack the resources to do so. Our partnership will allow these girls to stay in school, and also to advance to the next academic level.
The current problem
In Zambia, Grade 7 girls drop out of school at more than double the rate of boys; by Grade 11 girls drop out at more than three times the rate of their male peers (World Bank, 2019) meaning that many girls do not complete their education.
In addition to this, a lack of computers at home (only 8.1% of households in Zambia own a computer), means that girls transitioning into working life often lack basic digital skills required for many jobs and are five times less likely than boys to even consider a career in STEM (ZICTA, 2018).
Adolescent girls in Zambia also remain at high risk of malnutrition, impacting growth, development, and maternal and child health.
How will our partnership help?
We will be supporting a minimum of 20 marginalised girls aged 10-18 who live in disadvantaged communities in Livingstone, although teachers, parents and other community members will also benefit from this project.
For these girls, our aim is to:
1) Improved school attendance and attainment in exams
2) Increased computer skills and knowledge of basic coding expanding their workplace opportunities
3) Improved physical health and mental well-being
Educating our girls
This project will have a number of key strands to ensure success, including:
Twice a week after school homework and literacy clubs to ensure girls are keeping up with their assignments.
Weekly digital skills training ensuring that girls have the computer skills needed to continue their education, including an introduction to basic coding.
Twice weekly girls' football training ran by one of the Play It Forward coaches to help with confidence and teamwork.
A free daily nutritious meal is provided at the after-school activities organised by Play it Forward.
We plan to continue to support Play It Forward over the coming years with a number of projects, but for this first, 12-month project, we have committed and donated £10,000.
The girls celebrating
Visit Play It Forwards
If you are planning a visit to Victoria Falls, we would love to include within your itinerary the opportunity for you to visit Play It Forwards and perhaps to watch our sponsored girls play a football match!
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