On my way to Zambia!

By Zsolt Gyarmati, Hungary, Fighting with The Poor 21 months programme

Earlier I had a decent job in the capital of Hungary, I rented an apartment, had a car, had friends and all the “normal” stuff. However I wasn’t satisfied with my life. So I decided to change my life maybe not permanently, but entirely. I wanted to do something meaningful in this rushing and money-centered world. My goal now is to make other people’s life better. If I can make only one single life better, I will be really happy. So I decided to go on a journey and become a Development Instructor in Africa.
Humana People to People has been involved for several decades now in various long-term development projects in numerous developing countries, such as Zambia. The areas of these projects are education, rural and community development, agriculture, health, HIV/AIDS prevention and care, support of orphans and vulnerable children, economic development and environmental conservation. Just to have an idea of the influence of Humana’s activity, in 2015 the projects in Zambia were reaching over 700.000 people in 30 districts.

Since earlier I was studying to be a teacher, it wasn’t really surprising that I chose to volunteer at a project which involves children, namely Children’s Town. Life in not easy for orphans and vulnerable children in our western culture, and it is not any better in Zambia either. Children’s Town offers home and basic education from pre-school age to ninth grade for former street kids, who otherwise don't have much hope for better conditions in life. The project also fuctions as a normal school for the local children living in the neighboring villages and communities. The project has many supporters, and since the curriculum is based on the Zambian Ministry of Education’s guidelines, the children will have good chances in their later life. The programme was launched in 1992 and since more than 1400 kids benefited from it.
I hope with my work I can be a part of this programme and it’s community, hopefully I can contribute to the kids’ education. Maybe I can even provide them a brief overview of life in other countries. I also hope that I can teach them science at some level, since that was what I was studying myself earlier in college. I’d like to see the spark lighting up in kids’ eyes when they understand or discover something.
Working in the local communities will likely be part of my work as well. I’d like to understand their lives and struggles, enthusiasms and fears in order to be able to be of real help. I really don’t want them to copy the European life style or mine for instance, but rather to find their own way.