Scholarships
We sponsor more than 100 students annually. What these students have in common is that they are from rural areas, not cities, have limited resources but a strong resolve and desire to continue learning. Most are on our secondary school scholarship programs in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia but we also support students who are in job training or higher education. Hundreds of students have completed their secondary school education because of our program and your donations. Many students have gone on to tertiary education and become teachers, journalists, accountants, safari guides, worked in hospitality, in agriculture and medicine. We work with our partner on the ground, Children in the Wilderness, on student and school selections.
While we provide scholarships for boys and girls, The Rosemary Pencil Foundation pays particular attention to improving education for the "girl child." In rural communities boys will often take precedence over girls when it comes to educational resources. This means there are girls dropping out of school at age 14. Where we can, we recommend girls attend boarding school so that they can focus on their studies rather than having to take on a lot of the household chores when they return from school. Recent research shows that when girls have the opportunity to read books, they read more often than boys. We have so many former students who have gone on to teaching careers, for example, something that is impossible without a secondary school education.
Our partner on the ground is Children in the Wilderness, a non-profit organization with branches in Malawi and Zimbabwe/Zambia. It is the non profit arm of two major safari companies. CITW hosts orphaned and underprivileged children from local communities at camps that it runs and it is from these groups of teenagers that our students are chosen. CITW provides follow-up programs and counselors are in touch with former campers, allowing us to track our students’ progress throughout the year and ensure that school attendance is steady and students do well academically. CITW also runs after-school programs at some of the rural schools with a focus on the environment and conservation, teaching the children (of all ages) to take care of their surroundings and help prevent poaching and the cutting down of trees that has led to massive de-forestation.