“I felt like I was going to die before I came to school here. I was working, planting fruit, trying to pay my own school fees. I had been suffering since primary school, always hungry and in and out of school. I am one of seven children,” she says. She looks up and slightly to one side when she speaks as if she is visually reviewing the snapshots of her life. She reaches up and touches the bright blue beads around her neck that she has carefully strung together and describes how she loves to sing and how she enjoys the challenge of her biology and chemistry classes at the WCF Mama Kevina School.

“I had never seen a school like this. The campus is so beautiful. The education is everything I dreamed of. I receive good food. I offer my thanks. May God abundantly bless those who are helping to support me and pay my fees.”

“I can see possibilities. A new tomorrow.”

Buteme

“May God abundantly bless those who are helping to support me and pay my fees.”

Buteme

Buteme is grateful that she has a mother and father, but neither are educated and both work in the informal sector in the Manafwa district making small bits of money selling and trading fruits and vegetables. The income they generate is not enough to feed seven children or pay school fees for their children. Buteme says she is the lucky one in her family. The only female with options. The only child who does not wonder where the next bit of food will come from. She looks up to the sky. “I can see possibilities. A new tomorrow.”