We Needed a Physiotherapist

I met Busiku at the Mama Bakhita School in 2017 where she worked as an assistant teacher. She shyly approached me one day to say that she wanted to study to become a physiotherapist. The Mama Bakhita School has had a physiotherapy room since 2012, but there was never money to pay a salary.

Happily, the AACDP found a worthy couple who agreed to sponsor her education at the University of Zambia. In 2018 Busiku bravely embarked on an educational journey that stretched her spotty childhood education to its limits. Several times she needed a tutor and had to repeat a course.

Many, maybe most children in Zambia suffered from the years of political corruption that refused to use government funds for free public education through high school, as mandated by law. So the unfunded public schools had to require fees to cover teachers' salaries, books and other necessities. Many children could only attend when their parents could afford to pay. This, and unstable home situations created big gaps in Busiku's schooling, but she was determined to succeed.

In 2024 Busiku graduated. The AACDP took on the cost of her monthly salary and she became the first physiotherapist to work at the Mama Bakhita Cheshire Home, finally getting use from the equipment that had been there all along.

Nice story, yes?

PS I am thrilled to tell you that the new president, Hakainde Hichilema announced on his first day in office in2021 that public education up through high school would be free.