Letters from Lusaka Cancel Se requiere un título

I sponsor twelve in Lusaka:  Among the sponsors of Zambian children and youths, you sometimes hear honest disappointment that the letters they receive are very short, stilted and/or disturbingly simple for the child/youth's age level.  Perhaps, this information from the 7.15.18 Lusaka Times will enlighten: " The 2013-14 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) estimated that about 40% of children under the age of five were stunted, 15% underweight, and 5% wasted. While a research by Save the Children found that chronically malnourished children struggle to read and write simple sentences regardless of their level of schooling." 

I think when they are writing in English, it is even more normal.  I am very articulate in English; however, despite testing at the "B1" level in French (fluent in daily situations), I tend to use basic phrasing and write the smallest amount possible to make my point because I'm simply not comfortable in French yet.  I live in a country where I use the language daily, but it is still a challenge to write about complex topics or convey the same amount of information or depth of emotion.  I think it's a trade-off of receiving letters in English - the younger the child (or less educated), the more likely that the letters in English will be very basic.  I still enjoyed the experience of English letters from the Philippines though :-)

Those statistics are bad, but I've had Zambian kids who started out not being able to write and seen them progress all the way through to being absolutely fluent. Their letters have been great, so their access to education (with the help of CI) is obviously sufficient to allow them to thrive if they have the potential and the willingess to make use of it. They've not been short or stilted at all, compared to equivalent ages in other countries. 

I am always amazed at some of my African children. A 7-year-old with a 1.5 page letter so beautifully written I wonder how on earth? Been there (and the child did the writing). A kid I figured too young to write, writes a nice letter (again with really good hand-writing for the age)? Yes. And these are kids who truly have nothing, with very basic (material wise) schools.  But somehow their writing (not just the hand-writing, but their thoughts) amaze me. Mostly I am speaking for Uganda (and yes, they have the advantage of English from the start, in many cases, plus a local language) but my CI kids in Zambia, I think they do OK. I did have a 17-year-old who wrote a sentence or two even about big topics (like her mother's passing), but I know English was not her first language. My 12-year-old Zambian girl writes long, lovely letters. I write in other languages too but of course it's not as automatic. I do think that giving the kids ample space, time and freedom to really write from their heart is important, and I've seen it go very well! I have also seen programs where for whatever reason there is little effort put forth here, and even older teens write short, basic letters. But I think given the encouragement and structure to excel, kids can write! In fact, our postal worker who is from Africa told me the secret to the awesome writing I see from kids from his country (Uganda) is because they have little technology access. They write a lot, in other words. Maybe that's the case. But either way, I am impressed.

 Actually because the official language of Zambia is English it is very important for the children to learn.  In  Zambia  all official documents are written in English and I assume that the government exams the children have to pass at end of the 7th,9th and 12th grade test their English skills  All child letters to sponsors are written in  English. I have read that when a sponsored child cannot write in English in Zambia  a staff member will write down what the child says. The child then uses that as a template or guide, so children may tend to copy their handwriting. At least in the case of my sponsored child I think that is what happened. His first letters were written for him by a parent or staff member. His next letters were written by him but probably with the help of a staff members letter. Now that he is writing completely on his own the letters are harder to read and the spelling, sentence structure and punctuation are not as good. Now I understand why the staff in Zambia wrote that he would need the help of a private tutor to pass his 9th grade government exams in November on his education report. Sometimes you just have to take their word for what is actually going on even if you don't completely understand why. Luckily, he now has private tutoring.