Tertiary Scholarships for Gifted, Disadvantaged Girls

Kenya, Ghana & Uganda

The Zawadi Africa Education Fund is dedicated to giving the gift of education to Africa’s next generation of women leaders. The word Zawadi means “gift” in Swahili, and this is one gift that simply keeps on giving.

The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation has partnered with the Zawadi Africa Education Fund to provide scholarships to academically gifted girls from disadvantaged backgrounds in Kenya, Ghana and Uganda to pursue higher education. The candidates are invited to attend schools in Ghana, Canada, Kenya and the United States. Some of the prestigious colleges involved in the program are Yale, Harvard and MIT.

Eucabeth Mose is one of the many gifted young women touched by this effort. She is a graduate of the Zawadi program and comes from a home with 10 children. Because of her mother’s death when she was a year old, she was raised by her cousin. Despite achieving good marks at school, Eucabeth never expected to reach college. “None of my family members have ever made it to college and, therefore, nobody really cared about my college education. To be realistic, if it were not for Zawadi Africa, I would be married right now (at the age of 22) and I would probably have at least two children,” she says.

For Eucabeth – and her peers – this program was an opportunity to choose a different life. “Zawadi has not only changed my life, it has changed the lives of my whole family,” she says. “Before I joined Zawadi, I was a very timid girl. I knew I was capable of doing a lot of things, but I didn’t have anyone to empower me at all. I didn’t have any sense of direction in my life. However, through the Zawadi program, I have come to realize that everything is possible, regardless of how difficult it is.”

Nobody expected Eucabeth Mose to amount to anything but, thanks to the gift of education; she’s proved that, with the right amount of determination, anything is possible.

In 2010/2011 Zawadi Africa program secured scholarships for a total of 59 students, bringing the total number of students to 145 with a 100% graduation rate. The TCCAF partnership has allowed Zawadi to expand more aggressively into new markets including Ghana and Uganda in recent years. In 2011/2012, the program will expand its reach to include students from Nigeria and Rwanda too.

In addition to providing a world-class education, this program has specific goals around equipping African girls to take charge of their own destiny and that of their communities. Beneficiaries receive life skills needed for them to thrive/become leaders in their own right, and to make positive contributions to their communities.