Like many of her peers, Anita began taking advantage of the AEP’s Learning & Leadership Center in Kafue, Zambia in primary school. As a Young Learner she accessed learning opportunities including basic literacy, math, science, art and team building.

During her teenage years, Anita accessed programs focused on quality education through academic tutoring, leadership development and volunteerism, gender equity, self-esteem building, period poverty elimination, HIV/AIDS and health awareness, nutrition and food security, and the arts and creativity.

After high school graduation, during the mandatory gap year between high school and college, Anita volunteered and tutored her younger peers in the program as she accessed the College Prep Program. Through this program, she chose what she really wanted to study while taking preparatory classes focused on career guidance, academic writing, note taking, budgeting, study habits, healthy relationships, and other needed life-skills.

Anita applied and was accepted at Zambia’s leading educational institution, The University of Zambia or UNZA as it is known. Anita was excited for her university experience to begin but she admitted with trepidation, “I had never been far from home, living on my own was scary. Luckily at school, I met my second family, my mentors from the center who were also attending UNZA. They helped me get through tough times on campus and coached me to be independent.”

Anita shared, “I am the first girl in my family to go to university. I feel like I have broken through the limitation that existed in my family. I keep on pushing and pursuing despite various challenges because I convince myself that I can and will make it.”