is a very lively and committed learner who is part of the Cowdray Park learning group. He has shown great dedication through his attendance. Isaac says that he greatly loves Agriculture and has found the content provided through the Eagle platform very helpful. He says that he has started a small garden at home and is practicing what he learns. This young man is also grateful that we offer Mathematics content, he highlighted that they haven’t had a Mathematics teacher at their school for a long time so the content is very helpful to him.

Martha was sorry to see her children Tamari (14), Stella (15) and Tabeth (15) staying at home without school during the long COVID lockdown. She asked the EAGLE team if her children could come to the EAGLE office and use free tablets for 2 hours a day during the week. Bridget and Thamu from the EAGLE team supervised these young people from 10 min - 15min per day. When school resumed in mid-March 2021, Stella and Tabeth's teacher called their mum to ask her what she had done with her children because they were ahead of their peers and could even help other students in their classes!

In June we held vision-sharing meetings with more than 230 church leaders in Bulawayo. These were held in conjunction with Turning Matabeleland Green (TMG) and Forgotten Voices. The reception was incredible and the pastors were keen to have the program run from their churches, they wanted to register their learning groups right away! Organizations realized the importance of digital learning and how education can change lives in the community.

We are thrilled to share that we have trained mentors from Rangemore, Cowdray Park, Trenance, Ntabazinduna, and other places in the last two months. The training sessions were held almost every week! Through churches, we recruit mentors who are passionate about young people. They are trained to support learners in their growth. This creates employment opportunities for mentors who can own a NEST without high overhead costs.

We met and shared the EAGLE vision with 45 pastors of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, whose congregations are in Cowdray Park. After setting up learning groups in these churches, the team continued to provide technical support in January. We continuously visited the sites to address challenges and provide encouragement to the facilitators and learners alike. Some of the learners’ devices were incompatible with the learning platform and so they happily shared phones with the few whose devices were compatible. It affected our lesson tracking system but kept everyone engaged, and for that we are grateful!