How a Crocodile Attack Provided Better Education for Children in Zambia

On November 30, 2021, British student Amelie Osborn-Smith was attacked by a crocodile while white-water rafting on the Zambezi River in Zambia. Only with a lot of luck, courageous help from friends and due to fast medical care she was able to survive seriously injured and has in the meantime fully recovered.

In order to turn the accident into something positive, Amelie decided to found the Zambezi School Project. Their goal is to build a preschool for over 100 children in the villages of Muke and Delevu, both located near Livingstone, Zambia. The children of Muke village are currently still being taught by a dedicated teacher on the floor of the village church, which of course does not allow them to reach their full potential. The village of Delevu is in a similar situation, as there is no school building in this village either.

While much of the project is initially focused on the construction of the school, it is no less important for the future to continue to support it financially for future preschool children. Only in this way will it be possible for it to remain in use for many years to come, thereby giving hundreds of young people a start on a better life. Many of these children have never written on a piece of paper, let alone sat at a desk, and it is clear how much this alone can change their development for the better. Amelie will be returning to Zambia in the next few months to oversee the construction of the school, hopefully improving the lives of many children forever.

The International Committee: Journalists Help e.V. has supported Amelie Osborn-Smith’s Zambezi school project with 1,000 EUR.

More and up-to-date information about the project can be found on the Instagram page @zambezischoolproject.

„Dear Jörg, dear Nikolai,
I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your club’s insanely amazing donation to my charity project in Zambia! Your donation will help so many children and improve hundreds of lives. As you can imagine, the school standards there are very low and I think this needs to be changed as soon as possible. Hopefully with the money you have donated we will be able to achieve this!
With pleasure I have attached a few photos of the children we will now all help and hope that this will show how every Euro you have donated will improve their future.
Again, a thousand thanks for your very generous donation!
With many kind regards
Your Amelie“