One person with incredible courage and determination can make a difference and so can you!          

Peggy Rogers, a woman dedicated to finding a solution to the crippling poverty in southern Africa, created the fund in 1999. It was named for Veronica Chipendo, a Zambian woman who gave all she had to see that her children received an education.  Chipendo was never educated herself, but she understood the role of education in bringing her nation out of poverty.  Inspired by Chipendo’s story, Rogers wrote and self-published a book titled “Heart to Heart Worlds Apart.”  All of the money made from the book went into the newly created Veronica Chipendo Scholarship fund. The fund’s name has now been changed to simply the Zambia’s Scholarship Fund and most of its income comes from private donations.

End of 1999:  Peggy Rogers saved all her profits from her home business of selling plants to visit long-time friends (from Zambia) she had met while her husband was getting his degree at the University of Utah.  Her experiences in Africa inspired her to write the book, “Heart to Heart Worlds Apart”.

Beginning of 2000:  She decided to self-publish her book so that all of the money made from the book could go into the fund. Peggy gets approved as a 501c (3) non-profit organization with the IRS to provide a tax-deductable scholarship fund.

End of 2000:  Peggy’s 20-year-old daughter, Jenny, joins the Peace Corps, and remarkably, she is sent to Zambia.  Her assignment was to teach Zambians how to develop fish farms to increase protein in their diet. She also taught at the village school.

Beginning of 2001:  Jenny Rogers meets the Principal of the Kasama Teachers College.  It just so happens Freddi Kapembwa was reading Peggy’s book when Jenny walked into his office.  Jenny called her mother and said, “I just found the man God wants you to work with!” 

End of 2001:  The Rogers family takes a trip to Zambia to visit Jenny. Jenny arranges a meeting with her mother and Mr. Freddi Kapembwa, thus begins the first ever scholarship fund for Zambians by Americans.                                                                                                                                                         

Beginning of 2002:  A website was created http://www.hearttoheartafrica.org/. The fund sponsored first ten students.

Beginning of 2003:  Besides the sale of books, Peggy starts the sponsorship program where many applications are sent to her and she began finding people willing to sponsor these students. By then the scholarship fund was able to sponsor 63 college students and 35 high school students.

 End of 2003:  Peggy visits the Kasama Teachers College for the first time. She sees that only twelve graduated students were able to get jobs out of 400. Thus, Mr. Kapembwa and Peggy start the ‘Adopt-A- School’ program to pay qualified teachers to teach in the rural village schools, which had no teachers or only volunteer teachers. She was determined to find jobs for the teachers and find a way to bring them badly needed textbooks, as most rural schools had none.

Beginning of 2004:  The funded added one more teacher's college and three more high schools bringing the total students to 80 college, 100 high school, and 25 teachers on the ‘Adopt-A-School’ program. Peggy began collecting money to ship used college, high school, and elementary level text books from the US to Zambia. 

End of 2005:  Twenty tons of books (40-foot container) for all age groups are donated and packaged by the LDS Humanitarian Aid Department.  Zambia's Scholarship Fund arranges and pays the shipping costs. The books leave for Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania on December 10, 2005, and they are expected to arrive on February 18, 2006. They do not arrive until mid-March. Peggy arranged to transport them by truck to Kasama Teachers College, Zambia, arriving late March. From there the books were distributed to waiting schools across Northern Zambia---the estimated worth of the books was over $200,000, but to the Zambian’s they are priceless. 

Added three more high schools bringing the total to 10 high schools, 3 teachers colleges, and 35 Adopt-A- Schools.

 Beginning of 2006:  An expedition of eight volunteers, donating their time and money, deliver books to schools in Zambia.  The books arrive at Dar Es Salaam then go 1,000 miles into Zambia by truck and arrive on March 23, 2006. The books were distributed to waiting schools.

Mr. Matafwali, administrator at the Provincial Education Office, volunteers to help with sponsored students, Adopt-A-School program, and teachers' college students to promote good communication and handle the administrative needs of the scholarship fund in Zambia.  He has been instrumental in helping us from the beginning when he was the Dean of Students at Kasama Teachers College. Matafwali and Peggy opened a bank account in Zambia for Zambia’s Scholarship Fund.

June  2006:  Zambia's Scholarship Fund qualified to be on the Combined Federal Campaign(CFC). Only charities approved by the United States Government with operating costs less than 20% are considered. Zambia's Scholarship Fund has less than 1% operating costs. 

June 13, 2006:  Utah for Zambians sponsored conference held at Roy High School.

The baton has been passed – run with us. Join the push to educate.

Vision without action is merely a dream.
Vision with action can change the world!