We are committed to working with our friends, community members, and partners in Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa, as well as wonderful non-profits in the US and Europe, that are supporting educational initiatives in southern Africa. It takes many hands and many minds to bring these ideas to life. If you are working in this area or know of an organization that is doing good work here, please send us a note and tell us about it.

The foundation is hard at work planning several new projects in Livingstone, Zambia for June 2025! As soon as we have details, we'll post them here. Stay tuned! And reach out if you'd like to contribute. 

MAHER SCHOOL--TABLES AND CHAIRS FOR GRADES 1-3

19 members and friends of the Zoe Jelinek Memorial Foundation headed over to southern Africa in late December of 2023, spending a week in Livingstone, Zambia, where Zoe lived and worked in 2021-2022. There, we completed a small project for the Maher School where Zoe was a volunteer. The ZJMF funded the construction of 20 tables and 60 chairs for the school. Dalice, a local trade school, did a spectacular job building this beautiful furniture. When we first glimpsed the finished product, we scrapped our plans to paint the tables and chairs since the mukwa wood used was so beautiful we didn't want to cover it up with paint. 

Instead we had our volunteers, with lots of help from Maher's teachers, students, and amazing principal, Prisca Mumba, oil all the tables and chairs, paint the metal frames, and then adorn some of the brick walls of the schoolyard at the teacher's lead. It was an emotional, beautiful, and hot day! What a gift to be able to do this work in honor of Zoe. We felt her there with us. If you want to be there with us too, check out this terrific video (and the videos and photos below) by one of our talented volunteers, Avery Vanduine, a recent graduate of the University of Colorado film school.  ZJMF Chair and Desk Project (youtube.com) 

AMAJINGI COMMUNITY PRESCHOOL--SOUTH AFRICA

Just after New Year's Day, and after enjoying some amazing adventures with Ayoba Nzala's newly minted guide company, Mavumina Safaris , we headed to the Wild Coast of South Africa. The ZJMF had the absolute pleasure of partnering with REACH! South Africa, a Seattle-based, grassroots non-profit. REACH's mission is to provide container preschools to help rural South African children realize their potential. The ZJMF funded the purchase, resourcing, and installation of a container schoolroom in the village of Amajingi in Transkei in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Our volunteers carried across the seas bags and bags of school supplies sent to us by dozens of friends, family, and community members (enough to resource two schools!). Our on-the-ground volunteers spent four days adorning the new container school, both inside and out.  ZJMF School Build (youtube.com) 

Finn Jelinek, Zoe’s brother, and a 2023 BFA graduation of Cornish College of the Arts, created the design for the outside of the container and worked with community members and volunteers to execute the beautiful murals that now adorns the new school. Words really can't do this project, nor the magical delivery day, justice so we're pleased to feature some photoes and a couple terrific videos of the project.  ZJMF School Build Timelapse (youtube.com)