Dr. Paul Moyo and Dr. Nolipher Moyo, pictured here with their daughter, Natasha, and Pat Robertson, are the founders and chairpersons of the school board of the Mango Grove Community School.
Dr. Nolipher Moyo was raised in a rural village. Her daily routine was to walk 5 kilometers to carry water, then walk to chop firewood, carry it home, then cook breakfast - all before she walked to school. When she returned from school, she repeated this routine - going for water, chopping firewood, cooking dinner. When she finished it was very dark. She was so tired. She would sleep for two or three hours, and wake up, light her wick that was wound into a small tin can with kerosene, and begin to do her studying for school. "I could not do without water, firewood or food, but I could do without sleep in order to study. I was determined not to spend my life in this terrible routine. I was absolutely committed to study and become a teacher. Only about 2-3% of the pupils who go through 12th grade were able to pass the national exams to get their diplomas - that was my goal. I achieved it. Then I worked my way through college, and became a teacher."
Dr. Nolipher Moyo was a teacher for many years in the public school system in the Chamba Valley. She noticed that some children would come to school from Grippis Farm, but they never stayed - they always dropped out. She decided that she and her husband should go take a look at this community and was very saddened by what she saw. Not one child had ever gone past 7th grade. The young people were married and having children one after another. Then one day she was walking along the road to her home when a young man lying drunk at the side of the road called out to her, "Mrs. Moyo, you were my first grade teacher! You were a good teacher. You did a good job! I am now a father of four." She was horrified - "How do you feed your children when you are lying drunk by the road? No, my son, I was not a good teacher. I have failed you." This was the defining moment when she and her husband began to intercede for the children of Grippis Farm, crying out for God to make a way forward for them.
After a few years of praying earnestly, they encouraged their daughters and another couple they were like parents to to begin to educate the children of Grippis. This small band of young Christians went through the community trying to convince parents to send their children to "school" under the mango tree. The parents resisted. They had been taken advantage of before under the guise of someone starting a school. Only a few children came. Day by day the little group of determined Christians made their way through the negative environment of the village to the mango tree where they taught the children to write their letters in the dirt with a stick. With no books, no pens, no paper, they persisted against all odds to raise up the children of the village. God had planted a vision in them of what these children could be - doctors, lawyers, pilots and teachers.
When the rainy season came, the 70 children meeting under the tree had no protection from the drenching rains. The Moyos purchased a small plot of land in the village on which they hoped to build a school. It was then that God sent a man from the international church in nearby Lusaka to be a voice for their needs to his congregation. Soon they put up three mud brick classrooms. By 2007 God brought the Brennemans into the village, and from that one visit, Grassroots Heroes International was born. Now there are over 260 children in the school with 8 certified teachers. The classes have desks, the children have books, pens, paper and the teachers have teaching materials and chalk boards. There is a new concrete block school room rising up which will be a more permanent home for the Mango Grove Community School. Without the faith and obedience of the Moyos, the children of Grippis Farm would still be living in hopelessness. But now they have a bright future and the hopes of becoming contributing members of Zambian society.
Dr. Paul was orphaned as a child, and as the oldest male child took on the responsibility for his 6 siblings. He was so focused on getting an education. He succeeded, and is now a professor at the Justo Mwale Seminary in Lusaka, Dr. Nolipher Moyo is a professor at the University of Zambia. They continue their leadership of the Mango Grove Community School, and are grateful for all that God has done to bless their humble beginnings as the parents of God's mission in Grippis Farm.
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