Living in Zambia (2024)

AISL is at the center of a warm, truly diverse international community that extends well beyond students, parents and staff.

Please check out the following sections on theCommunitypage

• Parent Teachers Association
• Events in the Community
• Sports in the Community
• Students in the Community
• Facilities for the Community

Areas where AISL has a positive impact on Zambia:

Service projects

• The school offers around twenty student-led community service projects every year. All secondary students participate in this program for at least 14 hours per year.
• As a graduation requirement, all students must conduct a minimum of 50 hours of service activities during the Grades 11 and 12 years.
• All students must conduct a Personal Project experience during Grade 10. Many students have chosen service-oriented activities for their Personal Project.
• We donate our used paper and plastic bags to two community projects, Apters and Chikumbuso respectively, which are then turned into art that is sold at local markets to support needy Zambians.
• We host a Zambia Day celebration each October to raise awareness of our host country. This includes providing a forum for local vendors and artisans to work with our students and sell their products.
• Many of our teachers regularly volunteer their personal time at orphanages, schools, Circus Zambia, and other local organizations.
• AISL regularly donates its facilities, such as the theater, gym, and playing fields, to non-profit organizations and service projects. AISL donated 200 pairs of athletic socks to the Sporting Wave Outreach Football Academy.
• AISL in the past partneredwith the Leopard Hill Football League and the Torpedoes Triathlon to support these community events at our facility.

Scholarship program

• In any given year, we offer six full-tuition scholarships to AISL for needy Zambian students who show significant academic potential.Of the four graduates thus far from our scholarship program, two have earned full-tuition university scholarships

Supporting Education in Zambia.

• AISL is a founding member of the Independent Schools Association of Zambia (ISAZ), which is a professional association committed to strengthening education in Zambia.
• AISL holds the Vice Chair position in ISAZ.
• Every year, AISL hosts the ISAZ Teachers Teaching Teachers Conference. This conference provides a day of professional development to more than 300 Zambian teachers. For many of these teachers, this will be the only professional development they get each year. AISL teachers volunteer to run at approximately 60-70% of the workshops at each conference.
• AISL is a center for professional development in Zambia. Beyond the teachers’ conference mentioned above, we host several other professional development experiences each year, to which local schools are invited.
• AISL has a partnership with a local school called the Mukwashi School. Groups of their teachers visit our campus each year to work alongside and learn from our teachers.
• AISL is one of the few schools in Lusaka that offers a program for children with special educational needs. Although students in this program pay regular tuition (and, thus, is not a service project), we do fill a need for this type of education in the community.
• Each year AISL hosts the Zambian Model United Nations (ZAMMUN) which is an MUN experience for local schools.

Employing Zambians and Supporting Local Business

• AISL directly employs 60Zambians on a full-time basis across our faculty, administration, and support staff.
• AISL employs someZambians on a part-time basis for coaching in our extracurricular program.
• AISL supports many local businesses and indirectly employsmore than 40 Zambiansthrough our contracted full-time service providers such as security, cleaning, busing, and catering.
• Dozens more are indirectly employed by vendors who provide other services such as trash collection.
• AISL indirectly supports all embassies and companies that are looking for an accredited international institution for their employees’ children. The College Counselor works pro-bono with local Zambian deaf students, one of whom, is now in his sophom*ore year at the University of Toronto on a full-ride scholarship.

Below are links to a few helpful websites to help you get acquainted with Zambia.

• Lonely Planet (Zambia)
• Real Post Reports
• Brandt Guide – Zambia
• Zambia National Tourist Board
• The National Homepage of Zambia

News and Magazines on-line

• Times of Zambia (Daily)
• Zambia Daily Mail (Daily)​​

And this is a great one-off post that's worth a read

• ​A Cup of Jo:Parenting in Zambia