SAMBIA - Scholarship recipient is a national math genius!
2025-10-02
Math genius at St. Francis and Clare School
The success of educational investments the Umckaloabo Foundation has made can be seen in the many graduating classes of students who completed their schooling with outstanding grades. Sometimes, however, there are also individual people who reflect how much the support of the Umckaloabo Foundation helps when it comes to developing their potential. Ackim Ng’ambi, a young man from Lusaka, has turned out to be a true genius in math, and this came to light thanks to a scholarship from the Umckaloabo Foundation.
Ackim, who is now 21, attended a state school until ninth grade, but due to the poor quality of the teaching, he did not learn to read and write until the seventh grade. What’s more, he did not learn literacy through his classes: a friend very patiently taught him the basics on their long path to school.
Thanks to his remarkable mathematic talents, Ackim was a star student with top grades by the time he completed the ninth grade, which earned him a slot at St. Francis and Clare School. But then, when the new school year started, he did not appear. His father had lost his job for health reasons, and Ackim’s mother was supporting the family of eleven by selling a few vegetables. The school responded by inviting the parents to talk. Donations from teachers who wanted to help the talented boy allowed him to buy a uniform. And then a scholarship from the Umckaloabo Foundation enabled him to go to school.
In math class he quickly surpassed all of his fellow students and won prizes in competitions such as the 2025 Junior Engineers, Technicians, and Scientists (JETS) contest in the section of mathematics innovations. This paved the way for him not only to study at the Information and Communications University in Kafue, Zambia, but also earned him a scholarship from the Zambia Research and Development Center.
Scholarship helped Ackim make sure he could graduate
Martin Burkart, the volunteer coordinator of the Foundation’s scholarship program, was able to make the acquaintance of the math wizard as well as other scholarship recipients during his private trip to Zambia and visit to the secondary school.
The scholarships have also made it possible for young people from very poor families to attend the school which first opened its doors in 2019 thanks to the support of the Africa Runners and the Umckaloabo Foundation. All in all, around sixty students benefit from scholarships offered by “godparents” through the Foundation.
Martin Burkart met the polite and modest young man: "For Ackim, the best thing about the scholarship was having the security of knowing he could complete his education." Beyond that, he was highly motivated by the faith his teachers had in him. The scholarship was the opportunity of a lifetime for him. “Your investment in me was worthwhile,” said Ackim to express his thanks.