NDOLA, Zambia—In the heart of Zambia’s Copperbelt, a region synonymous with the rise and fall of the country’s mining fortunes, a quiet revolution is unfolding. Here, where the glow of industry casts long shadows over struggling communities, a group of Catholic nuns is tackling an often-overlooked crisis: the vanishing educational opportunities for boys from low-income families. For decades, the push for gender equality in education has focused—rightfully—on girls, ensuring they break free from the cycles of early marriage, poverty, and exclusion. But in Ndola, the Dominican Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus saw a different, yet equally urgent, problem. Many boys, especially from underprivileged backgrounds, were slipping through the cracks.
The economic realities of the Copperbelt mean that for many families, education is a luxury they cannot afford. Boys, often seen as immediate providers, are pulled out of school to work—street vending, mining, or taking on odd jobs just to help put food on the table. Without intervention, these boys face a future of instability, with few prospects beyond the precarious informal labor market. The Sisters, determined to change that, embarked on a bold mission: the creation of an all-boys boarding school in Ndola, designed not just to educate but to provide stability, discipline, and opportunity.
But ambition alone would not be enough. With an estimated cost of $10 million, funding the school posed a formidable challenge. Refusing to be deterred, the sisters turned to the very community they sought to uplift, launching creative fundraising efforts—including community aerobics sessions that brought together government officials and local leaders to rally behind the cause. Their approach was not just about raising money—it was about reshaping perspectives. The Sisters were not merely building a school; they were challenging the idea that boys, left without options, would simply “figure it out” on their own.
In 2022, their mission received a significant boost when they joined the Sisters’ Blended Value Project (SBVP), a program spearheaded by Strathmore University in collaboration with the Association of Consecrated Women in Eastern and Central Africa (ACWECA) and supported by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. This initiative equips sisters with essential business skills, enabling them to transform their social ministries into sustainable social enterprises. With this training, they adopted a strategic approach to their project, implementing it in manageable phases rather than pursuing an all-at-once execution.
And then, in January 2025, the dream became reality. Dominican Convent Boys Secondary School opened its doors to its first cohort of students—a milestone that just two years ago seemed nearly impossible.
Today, inside the walls of this new school, young boys who once faced a future of uncertainty are being shaped into the next generation of leaders. Under the guidance of the Sisters, they are receiving not only a quality education but also the values and structure that will help them rewrite their narratives.
In Ndola, a city long shaped by industry, the real investment in the future is not coming from the mines—it’s happening in the classroom. And at the heart of it all, Dominican sisters are proving that when it comes to education, no child should be left behind.
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Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation foresees a world in which improving the human condition is a shared and sustainable goal. “Love one another, for that is the whole law,” Conrad Hilton wrote in his will. The peoples of the world “deserve to be loved and encouraged—never to be abandoned to wander alone in poverty and darkness.” That is our resolve.
