So far in 2025, Maranatha Volunteers International has made exciting progress on two school campuses in Zambia. Crews are expanding the Sala Primary School in the south and constructing the Mwami Secondary School from the ground up in the east. Both of these institutions are top priorities of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Zambia. Maranatha’s work on these campuses will enhance their ability to provide intellectual and spiritual guidance to the next generation of Adventists and share the gospel message to more people. Maranatha is also bolstering the Adventist Church in southern Zambia with much-needed places of worship and water wells. Crews are preparing to begin work on this year’s wave of these projects in the coming weeks.
In the Eastern Province town of Mwami, crews have nearly completed the Education and Evangelism Center (EEC) that will house a new secondary school. This large building includes 14 classrooms surrounding a central auditorium. Mwami is an Adventist hub that includes a hospital, nursing school, churches, and two elementary schools, but lacks a high school. Because of this, many children aren’t educated beyond the primary level. Maranatha’s completion of the Mwami Secondary School will help to solve this problem. In addition to the EEC, crews have drilled a water well and leveled a soccer field for the campus, and are beginning to construct its bathrooms.
At the Sala Primary School, crews have recently completed a church building and are entering the final stages of work on eight new classrooms, a water well, and bathrooms. When Maranatha agreed to expand the school in 2023, 1,300 students were packed into tiny classrooms. Some squished onto what wooden benches were available, but most students sat on the floor and even on each other’s laps when necessary.
Since 2023, Sala’s enrollment has reached 1,500. Maranatha’s construction is drawing attention, and a government policy guaranteeing free education also requires schools to accept all incoming students. Sala’s enrollment spike has heightened the importance of more classroom space and its shortage of teachers. A volunteer group is currently helping to solve the latter issue by laying the block walls for a sixplex of staff housing, which will allow the school to hire more teachers. Maranatha will also construct two additional duplexes for this purpose.
In addition to work on educational infrastructure, crews in Zambia are preparing to construct places of worship and water wells in the nation’s south. “The Adventist Church in Zambia recently provided an updated list of requests for 609 church buildings and 850 water wells,” reported Maranatha’s vice president of projects, Kyle Fiess. “These numbers illustrate the immense need there. And while we can’t respond to every single request we receive, Maranatha supporters have made great strides possible in Zambia. They’ve had an amazing impact and are continuing to do so.”
Maranatha worked in Zambia from 2009-2015, completing hundreds of projects. In 2018, Maranatha returned to Zambia in response to a request for more churches, schools, and water wells across the country.