WHEN 21-year-old Naomi Phiri visited Chainama Institute of Medical Sciences on Friday, August 13, 2010, her mission was to find out how much it would cost her to pursue the three-year clinical officer's course offered by the school.

After struggling to raise money to enable her travel from Lusaka's Chawama Township, where she stays with her mother and grandmother, she finally made the trip unaccompanied to the place some people think only houses mentally-retarded and deranged people.

Once at the college and in the right office, she was ushered in and offered a seat before opening up her mission.

"I found officers who did not want to waste their time explaining the cost of every course offered at the school and instead just handed me a list containing all the courses and fees so I could see on my own," narrated young Naomi.

After faithfully scanning through the document, she could not believe what she saw and without uttering a word to the officers simply handed the paper back to them and left the office in between sobs.

Her beaming and bright face as she entered the office had turned gloom and concocted just as her hopes to pursue the career of her dream seemed far-fetched.

As she made for the bus-stop to get on a bus that would take her into town enroute to Chawama, Naomi did not notice she was being watched by two men, who later approached her to find out why she appeared to be sobbing after leaving the office.

She told them how she felt overpowered by the fees she saw on the list of courses on offer at the college, how inhibitive they were and how that had dashed her dreams of becoming a medical officer some day in future.

The two men, one of them a prominent comedian member of the Zambia 1 Comedy, could not keep it to themselves and decided to bring Naomi's plight to the attention of the Times of Zambia.

Explaining later to the author, she said: "I just had to sob to quench my emotions. I was engulfed in a sense of defeat after leaving the office knowing I will not make it to Chainama to study for what I have always wanted to be. I thought about my past and my struggle though, I just could not hold myself."

Apparently, Naomi is one of the unfortunate millions whose passage in school has never been smooth-sailing.

As a brilliant pupil in secondary school, she had to be included on the list of vulnerable children who could not afford to pay their way through to successful completion of her O'level education in 2008 at Lusaka GRZ high school from where she attained an attractive full grade 12 school certificate with 14 points.

Had all things and her plans worked out according to her plans, Naomi should have been in the first-year of her dream career at Chainama but for lack of sponsorship, she continues to languish in Chawama Township.

Born in Chingola to John Julius Phiri and Beatrice Lungu, the inconsiderate hand of death struck in 1997, depriving Naomi of her father, leaving her under the care of her now 48-year-old mother.

"When I was in grade nine, my mother got a job in Konga in Lusaka's Makeni farming area. There she got a loan to cater for my school needs.

"My mother was confident I would make it to grade 10 because of the brilliance I exhibited at grade seven to qualify to Lusaka Girls Basic school," narrated Naomi.

It came to pass when she qualified to go to grade 10 but once more, Naomi came face to face with the harsh reality of the difficulty of finding a sponsor to send her to school.

"I struggled through. My mother was in the process of organising money for me when a bout of malaria which almost incapacitated her physically and mentally attacked.

This is how my brother took up the challenge after it looked like my mother would take long to recover and get me money to meet my school fees and related expenditures.

When the Government of the late president Levy Mwanawasa invited vulnerable children countrywide to seek intervention, the call came as a relief to Naomi's brother.

"I used to receive assistance from various good Samaritans who supplemented my mother's and my brother's efforts up to grade 11, until the Government took over the challenge to pay my balance of K185,000 in grade 11 and school fees in full throughout my grade 12.

"My mother paid my exam fees while her relatives got me uniforms and books," Naomi recalls.

Her plight is confirmed in a letter by her former school headteacher a Ms Pwele, stating: "this serves to confirm that the above mentioned pupil (Naomi Phiri) was at this school from 2006 to 2008.

"During the time that she was at this school, she was vulnerable and was sponsored by the Government," reads the letter of August 12, 2010.

Since completion of her grade 12, Naomi has tried to engage in a fundraising venture so she can pay her way into college but her plans have lamentably failed because she has assumed the role of bread winner for the family of her grand mother, her own mother and her 16-year-old immediate younger sister.

Besides, Naomi must contribute to the cost of her sister's school fees at Kabulonga Girls' High School where she is in grade 11.

All these responsibilities out of her meagre K250,000 salary she gets per month for standing in front of class of an estimated 30 children as a pre-school teacher right in Chawama. She has been teaching for the past one year and 8 months now.

"I have failed to save. I have my grandmother and my mother to take care of. I am required to pay rentals for the house we are living in. I also help out with my sister's needs at school and at home and all these out of the K250,000 I get monthly.

"When I saw that the course I want to pursue costs K5 million per semester at Chainama, I knew I would not manage and this feeling just overpowered me mentally. No single person came into my mind as a possible helper," she says.

Despite being offered a chance to pursue English teaching at Evelyn Hone College starting next January, Naomi's bias remains towards health science-related careers. She is also not too keen to go for teaching because of the cumbersomeness of job-seeking after training.

Her grade 12 full school certificate reads like this: A distinction in Religious Education and Sciences, a merit in English, Mathematics and Commerce and credits in Geography and Biology - adding up to a handsome 14 points.

Her current plea is to any "good Samaritans" individuals, organisations and even the church who would be in a position to help her pursue her dream course as a clinical officer at Chainama to contact the college or herself on 0977-166848.

In the meantime, Naomi has applied to the Government bursaries office for sponsorship and prays every morning and night that authorities see through the predicament, qualifications and potential of this clinical officer-in-the-making and do the needful on behalf of Zambia.

It is the wish of every Zambian that young girls like Naomi are helped to prosper so that they may not only look after themselves in future but also after their siblings and parents.

Two Millennium Developmnet Goals will have been attained: Education for all by 2015 and poverty eradication - at least for young Naomi.