Luther College student awarded $10,000 Davis Projects For Peace grant

Luther College student Methembe Moyo ’22 has been awarded the Davis Projects for Peace grant for his proposal named “Lift As You Rise.” Davis Projects for Peace was established by Kathryn W. Davis on her 100th birthday to fund selected students with $10,000 to create and build peace anywhere in the world.

“I grew up in urban Bulawayo, a city in Zimbabwe,” said Moyo. “However I attended high school in a rural area and this is where I noticed the educational disparities between urban and rural education.”

In Zimbabwe, students must pass an end-of-the-year exam before they can obtain their high school diploma. According to Moyo, 61% of 16 to 18-year-old students in rural Zimbabwe drop out of school upon failing their national examinations.

“In recognizing the great opportunity provided by the Davis foundation, I knew there was a great chance of finally addressing the challenges faced by rural students and attempting to bridge the gap between rural and urban ones,” said Moyo.

The funds from the Davis Projects for Peace grant will be used to:

• Purchase school stationery
• Purchase textbooks
• Obtain rental spaces for classes
• Pay examination fees
• Assemble a team of tutors for students in need.

Additionally, funding will go toward making the project self-sustaining.

“We will also establish a poultry project to make sure the educational experience has an entrepreneurial approach to it,” said Moyo. “Hopefully the project will start funding itself when we sell the chickens we have raised.”

The project will begin in early June in Ntabazinduna, Zimbabwe.

“I am excited to start Lift As You Rise, a name I came up with upon realizing that while I am also still rising due to the opportunities I have been given, I can lift others in need,” said Moyo.

Since the creation of the grant in 2007, Luther has established 21 different projects in 20 different countries. In total, 34 Luther students have been awarded this prestigious grant to spread sustainable peace around the world.