Medical Bursaries
Ridge Bursary Awards
The purpose of our Ridge Bursary Awards is to assist in improving the skills of health workers in Zambia. Priority is given to those who work in rural areas and intend to continue to do so as these are the areas in the greatest need of assistance.
Awards are made to two categories of health workers:
Qualified medical practitioners who are undertaking postgraduate studies for the specialist degree of Master of Medicine at the University of Zambia (UNZA); and
Health workers (clinical officers, registered and enrolled nurses and midwives, paramedics, laboratory staff, health assistants and health administrators) who hope to undertake short periods of study. These may be either short official courses at the Chainama College of Health Sciences or elsewhere, or short attachments at a rural hospital or district.
The fund is small. Awards ranging from K100 to K500 are made to a limited number of applicants by committees with the agreement of The Zambia Society Trust.
Qualifying for a Ridge Bursary
Medical practitioners must have been accepted for a Master of Medicine (M.Med) at UNZA or have started it. They must have the intention of working in Zambia for at least one year after completion of the course.
Other health workers must have worked for a government or church hospital or centre in a rural area or small town (Lusaka or Copperbelt excluded) for at least three years.
Applying for a bursary
M.Med postgraduate students should apply through their Head of Department to the Assistant Dean (Postgraduate) from whom more information and application forms are available. Applications are considered by the Assistant Dean, the applicant's Head of Department and a representative of The Zambia Society Trust.
Other health workers should apply through the head of their hospital or district to the General Secretary of the Churches Medical Association of Zambia, PO Box 34511, (Ben Bella Road), Lusaka, from whom more information and application forms are available. Applications will be considered by a small committee, representing the Deputy Director of Medical Services, Ministry of Health, the General Secretary of CMAZ and The Zambia Society Trust.
The Founder of the Ridge Bursary Awards
The Ridge Bursary was founded in 1997 with a generous donation to The Zambia Society Trust by Dr Jessie Ridge, descended from a Sussex family which has numbered 17 doctors amongst its members in the past two centuries. Born in 1903, Jessie Ridge qualified in medicine at Edinburgh University, and volunteered for mission service in Africa. Her first posting was in 1938 to the Church of Scotland's Mwenzo Mission in Zambia. She was transferred to Livingstonia in Malawi in 1940 and worked there until 1953. While working in Livingstonia, Dr Ridge gave to the church a memorial window depicting the life and works of David Livingstone.
Dr Ridge continued as a mission doctor in a number of countries - including Nigeria and Papua New Guinea - before retiring to Sussex in 1962. She died in 2006 at the age of 103..