Zambia

Population: 16.59 million

GDP: US$1248 per capita

Unemployed: 16.0%

81.5% earn less than US$2/day

Current Partnership Impact

24 families are being assisted

24 children are being supported into schooling

Beneficiaries

Currently 24 orphans and vulnerable children in the neighbourhood of Elizabeth Palata are being helped. Well over 30 children have completed Grade 12 from this programme.

What We Like About The Partnership

The fact that this ministry was commenced with their own resources, they did not wait for a donor to come, and they continued on even though there was criticism. They are not over-reaching their capacity and they keep very good accounts.

Key People

Leadership Profile

Elizabeth Palata is a woman of influence. She is a retired nurse with a heart of compassion. Her husband is a retired miner, and they live in Lulamba, a medium cost housing area in Chingola, Zambia. This was an area in which the mines owned all the houses. When the mines were privatised, the houses were sold off to the miners, many of them went into debt to purchase them. As the impact of HIV/AIDS increased, many of the miners died leaving families and children in houses they could not afford to continue paying for so many children ended up on the streets and in poverty.

Elizabeth noticed these children and began engaging with them, she started meeting with them and feeding them. She got some friends around her and so it grew. She is like the grandmother of the community now.

Other People Involved

There are other volunteers who work with Elizabeth:

Mwila Chikontwe Ngengele
Age: 53 years
Mwila is married with ten children; seven of the children are currently living at home. She has a garden or field that she tends to help feed her family. That is her main job, being a farmer on the family field.

The church that Mwila goes to is CMML, Christian Brethren Church. At the church she is a Deaconess, youth overseer and a sower. She is also the vice chairlady in the Chingola Women Conference committee.

Her role in the Lighthouse Orphanage Project is to be a teacher to the children. She wants to serve the children and to pray for them in her role as a teacher.

Vision And Annual Strategy

Feeding
- 24 children are being fed every three or four months. This takes place at Elizabeth’s house.
Schooling
- The children receive books, shoes, uniforms and bags. 
Spiritual Input
- All children attend the local CMML church and are involved in Sunday school. Elizabeth and her helpers tell them stories and lessons from the Bible.
Health
- Elizabeth provides basic medicines and health advice. 

Personal Testimony 

Chipeveka Ngosa 
Age: 10    Grade: 4
Chipeveka lives with her grandmother, father, aunty, five sisters and three brothers. Her family lives on a farm which grows maize. Chipeveka is responsible for helping to weed and hoe the ground. It takes her four and a half hours to walk to the field every Saturday. Chipeveka likes to go to school because she wants to become a teacher when she grows up. She says that teachers are humble, good people.

Chipeveka’s mother died in Kitwe and that is when she went to stay with her grandmother. She has been there for eight years now.

Chipeveka enjoys attending Lighthouse Orphanage because they feed her and clothe her and show love to her. They also teach about God and she learns about Jesus.

When she is with her friends Chipeveka likes to play elastics or skipping. Chipeveka says that her biggest needs are for clothes, shoes, a bag and a spare uniform. She is a bright and intelligent girl and able to understand some English. 

Melvin Kaunda
Age: 13   Grade: 7
Melvin is a double orphan who lives with his grandmother. Ten other cousins also live with him and his grandmother. The family often does not have enough to eat. They do manage to eat twice a day at lunch and in the evening. Melvin and his cousins help their grandmother to look after their garden. They cultivate and dig yellow maize to eat. Melvin does not like digging. The family has no other means of income and finds it hard during winter when the maize has run out. 

Melvin enjoys attending the CMML church. He particularly likes going to Sunday school, singing and preaching. When Melvin grows up, he wants to be an electrician for Zesco the Zambian electric company. 

Melvin walks one hour to get to Chingola Basic School. He says that he is doing well at school and especially likes science, religious education, English and maths. He likes his teachers, and he has 46 students in his class. They do not have enough textbooks to have one each so they have to share. Melvin only has a few friends. He likes to read his schoolbooks in his spare time.

Melvin says that he struggles to get clothing and blankets especially since he has no parents to buy them for him. His father died in 2001 and his mother in 2006.