Partnership Overview

Kamatipa, a small rural village of several hundred located in the Copperbelt of Zambia, is home to many orphaned children who are in desperate need of food, clothing, bedding and assistance with school fees. Kamatipa is on the outskirts of Chingola and is in a very remote area. Many children are unwell due to lack of food. 

Rebecca Kaumba and Faidess Chiyesu are friends. They were concerned about these vulnerable children in the little rural village in which Jeremiah and Faidess had settled so they decided to do something about it. They recognised the need to care for the children in the community who were orphaned due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. They work to find guardians for the orphans and identify children in the community that are in need of assistance. 

Together with them, Bright Hope World now supports vulnerable children from Kamatipa village. 

Sadly, Jeremiah passed away in 2016 after battling illness. Currently in Kamatipa village the baton has been passed on to Evans Doygie (on left in photo) who has been a long-time friend of Jeremiah's, having his own shop and being a leader in the church. 

History Of Partnership

Kamatipa is an hour from the main road, a 1½ hour drive from the closest town. However, the people of the village have no transportation. They must walk or bike with their produce to sell in the markets. The entire village gets their water from a tiny, difficult to access spring, a process that can take an hour. The extreme poverty of the area makes everyday living a struggle to simply survive.

BHW started helping here in early 2005 by assisting 20 children to get to school. During 2007, 11 children on the programme and their families were repatriated by the United Nations back to Angola from Zambia. They were refugees from the 1970’s and 80’s, Jeremiah was a refugee from Angola too. New children were added, and the total number increased to 30 by 2010. Since then, the number of children has reduced but the costs of secondary school education are much higher so the financial support from BHW has been increasing. 

Beneficiaries

The beneficiaries are the children who have been orphaned and who live with guardians in the village of Kamatipa or relatives in Ndola while at secondary school.  

Key People

Leadership Profile

Faidess Chiyesu
Jeremiah and Faidess (centre in photo) chose to live in this area. Initially they went there to farm and to plant a church which they did successfully. The church is now functioning well with more than 100 people in it but of course, many orphans turned up in church as part of church families or attending Sunday School and other programmes.

They have four of their own children and numerous other kids “live” at their place.

Faidess is a graduate of GLO Zambia and while there was challenged to give her all in ministry which she has done.  

Other People Involved

Rebecca Kaumba
Rebecca Kaumba (left in photo) comes from this area and is good friends with the Chiyesu's. She now lives in Chivuma where she has a house that she built for her retirement.
 
She is a single mother of a number of adult children. Her role in this partnership is to visit from time to time to make sure that the programme is running smoothly. 

Evans Doygie
Evans is the new person involved in the partnership. He loves farming, wants to help guardian families by teaching farming, and runs his own shop.

Leonard Kapenta
Leonard Kapenta has also joined the group since 2019. He was one of the original orphans helped on the programme, and after completing grade 12 and spending five years in the capital Lusaka, decided to come back to Kamatipa to farm. He has a big desire to help others like himself, to bring them up in life.

Vision and Annual Strategy

Currently Bright Hope World is supporting 10 children. The most urgent needs are:
1) Helping to set up farming training and guardian empowerment programmes to increase contact with the families in the community. 
2) Assisting the children to attend school - the children need school supplies and uniforms.

Personal Testimony

Nathan is currently boarding at Kakubula Basic School. He does find it difficult to walk five hours to get there every week. His family could not afford to pay so he is very thankful that Bright Hope World is able to help. He believes he is very blessed as there are many other orphans that need help.

When Nathan grows up, he intends to go to mission school and become a missionary. His current job is to assist his stepfather to cultivate and care for their vegetation.

Problems: Many other boys his age like to drink and steal, especially those who do not know God. This problem may be because some cannot go to school, have too much time on their hands and do not have parents or their parents cannot afford for an education. Sometimes these young people put pressure on Nathan to lie and register them for school.

Hobbies: Nathan likes playing football and studying.

Katemba lives with her father's elder sister. A few years ago, her mother died and her father became mentally disturbed and left her and three siblings alone. Katemba and her two younger sisters started to stay with her aunt after they were found, her baby sister went to another aunt. Soon after this Katemba’s father returned to reclaim the children. The three girls went with him to Chingola where he had a job cleaning the public toilets.

Although Katemba’s father had a job he had nowhere to stay and so her and her two siblings slept at the toilets behind some large barrels of water. Rebecca (from GLO) got word that there were some children staying in the toilets, so she went to see for herself. When she arrived there, she found the girls begging from the people entering the toilets and being watched by the day time toilet attendant. Their father was out drinking.

When Katemba’s father was found Rebecca demanded that he take the girls back to the village. He did take them back to live with their aunt who is old and sick and is no longer able to work in the garden. The family rarely has a meal. She wants to put the girls into an orphanage but does not know where to take them.

Katemba likes to go to school. When she grows up, she wants to be a teacher. She enjoys playing jack stones with her friends. She helps her aunt by carrying large loads of maize to and from the grinding mill.

Interviewer Comments:  Katemba had a cold when I talked with her. She was hungry and barely spoke above a whisper when asked a question. When observing her with the other children she sat alone on a log and did not move or interact with any of the children. She just stared into the distance. She desperately needs help.