The FarmUkusenaminwa Child Foundation made the move to the farm owned by Roy and Sarah a few kilometers outside of Kabwe in January, and they are very pleased to be there. It has helped them with reduced rental (US$380 per month), electricity and water which is really helping the budget to house everyone. Transport to town is costing more but Roy goes every day for work and is able to drop the deaf children off at school and pick them up on the way home.
They have a working bore hole that is 70m deep for drinking water and other hand dug wells for watering the gardens. There is solar power set up for electricity requirements, which is serving them well.
They love the farm area because it allows them freedom in the area as well. The children are able to safely play outside and have plenty of room to do so.
The gardens are serving them well with plenty of vegetables and crops grown to help with the food budget. Even the young children have small gardens of their own in the plot. They are growing onions, rape, beans and sweet potatoes. Maize yielded them 35 bags from 2 Lima (3.5 ton per hectare) using no fertilizer just compost, which means they have enough mealy meal for six months of the year without buying. They have been following Foundation for Farming methods, making compost and mulching.
They have many animal projects as well with pigeons, ducks, chickens (Roy and Sarah are pictured with the chicken run) and rabbits that help sustain the protein part of the diet.
In total when everyone is home from school, they have 44 people who live in the house with them. This is many of the family in the photo below.
Sarah’s sister Edna has been living with them and helps a lot in the house. She has also just completed the OM discipleship course (ZAM13) and has a heart for the poor.
Sarah herself was very sick, needing major surgery this year, but she thanks God that he has pulled her through and given her a lot of strength to carry on with the work.
It is also sad that Amon Mwansa, who was helping them a lot and was looking at becoming more involved, passed away in July 2017 aged just 27.
There are many children still going to school:
- 14 vulnerable hearing children walk to the nearby Kangonba primary school each day
- 5 deaf are going to Broadway school in Kabwe
- 4 deaf are boarding in Lusaka in Grade 11
- 4 deaf are boarding in Solwezi. The girl Loti who used to give many problems is now the head girl at Solwezi and is showing great responsibility.
- 2 deaf are at Kitwe College of Education
- 2 deaf are at NRDC College of Agriculture
They also have a waiting list of 13 other deaf children that need help in education but they currently can’t afford to send to school. The social welfare and police are constantly calling Roy and Sarah with cases of vulnerable children who need help.
Peter has done very well with the micro-loan that was given him last year (US$500). He has now managed to build a permanent shop stand in the market place and increased his product supply. He has managed to pay back US$400 of the loan and will soon complete paying this back to the partnership.
Through the business he is now able to rent his own place in town, where he lives with Martin. In fact he is helping Martin to live at the moment while Martin completes his teachers training.
When Peter has completed repaying the loan, Roy and Sarah want to help empower Ken with a business. They will use Peter to mentor Ken and help him understand that this money is very important to the partnership to help empower others when it is paid back.
Sarah conducted two training seminars this last year, in Kimasali (near Solwezi) and Makululu (near Kawbe) in local villages. She gathers together people from the local community to talk about child welfare. She has seen some great results from the sessions, and usually starts by highlighting issues they are having and then asking the people to come up with solutions.
At the trainings, Sarah has an allowance for food. She asks the participants at the start to say, well we can eat food, or you can bring something yourself from home and we can use this money to empower the group to make some funds. For one group they agreed so they brought a bag of second hand clothes to sell and then distributed the profits for family empowerment.
One big issue seen is the using of children as a money making resource rather than sending the kids to school. Many young children are sent to work in the markets selling things that are made at home instead of being at school getting an education. It means these kids as young as 7 end up getting their education from the market place and pick up lots of bad habits. They develop a lack of nurture from the parents and respect and trust is not there.
Sarah suggested to one lady who had this very problem with her 8 and 9 year old sons that she should go and see the kids as they were not even coming home anymore but staying on the streets. When the lady did meet with them she ended up arguing and fighting with them. After much discussion the lady went to see the kids at the market and took them some food to share and some clean clothes. The lady was so surprised that with her reaching out to the boys, they started to respond well and opened up about their troubles. The boys felt that some trust had been earned back and that now the lady was being their parent. These boys are now back home and going to school, instead of the market place.
Early marriages in villages are also a big issue where the family sees having young girls looked after by older men as a way out rather than being a drain on the family's resources. In many cases these young girls from 12 years upwards are not the first wife, and within a few months are pregnant, which gives rise to problems in giving birth because they are not mature.
All of these issues are having a cyclic problem of creating more and more poverty and if not addressed at the root, by changing mindsets of parents and villagers, will just see the current issues getting worse.
Sarah is passionate about teaching in these places and with Gods help wants to carry on teaching and following up the places where she has started training.
The following are stories where the deaf have grown so much in the last 10 years of living and being mentored by Roy and Sarah. The love of Christ that has been shown to them has seen dramatic changes in their mindset from being a victim to becoming independent young people.
* Peter has his own shop now, and rents a place in town where he stays with Martin
* Martin has nearly completed his teacher education and is currently on placement at Broadway in Kabwe
* Catherine has finished her catering course at Kabwe skills and is helping Mobeta
* Mobeta is now married with three children and works on a farm in Chisamba
* Ken is doing piece work
* Joshua rents a house in town and works as a gardener in town. About a month ago he came running to Sarah when she saw him in town, to give her a gift of 100 ZMK to help with the care of the vulnerable deaf. Sarah cried.
* Tauria and Kafita who got married last year have given birth to a boy named Solomon, and are renting a place in town. He works as a gardener in town.
The community has accepted them well and they organize games of football each weekend that many people attend.
Sarah has had a few interesting experiences in the local community as well and has shown the courage to step in and help out. She was going past a local market place and saw a market stand that was on fire and a bunch of women about to beat up a little 9 year old boy called Moffat who was shaking with fear. Even though Sarah is small she prayed to God to give her wisdom. She went to ask what had happened and found out they were accusing the boy of setting fire to the market stall.
Sarah asked them to calm down and managed to get the boy away to his old grandma's place. She was an older woman looking after three young children and really struggling in the community as they looked down on her. Sarah went back and talked to the owner of the stall. Sarah asked her how much was lost in the fire (280ZMK) and then asked the stall owner if she would let the old grandma have part of a new stall to sell goods to help repay the lost money. The lady agreed saying “Yes then she will be beside me and I will be able to make sure she repays me”.
Sarah bought a few goods to help set up the grandma. After some time she visited them at the stall. The grandma had repaid the money and had kept on trading well enough to support her family, and she had become friends with the owner of the stall.
A pretty amazing result for a bad situation!
The main issue for them at present has been the continued calling from Social Services and the Police with more cases of vulnerable children that need help.
1) Praise for bringing Sarah back to health after such a major operation.
2) Praise for the seminars that are aimed at addressing the core heart issues that are helping to break the cycle of poverty in villages.