Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitators Following Visit in March

ZAM10a - Kamatipa Kids
ZAM10c - Lulamba Lighthouse Orphanage Project

Key people Jeremiah & Faides Chiasu, Rebecca Kanembi, Elizabeth and Mwela

 We met all the partners from ZANGI (ZAM10a and ZAM10c) at Amano School where Rebecca is now living.

Kamatipa Kids 

Leadership

They have been joined by a new man, Evans Ndoji, who is a local farmer and businessman and has been an elder in the local church. Jeremiah has known him since 1991. He looks after the paying of the orphans school requirements.

James Masoji is still currently living in town (Chingola) as his wife Sarah continues to recover from the stroke that she suffered two years ago. He is hoping to move back to the village soon. 

Overview

Jeremiah has been sick since October so has moved from the village into town with Faides. They did however manage to be in Kamatipa for the rainy season and have planted a crop of maize for themselves and kept it weeded. For the orphans they planted ½ lima of maize, ¼ lima of ground nuts and ¼ lima sweet potato which the orphans have been helping with and being trained. 

By February Jeremiah was too sick to work in the farm so they moved back to town.

There have been some rumors spread in the village that Jeremiah and Faides were taking the orphans money for themselves, which is not true (we checked the records of expenditure). This has caused some issues for them. Rebecca came out to the village and called a meeting of the guardians to discuss the issues and encourage the guardians with the possibility of the Foundations for Farming program. 

This has had a good effect on the village and resulted in the guardians being involved in the work in the orphans' field. They have now agreed to run a training course in Foundations for Farming for all the guardians in August. 

There are now power lines coming through to the village but the road is still bad. 

Income Generation Activities

They have been trying various businesses to generate income for the orphans programs - making and selling bed sheets, trading fish, making school uniforms, trading bundles of clothes - but none of these activities have returned much of a profit. 

With the loan given last year for trading maize from local villagers to town, they brought 15 bags of maize at 5 ZMK per gallon but then due to Jeremiah's sickness have just stored this maize. However currently the price per gallon has risen to 9 ZMK. When Jeremiah is back to full health, and with the help of Evans, they are hoping to make the maize trading work well.

They are considering buying a small 3m by 3m plot in the market in town which would be somewhere to continue the trading of goods. 

Lulamba Lighthouse Orphanage Project 

Orphans

There are now 18 orphans remaining in the program, of which 7 are in secondary school. Elizabeth and Mwela visited the orphans very recently and say that they are doing ok.

Nine have finished the orphans program and have been out looking for piece work to try and save up for higher education, but they struggle as the pressures of their own families to use the funds for household needs are using all the money.

A couple of comments from the orphans:
• Agnus says “Thanks”
• Chanda says “When are the Bright Hope people coming? But I’ll be in school then so please greet them for me.”

Farming

Elizabeth is thinking of allowing some of the school leavers to have a portion on her farm which they can farm. Currently she plants a hectare of maize and popcorn which leaves another 7 hectares that could be used. The issue is the distance to the farm which takes a day to walk there but there is a small shelter.

One guardian, Ruth Kaunda, agreed to be shown the methods of Foundations for Farming so they showed her the part about making compost last season. She needs more training in the other parts of the method as so far her farm hasn’t worked that well.

Income Generation Activities

They are still considering running some sewing training courses for those guardians who want the training. One guardian, Juliet Walia, has agreed to teach them as she has skills with a sewing machine. 

Personal Stories

Lenard Kapenda
Lenard has finished school and didn’t have the words to say how thankful he was to the Kamatipa orphans program for helping him through. He is feeling very humbled by the whole thing. He is currently living and working in Lusaka, and doing well spiritually.

Willie Bwalya
Willie is the very bright young boy that we meet in 2008. He has now completed Grade 7 and is currently staying with his uncle who is being very helpful to him. They were trying to send him to a better private school in Chingola but it closed. They are looking at the possibility of him being able to come to Amano School and they have applied for a scholarship.

Evans Ndoji
Jeremiah has known Evans since 1991. He was a grinding mill operator back then but had some issues with jealous relatives so moved to Kamatipa, was living with Jeremiah and went to the same church.

In 2014 he was meeting with Jeremiah and Faides and was very encouraging to them about the orphans program. They decided he was a very reliable person and he should be on the Board to help them.

Evans is married with eight children, the oldest boy is 19 and his name is Matthew. He has just completed Grade 12 and wants to study engineering. The last born is 4 years old. Evans has a farm and a business. The business is two shops, one for groceries and one he uses as storage.

This year he farmed maize 5 lima (50x50m), popcorn 3 lima, ground nuts 3 lima, and sweet potato 6 lima. He hires people to help with the labour on the farm. He also keeps pigs on his farm which he says are profitable but you need a lot of funds to get them to the point of sale. He has heard Jeremiah talk about Foundations for Farming and is very interested in learning the methods.

Prayer and Praise Points

1) For Jeremiah's health
2) For the rumors in the village to stop
3) For the Foundations for Farming training program in August to happen and go well