Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit in June

Key people: Elizabeth and Mwelwa

Recent Events

Drought

The current situation in Zambia is “very difficult” says Mwelwa, as the lack of rains have caused many crop failures and “load shedding” of power which is affecting many local small businesses as the power is often switched off for most of the day. This has also led to increased prices, for example the cost of the uniforms they purchase for orphans has doubled since last year. 

Orphans Programme

Currently there are 11 secondary school students and four primary school students under the Lulamba Orphans Care partnership. Each year they are provided with school requirements and come to visit Elizabeth and Mwelwa for a day of encouragement, mentoring and a meal four times each year.

In December Rebecca came to visit Lulamba and Kamatipa, the two parts of the ZANGI partnership. At that stage, they withdrew the funds from the bank and purchased most of the school requirements for the orphans. This included books, bags, shoes, uniforms, and other school requirements. 

Income Generation

Sewing:
They have started a project making school uniforms that they can sell to generate income to help cover the costs of the project. So far, they have purchased some material and made shirts, skirts, trousers and shorts for school pupils to buy. They have had the help of some of the ladies who know how to sew from the local churches. 

They paid the ladies to make the uniforms and so far, have sales amounting to 890ZMK (US$35). They have learnt they need to start selling earlier next year before schools open and will also add nursery school uniforms to the items made as these sell well. The current stocks will be sold early next year. They sell the uniforms at the house via word of mouth in the community and churches.

Farming:
The orphans have a field that is one lima in size, where they planted popcorn. They have harvested 4x50 kg bags from the field which they will sell. They have currently sold two of the bags for a total of 1,800ZMK (US$70) and the remaining bags they will keep until the price goes higher. The costs of the field, including field rental, booking transportation, seed and fertilizer came to around 4,500ZMK (US$175). They are hoping to make a small profit by waiting for the selling prices to rise. 

The main benefit of the field is that they can be with the orphans altogether and show them how to farm, so the profit is not the only outcome.

Finances

Currently Lulamba has some funds remaining in the bank account which we discussed how they would like to use. They also requested that the budget for this year remain the same as they have the following ideas but didn’t want to implement anything without discussing with us first.
• Purchase some bags of maize now to help with food security issues for orphans’ guardians later in the year.
• Give some grants / loans to guardians to help with business empowerment.
• Give some grants to grade 12 leavers to start small businesses.
• Investigate university costs to see if they have enough funds to send one or two.

They will discuss these ideas and contact us with proposals before any funds are used.

Personal Stories

Mwamba is 22 years old. She finished grade 12 in 2023 with a great grade result of 15 points. She started with the Lulamba orphans’ program in 2018, so for the last six years.

Mwamba lives with her mum who sells tomatoes at the market to support her. Her dad has passed away. She is currently doing nothing for now but wants to be an engineer to build houses and bridges. She is not sure of which trade school or university she would have to go to or how much the cost would be.

Comos (left below) is 17 years old and is in grade 12 at Chichola Secondary School. He says he really likes to cook (which makes the others laugh), but doesn’t know what he likes to cook, maybe some cakes.  His favourite subject is food and nutrition. 

Once he finishes his exams in November, he would like to enrol in a university course to become a chemical engineer, which potentially would eventually provide employment in the mining industry.

Silva (middle) is 16 years old and is in grade 12 at Chichola Secondary School. Silva loves music and is learning to play piano while studying theory as well. She loves music because it is very natural for her. She says that she does not want to become a pop star though.

She would like to become a music lecturer or teacher, but if not an accountant or economist as she is best at maths.

Mary (right) is 19 years old and is in grade 12 at Chichola Secondary School. Mary says that the secondary school is a good school because they are being taught what they need to be taught and there are good teachers there. 

Mary says if they miss school, they get punished by having to work one week in actual school time cleaning and gardening at school, so they miss more school than before which she thinks is very unfair.

She attends a local CMML (Brethren) church where she says they learn about resolving issues, how to seek help from others and how to pray to God for direction. Mary loves art design, and they are being taught how to draw and design. She likes to draw flowers. When she finishes school, she would like to become a nurse.

Comments

We will keep monitoring how the funds they have are used and assess if there is a need to drop the budget for 2025.