Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Key person: Peter Chila

We met with Peter in Kabwe to discuss how the Bethesda ministry is going. The ministry has now really grown outside just the school they have in the Makululu township in Kabwe.

Recent Events

Training

They are involved in training both nationally throughout Zambia and internationally, having been in Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda. The training is called Transforming Disabilities and there are seven modules they cover. Some of the topics include:
• Discussing wrong attitudes towards disabled people - disabled people are very much gifted
• Looking at the root causes of misunderstanding - the belief that disabled people are cursed so society shuns them.
• The current church response of not looking after them versus the how the bible looks at disability. If healing doesn’t happen the church chases them away because they think obviously the Holy Spirit isn’t present in them, but the bible teaches God is inclusive. Jesus did not always heal everyone in the Scriptures but was changing attitudes and helping people take on God's view.
• Practical church training, i.e., what are the next steps you can change in your church? Accessibility? Inclusive programmes (sign language)? They then aim to visit three months later to follow up to see if they have implemented the plans.

This ministry is also opening doors into other places such as Muslem dominated Sahel countries such as Seirra Leone and Niger, as Islam also has negative views on disabled people and they are happy to let Christians come in to help, so that they don’t have too. 

Bethesda Makululu School

They now have up to 75 children who come to school. They are feeding the children twice per day. There is still a big waiting list of children that want to come.

There are three classrooms with six teachers, but they really need 15. Three more are coming plus a cook and a driver for transport.

The government of Zambia is starting to help with special needs education. So far 15 of the children at Bethesda have been taken to mainstream education in Kabwe. This has involved making sure the environment, such as desk access for them, and special teaching courses are available.

Many children are still being taken to Biet Care Hospital in Lusaka to help with any surgeries that will assist them, when funds are available.

The topics covered by the teachers include literacy, math, devotions, hygiene, preparing them for discrimination by showing them the gospel and that their identity is in Christ so what happens to them is less important than before.

They are hoping to start up a small skills training centre in Nakoli area to teach some skills to those who have graduated from school. 

Sports Ministries

For the children it is really key to see they can have fun. They run a wheelchair camp in August at the OM base where up to 450 children with special needs come for five days. The aim is to show them they can have purpose in life and that God loves them.

An example of how the sports camps can help is a man called Salati. He is from Chipata and was a Muslim as the mosque was giving him handouts to help with his life. But he saw that these short-term things are not eternal, and they had stopped. After attending the sports camp, he gave his life to Jesus and was baptized at the camp. He now leads the ministry in Chipata for OM to help with disabled people.

Sustainable Business Ideas

Peter is always looking out for how to help the people with sustaining themselves. He tells the story of some beggars that he knew in the markets in Kabwe, but they were not just begging for themselves, there were gangs of people who made the disabled people beg and then took the money from them.

Peter saw a man in a wheelchair called John who was begging in the streets. Instead of giving him money, he stopped and started talking with John to see how life was for him. When he left, he gave John a pack of water bottles so that John could stop begging and start selling. The next day Peter visited him again and found he had sold all the water. So, each day he gave him some water to sell. Now John has a small market side stall where he sells many different goods and is able to look after himself.

Another man called Samuel has some spinal cord issues and ended up in a wheelchair. His wife left him and now he has to look after their two children without her. He used to fix people's phones and have a barber shop, but this got destroyed in a fire. All Samuel's capital is now gone so Peter is looking to raise US$500 for Samuel to restart his business.

Comments

The impact of what Bethesda is doing in many countries is amazing and it was so encouraging to spend some time with Peter.