Report Following Visit by Anthony Chitambala (ZAM18b) 

Recent Events

Statistics

Currently Ukusenaminwa Child Foundation is supporting a total of 135 children and young adults in some way. Of these, 41 live at home with Roy and Sarah, 56 children are in boarding school in Kabwe, seven are in boarding school in Solwezi, two are at Kitwe College and another two are at Nkhruma College of Education. Four girls are going to school in town. 

Currently they have seven deaf children they are supporting.  

All the children that Ukusenamina supports are vulnerable and come from needy situations. They are sometimes picked up off the streets, sometimes social welfare brings them or Mercy House, Operation Mobilization (OM) and sometimes they are brought by Dreams. Recently social welfare brought some children to Ukusenamina but unfortunately they could not cope with the way of life at their new home and decided to run away. 

Currently the government is partnering with Ukusenamina to help end early marriages which is a challenge in most parts of Zambia, especially the rural areas and shanty compounds.  

Farming

There is good progress so far being made by the farmers. At the moment they have 20 farmers (families) who are in two groups. The first group started earlier with 10 families and they planted 4,800 cabbages. After that they assisted 10 more families who also have about 4,800 cabbages. Currently they are working on compost manure for the next batch of crops they will plant. The idea is that the 20 families will have to help another group of 20 families with making a well, seedlings, chemicals and teaching how to go about farming. In this way the numbers keep on growing.

Working in groups has proven to be much easier because of the challenges of water, which could have meant everyone needed a well of their own and other things which would have been more difficult to do for every individual. 

I also had an opportunity to see the garden at the center which is looked after by one of the deaf young people who works at the center. She seems to be doing an amazing job except that water is a challenge for them because the well dries up by August and there is only one tank to supply water to the house and the garden.   

Community Empowerment

Ukusenaminwa has a program for women in the community to come and assist at the center with washing. After they have done the washing they are then given a token of appreciation rather than just giving them things for free.  

Sports Ministry

Sports in Zambia, and most parts of Africa, has proven to be an effective tool to use to reach out to young people. Ukusenaminwa has also been involved in sports ministry. They have a team of 30 players from the community who they are trying to teach about Jesus Christ, good behavior and morals. They have seen an improvement in many of the boys in terms of their behavior.  

Education

Covid-19 brought its own challenges with education being stopped for a while. It has not been easy to get back into the normal routine of children going for half a day at school or spending the normal hours in school. All classes have now been reduced to 2 hours of learning but children cannot learn much in just two hours, particularly in a class of over 50 kids. However, Ukusenaminwa has been blessed to have Lisa join them from OM to help with after class lessons at the center.  

Girls Corner

In a country where early marriages and pregnancies are rampant, Ukusenaminwa is making an impact in their community through the Girls Corner. Girls Corner helps young girls to focus more on education and God rather than marriage. In the few years that this program has been running it has helped reduce early marriages and pregnancies in the community. Apart from the Bible and teaching them about absconding from early marriages and pregnancies, they also teach them about hygiene, helping the elderly in the community, cooking and arts.

The Girls Corner has about 15 young girls who want to get back into school. This is matter of praying and asking God to provide for funds to see them get back to school. 

Personal Stories

Lazarus Kabwe

Lazarus is 15 years of age, is doing grade 6 and comes from Makululu, one of the biggest shanties in Zambia. Lazarus came to Ukusenaminwa in 2006. Before coming to the center, he was a street seller, selling plastic bags. Sarah, the Director for Ukusenaminwa, used to buy plastic bags from him and it is from there that they built a relationship. Sarah was becoming disturbed that a young man like him would be found on the streets and markets selling plastic bags instead of being in school so one day she asked him if he wanted to go back to school. Without hesitation, he said he wanted to. It took a while before they could bring him to Ukusenaminwa center but his pestering Sarah to get him back to school and stopping to sell plastics made Sarah realise he was serious with going back to school. Lazarus thanks God for the opportunity that Sarah has given him to have a home and get an education.  

Knight Saasa

I would describe Knight as a man of few words. He comes from a very difficult and depressing background. His stepfather did not like him because of his condition of being deaf and his mother had challenges keeping him because of the stepfather’s hatred towards Knight. Knight would be described as an eye opener to Sarah as he was among the first children they started with. He has been with Sarah and the Ukusenaminwa Child Foundation for 10 years now. He completed secondary school in 2019 and hopes to become a teacher or an auto mechanic. His dream is that he will help other deaf kids coming to stay at home so they can achieve even more than what he has achieved. 

Bevin

Bevin is 9 years old. He was born with cerebral palsy and desperately needs special care. His father is dead and his mother is unemployed. She was left with eight children and can only make a living at the moment through washing clothes and small piece works paid with cash and millie meal. 

Current Issues and Challenges

1) They recently installed a solar pump. Unfortunately, they do not have enough solar panels to enable the pump to run effectively.

2) Football is life changing but it needs a lot of resources such as jerseys, cones, bibs and balls. In addition, they need to put up goal posts at their home ground. Being in the local league also comes with demands to travel to play games with other teams. 

3) Every day they see many children who need help but the resources they have means they cannot afford to help every kid they meet.  

Prayer and Praise Points

1) Pray for Sarah’s health that she can be fully healed from cancer. She has been undergoing chemotherapy.
2) Pray for the 15 girls who are keen to go back to school.
3) For water challenges to be worked on. This means finding more solar panels and another water tank to supply the gardens as well as the main house.
4) For transformation in the lives of the children and the young people who come for Girls Corner and Sports.
5) For all the children they support, for good health and prosperity in their education.
6) Pray for enough resources to feed all the children they have.