On a visit to the projects in Ndola in 2006, a ZOA US member observed two projects run by young women who had received training from Ipusukilo. They were providing catering services, one to a Catholic Hospice and another to a skills school for orphaned and other vulnerable children. A graduate from the first group of trainees was one of the first care givers at St Anthony Children’s Village. She later became in charge of the fourteen care givers, demonstrating to them how to give love to the children in their care.

As the name indicates, Ipusukilo (where one is rescued/saved) is a street women’s rehabilitation project run by the Association of Pope John the 23rd . Initiated in 1999, the project has aimed to provide alternative sources of earning for young women, most of whom are heading households, who would have been forced to prostitute themselves to feed their children and siblings.

Zambia Orphans of AIDS first supported Ipusukilo in 2003. Then, ten young women had been “rescued” and they were running a canteen for the Mission Press at the Franciscan Centre. But they wished to branch out into other business areas, to increase their monthly earnings. With ZOA’s support, the club was able to purchase two sewing machines to help the girls diversify their sources of income. Four girls were sent for training in tie and dye to help raise the club’s standards. Some of the money received went into purchase of materials and other necessary accessories.

The group appreciated the benefits of their new way of life in a very interesting way and beyond financial gains only. In October, 2003, they initiated a project of going out themselves (as opposed to the sisters who had recruited them). in order to attract others away from the streets. By the end of the month, thirty girls had been attracted away from the streets. These newly recruited young women met once every week “to learn tie and dye, to meet as a supportive group and consolidate their willingness to change their lives. The old group decided to help them further by directing them to a counselling centre and by assisting them on a monthly basis with some food and payment of rent”. Zambia Orphans of AIDS was requested to assist this group. As indicated above, this was granted in 2004, making training for the girls possible in 2005.

In 2006, in memory of her mother who was born and brought up in Ndola, a ZOA member donated funds to Ipusukilo. The funds went toward an earlier grant to help this group of trained young women set up their tie and dye industry, with focus on identifying and establishing a viable market for their products.

Back to the top of the page

Mulele Mwana (look after the child) is one of two projects (the other is St Anthony's village) that has benefited from the support ZOA receives from St John the Beloved Catholic Church. In 2006, it received both financial support and regular visits and contact from ZOA Z and visiting ZOA members.

Mulele Mwana is a skills training project of St. Charles Lwanga Catholic Church in a depressed area of Lusaka. The skills center provides a variety of skills including carpentry, mechanics, electrical, and computer skills and those for sewing, knitting and home management to about 90 young men and women. The tutors are all volunteers from among the parishioners who bring their specific skills to the project. The church also runs an open community school for 165 children who are not able to get into formal schools, mainly because their parents/guardians cannot afford the required supplies nor meet other needs such as uniforms.

ZOA first assisted Mulele Mwana in 2002, when it facilitated purchase of two industrial sewing machines for the sewing and knitting activity. In 2003, the forty one girls and one boy, graduated from the course.

Five subsequent grants were made: in 2003 to support the second group of 40 children enrolled in the home management and tailoring course. Another grant provided for a post graduate revolving fund to assist the graduating girls and boys set up cooperatives of four or five. The fund was to provide the graduates with opportunities to not only practice their acquired skills, but also enable them to run businesses that would sustain their families. On a visit to Mulele Mwana in 2005, ZOA’s chairperson was informed of one cooperative that was doing well.

In 2004 and 2005 grants were made toward the community school, to meet the children’s school and nutritional needs. This was repeated in 2006.

In 2006 the Chairpersons of ZOA US, ZOA UK and ZOA Z visited this project. The center was on break but observed was a new section to the center’s activities: a facility for physically challenged children. Mulele Mwana was selected as the beneficiary of the funds jointly raised by ZOA and Counterpart International, specifically to help equip this facility

But in his 2005 report the manager noted that the project was beginning to build a base for sustainability: the carpentry section made and sold furniture for the staff room, and to the library and thereby increased the library’s sitting capacity to allow use by pupils and others from the surrounding community. The Tailoring class produced and sold protective clothing to the carpentry, electrical and auto- mechanics components of the project, and raised ZK 900000 (about $200). In 2006 the center had made a little more money this way.

Back to the top of the page

Zambia Orphans of AIDS extended support to NACINDI for the first time in 2004 to assist the organization in its efforts to support orphans, other disadvantaged children and young women with care- giving responsibilities in Namwala District, Southern Province. Specifically, NACINDI requested support for the purchase of ten sewing machines and supplies. ZOA agreed to meet the cost of the machines and their transportation from the line of rail to this rural setting, as well as the associated training costs. By the end of the year ten young females were receiving training in sewing and were producing school uniforms. However, at the end of the year the European Union decided to suspend its support for uniforms throughout the country, undercutting the market for the young women.

Throughout 2005, ZOAZ worked with the project to see how best to help the trained young women set themselves up as independent entrepreneurs. The project looked at other options. In 2006, Namwala was visited during the evaluation of the organization.

Back to the top of the page

Zambia Orphans of AIDS first supported the center in 2002, with a repeat grant in 2003. Canaan Center is a residential facility, outside Lusaka, that provides shelter and meets the educational and medical needs of about 50 resident orphans and other vulnerable children. The center provides shelter, food and meets the children’s school needs. The children go to local public schools. In addition to the resident children, Canaan Centre cares for 800 children who live with extended families in close by compounds. The center finds schools for them, provides school supplies, and monitors their attendance and performance at school. The center also provides bakery skills to older children, some of whom come from beyond Lusaka. In 2003 the Coordinator noted that ZOA support “helped in achieving one of the project’s objectives, being: To provide an enabling Christian environment for the children in need which cannot be found on the streets, and thus curtail and rescue them from possible abuse”.

In 2003, ZOA was approached and agreed to provide additional support because of the increasing numbers of children, at a time when the project was still building a base for self sufficiency. This support went mainly to meeting school needs. One of ZOA members, on business to Zambia from Washington DC, visited Canaan Centre and was very impressed and touched by the glowing reports of one student from Kabwe Rural District, Central Province, who was about to complete his training in bakery. The challenge: how could he apply his skills? His wish for a small business could not be fulfilled because he lacked start-up capital. The colleague decided to provide the required capital. The student went back to his rural home and established his business.

In 2005, ZOAZ members visited the center and remained in close contact on a regular basis. In 2006 the contact was very minimal with only one from a ZOA Z member.

Back to the top of the page

Monze Mission Hospital has managed an inter-denominational AIDS Prevention and Care Project. Among its other AIDS- related activities, the project manages home-based care for AIDS patients, and assumes support for children from these households, when the parents die. Zambia Orphans of AIDS stepped in to assist this component of the project in 2001. At that time, there was about a total of 100 children from fifteen families, some of them headed by teenaged boys and girls, each looking after two to six siblings. Some households include elderly relatives who would have been dependants of the deceased parents. ZOA has supported a poultry initiative whose initial activity was to renovate an old house that was partially turned into a chicken house, and acquiring the necessary equipment. With the growing demand, it became necessary to scale up the activity in scope and outreach. In 2003, ZOA received financial support from the Fund for Orphans of AIDS in Africa (FOAA) to assist the project in its expansion effort. In the same year, the project acquired a plot of land and started constructing a bigger chicken house.

Through 2004 and 2005, ZOAZ Board members monitored the use of the funds, visiting the project whenever possible: the chicken house was completed and stocked with chicks. The hospital allocated a project manager to help turn the now expanded activity into a successful business enterprise. The project continued to sell eggs to provide food and school needs for the children under its care. Over 1000 children were being helped in one way or another, some learning skills by helping at the project site. Through the project, child household heads were assisted in the care of their siblings.

Back to the top of the page

This was a group of community women and a few men who came together to respond to the plight of many orphans in their midst. Despite the name, YOTHO is not an orphanage, focus being on the community school, where the teachers come from the local communities. Children came from the communities where they were cared for by their impoverished guardians, mainly grandparents or older siblings, to attend the school. The group provided food to the children who remained at the school through the day.

Zambia Orphans of AIDS responded to Yavwenu’s request for help with a School Garden Project aimed to provide nutrition to the children and raise some income for school supplies, through sale of any surplus. It was hoped that with time, this would be expanded to include a portion for market vegetables. Zambia Orphans of AIDS also supported Yavwenu with funds to complete construction of and secure the building where equipment, fertilizers and seed for the project could be stored.

Back to the top of the page