Key people: Jonathan Ekona and Martin Kawina
With the passing of Joseph Kampelembi last year there has been some changes to how the Chisasa orphans program works.
Gabriel has taken over from Joseph as the Christian Community Church apostle. He was the vice-apostle for the past 15 years. He is married to Jane and they have eight children and multiple grandchildren. He lives by the grace of God and also by farming.
Martin Kawina is still the coordinator of the orphans program and he is still teaching at the secondary school. They have three other people volunteering to look after the primary school areas and their role is to pay for school fees and visit with the children in their areas:
Johnathan Yikomga
Anne Mandanji
Estone Muluka
They have now decided to better manage the number of orphans getting help on the program. They have over 200 orphans requiring assistance so they set some criteria to limit the ones who would get help. This is done by looking at their circumstances, i.e. being a double orphan where both parents have passed away gives the child a higher priority.
There are now 20 orphans being helped into high school and 12 being helped into primary school. Martin says that he sees a real change in these young people and the main thing is to help them cope with adolescent peer pressure by being able to stand up on their Christian values.
The local mines are trying to give back to the community by providing assistance through Foundations for Farming training. They have a demo plot which they invite the community to three times each year, even paying for buses to go around and pick people up. The timing for the visits are:
- Field preparation time
- Planting time
- Harvest time
Martin takes all the secondary school orphans on the program to each of these sessions. He has also set up the orphans with a plot at the school where they can practice. It is part of the twice per week encouragement that he gives them.
The mine company also issues seed and fertilizer as micro-loans to farmers and then comes around with a truck to buy back the produce, giving the farmers a good outlet. The community is learning a lot through this program.
Martin, who himself was trained in Foundations for Farming a few years back at Maplehurst farm (ZAM21), has had a great yield this year with 250 bags of maize from 2 hectares (he employs people piece work to plant and harvest). The photo is of his children in the harvest.
These are not working so well anymore. The rental properties have not been full for a year due to the church using them for church activities instead. The hammer mill is still going but not making much profit due to many other mills in the same area. They do still get a little bit of income from the mill to help in the orphan program.
Lawrence is 18 years old and is in Grade 12. His favourite subjects at school are commerce accounts and science. When he finishes school he would like to be a teacher. In his spare time he likes to play football with his friends.
He lives with his grandmother and has four other siblings that live with them, two sisters and two brothers. The grandmother tries to help support them through farming maize and groundnuts but now she is very old and struggles to manage. He helps his grandmother with the farming and cutting the firewood.
He heard about the Chisasa orphans program through the school telling him about it so he approached Martin Kawina. He likes that they meet together twice per week to see how things are going for them and be encouraged with the word of God. Martin has also been teaching them some farming techniques through the mines.
Some of the issues facing young people in Chisasa is the distances they have to travel to get anywhere and poverty in the area.
To him Jesus is his personal saviour. He is very thankful for the support that he receives from the Chisasa program.
Florence is 18 years old and is in Grade 11. Her favourite subjects are English and science. In her spare time she likes to go swimming and plays netball with her friends. When she finishes school she would like to be a teacher because that helps young people in the country.
She lives with her aunt and two brothers. The aunt helps to support the family by farming but it is tough and hard work to get enough to live. Florence has to work in the garden doing jobs like weeding and planting and likes to be around at harvest time.
She enjoys meeting with the Chisasa group twice per week and learning about farming and how to have good behaviour that will benefit the community.
The main issues she sees in the area is young people having a lack of support from their parents and then young girls being set up for early marriages.
She thanks Jesus for being her saviour and thanks Chisasa for helping her with this support, she doesn’t know where she might be without it.
Thomas is 16 years old and in Grade 9. He likes to study maths, English and business as he would like to run a business that would help him make funds to study to be a doctor.
The biggest problem he sees for young people his age in the Chisasa area is a lack of recreational activities. This leads to boredom which then leads to people getting into drugs, alcohol and pregnancies. His favourite activity is to watch movies.
He lives with his aunt and has two brothers and two sisters that also live with them. The aunt farms crops for their support and he helps in the farming, fetching firewood and washing the plates.
He meets with Martin and the other orphans on the program twice per week to be encouraged in the word of God. "Jesus is the son of God and is my Saviour."
For the baton having been passed on and the new structure working well
We met with Martin and Gabriel in Chingola - they kindly endured an 8 hour bus ride each way from Chisasa down a very bad road. Martin had interviewed 10 orphans for us of which we have written up three here.
They came out for dinner with us to Barnabus' place (CORAC - ZAM27) and had a great time discussing both partnerships and giving each other ideas.