Chisasa Orphanage Centre is found in the north-western province Kalumbila District and is located approximately 135km from Solwezi, the provincial headquarters of the province. The orphanage is along the Solwezi–Mwinilunga road and 3km off the tarmac road. It is found in chief Musele’s area. It is the only orphanage centre found in this catchment area of over 50 schools and as a result a lot of pupils come to it looking for assistance.
This report highlights the activities conducted by the centre in the year 2018. The activities carried out included:
- Replacement of leaders
- Orientation of new members
- Teaching orphans Farming God’s Way
- Orienting families on the help from Bright Hope World
- Sponsorship
The orphanage church council had its first meeting in January where they discussed the issue to choose new leaders to replace the leaders who were under performing and those that had died. The orphanage’s founding apostle Joseph Kampelembi past away in June 2015. There had been an acting apostle until late 2017. Hence the new apostle, Mr Gabriel Matulu, was officially recognized as the overseer of the orphanage by the church council on the 11th January 2018. The meeting also resolved to replace two of its coordinators due to the fact that they were not showing interest/zeal in guiding the children. Mr Mufwata Stanford was chosen to oversee operations around Chisasa area, while Mr Kabenga Shadrick was chosen to oversee operations in Jiwundu area as Mr Kawina has moved to the next neighbouring school. The committee resolved to maintain Mr Martin Kawina as Secretary since he is still within the catchment area and has worked well with the centre since its inception.
This meeting was held with the aim of making the orphanage’s values known to new orphans that had been included on the list of those to be helped. Fear of God and farming was top on the agenda.
The orphanage, working hand in hand with agricultural staff from Kalumbila Mines, invited parents from various areas within the catchment to teach them how to do farming God’s way. The meeting was educational and well attended. Emphasis was made to help parents understand that they can educate their children through income earned from farming hence they should not consider farming as a curse now. We emphasized Doing Things on Time, At a High Standard, Without Wastage and With Joy. The parents were very happy and decided to form a seven member committee to start a farm at the discipleship centre whose proceeds will be channeled towards the education of the orphans. The parents and all the orphans on the program will provide the manpower.
The orphanage embarked on a program of sensitizing parents on the help that comes from Bright Hope. We made sure that the parents understand that the help comes once per year. We must ensure that all the other things the child needs to help with education throughout the year is our responsibility as an orphanage and as parents. We must not think Bright Hope World will do everything for us.
The orphanage shall continue to pay user fees for our children on the list until they complete school. Currently we have 60 OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) on our list but we hope the list will reduce to 50 next year since 10 of them are going to complete school this year. The expected budget remains at K60,000 (US$5,000) due to the expected tuition hikes and examination fees for Grade 9 and 12. Because of this we may not recruit new pupils in secondary school except for those currently in primary schools.
The orphanage celebrates God’s faithfulness in His promises every day. Jaison Mwape our OVC is now at Copperbelt University, Joseph Kaholo works with Quartro and wedded on the 18th of August 2018, Beauty Nyumbu is a nurse and many of our children are working with the mines.
The orphanage continues to struggle with the problem of inadequate funds due to the ever increasing number of OVCs.
We thank God that we were able to carry out most of our planned activities for the year successfully.
Chisasa Orphanage Centre has continued to be a channel of behaviour change in the Musele area. The value that the orphanage’s activities have continued to bring to the area cannot be overemphasized. We value the support we continue to receive from our partners at Bright Hope World. We look forward to another interesting year full of educative activities. Thanks to our sponsors for your support.
God bless you all
Martin Kawina
Secretary