Key People: Elizabeth, Mwela, Rebecca
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The group were reflecting that this partnership with Bright Hope World started in 2005 so has been running for 14 years!
Some of the orphans who have finished the program and passed Grade 12 have gone on to make a good life for themselves:
• 5 are teachers
• 2 in the medical profession
• 1 accountant
• 1 brick layer
• 1 police officer
• 1 electrician
Many others are substance farming as well in the local area.
Zambia has seen a year or so of massive price rises. Now to send a student to secondary school costs well over 1,000 ZMK (US$82) just for the school fees, nearly double what it was two years ago. This has put a lot of pressure on Lulamba to meet all the school requirements.
Currently there are 21 orphans on the programme who receive school fees, uniforms, books and come to Lulamba every six weeks to have lunch and a time of encouragement. The ladies also visit the orphans in their homes at least once every two months. Two orphans finished Grade 12 last year and are waiting to see what they can do next. Three orphans have dropped out of the programme due to failing or not showing interest.
Grade 3 - 1
Grade 5 - 2
Grade 6 - 2
Grade 7 - 4
Grade 8 - 3
Grade 9 - 5
Grade 10 - 2
Grade 11 - 1
Grade 12 - 1
They have had some orphans who failed Grade 9 and with the new government policies these ones have to drop back to Grade 6. Alternatively they can take adult education classes for Grade 9 but the cost is 1,000 ZMK per subject to do this. They are still deciding what to do.
The group has tried to do chickens as an income generating activity at Elisabeth's home but this has proved to be difficult with issues of power and sickness.
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Currently along with Kamatipa (ZAM10a) they have decided to buy two female pigs to help create income. Evans out at Kamatipa has a lot of experience with pigs so these two pigs are kept along with his own personal ones. They had litters of 8 and 10 but then swine flu struck and some escaped to be eaten by other people from the local village, so 16 were lost. Of the four remaining three of them are pregnant again.
Since then they have been making a much better and bigger place for the pigs although are still to put up a brick structure to be able to have them separated according to age.
Based on selling the pigs once they are 18 months old they envisage making a profit of around 590ZMK per pig (US$50).
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Foundations for FarmingSo far they have trained 30 people over two years in Foundations for Farming. People are very happy with the results from last year. Harvest will happen in June/July this year and they promise to get some yield results to us to see what improvements have been made.
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We interviewed Humphrey in 2016 so he has grown up a bit. He is still a very quiet young man.
Humphrey is now in Grade 6 and is 11 years old. He loves football, his favorite player is Messi. He will play football “anywhere and anytime”.
He thinks school is very important for his future and wants to complete school and then become a solider. This is because he has seen some TV shows where soldiers are very courageous in combat!
He is still living with his Grandma and she helps support them with a field which is less than 10km from their home. They grow maize, ground nuts and sweet potato. This is fine for much of the year but come September to March food can be hard to come by for the family when the last year’s crops run out and food prices are hiked.
He is very thankful for the programme and thinks without it he would not be in school as he has a cousin who also lives with his grandma who cannot afford to go to school.
He knows that Jesus is his creator and can help him as he helped his disciples.
I sighted all the expenses for the year and all is in order. We will keep the budget the same and they will work within that to see if any orphans can be added as others finish Grade 12 or some drop out, keeping in mind that prices are increasing.