Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitators Following Visit 24th March 2026

Key Person: Peter Chila

We met with Peter and Brenda (right) at the Bethesda School. We visited the three classes and were introduced to each child, or they introduced themselves as they could. 

Recent Events

School

Bethesda is running with six teachers for three classes. There are 80 students all together. They run the school day from 8.30am – 3.00pm 

This is not a government school, and the teachers are trained teachers who are normally waiting for a placement in a government school. They get an appreciation amount which is about a third of the normal wage of a teacher. (K2,500/US$132 verses K7,500/US$397). It is seen as fine while they are waiting for placement as they cannot earn anything else.

Every January the school usually has to find new teachers. They would love to have teachers stay more consistently for the children’s sake especially since the teachers they do have – have real heart for the children. 

The children in the school have a large range of disabilities. Some are deaf, non-verbal, autistic … The teachers are able to do devotions, independent living teachings – like hygiene, story time, writing, numbers and sports. 

One teacher when we visited was explaining to his class that Solomon asked for wisdom from God, and that now because we have Christ, we are able to have the mind of Christ, and therefore His wisdom. The students love the story times, learning about how to look after themselves and learning more about the names of the everyday items they have in their homes.  

Wheelchair Sports Camp

They run a wheelchair camp each year at the OM base. Last year they had 525 people. There is a group of leaders from each province of Zambia who help put this together. This year they would like to see that number increase to 750 people. To do this they would need to hire tents and mattresses to cater for all these people.  

Transformed Disability

Peter does ‘Transformed Disability’ trainings around Zambia 3-4 times a year and one in another country – Malawi, Tanzania etc. Normally Peter is invited to different areas for these trainings through the wheelchair camps they run. People go back home after the camp, and the church leaders realise that this is a gap in their ministry - so they invite Peter.

Peter also runs audio bible trainings where he trains a leader to be able to use the audio bible, which is a Bluetooth player and speaker with solar power option for charging, in a small group setting and then the idea is that these groups multiply.

Sports

Sports training is an ongoing part of this ministry. They have a football team who are playing in the local league who then join with the disabled kids for sports and have combined trainings.

Skills Trainings

Skills training is also a large part of what Bethesda is doing with the older kids. They train the young people in skills like beading, sewing and crafts. These are then sold – usually at the OM Africa conference. 

There is carpentry skills training in Kasama and motorbike mechanics in Chipata.

Personal Stories

Moffit Mwaza

Moffit is a very determined enthusiastic boy. He was born with HIV and therefore is on ARV’s to help keep him well. When taking this kind of medication, it is very important to have food. When Moffit is at school he is able to eat at school, but when he is on school holidays his family don’t eat every day. This means that then when he takes his medication he feels like death. 

His father does not have work, he goes to the markets with a wheelbarrow and helps people transport their produce, but each trip only gives him a very small amount of money. 

Last year Moffit had TB and was in hospital for 10 days. He was unable to walk. When he was discharged, he was at home and lying on the floor. A lady from overseas had pity on him and brought him a very expensive wheelchair. He said ‘No! I will walk again!’ 8 months later he did. When Brenda also was unable to walk, he visited her and said to her ‘We are the same – you will walk again!’.

He chooses to not take the school bus to and from school as he says he will walk for the exercise.

Brenda tries to help his family with left over eggs from the school feeding programme, but it is very hard for them during the school break.

Partnership's Influence within the Community

Brenda has an incredible understanding and compassion for the parents (mostly mothers) of the children in the school. The mothers come every Tuesday for an hour bible study. This has also evolved to a ‘Savings’ and ‘Social’ scheme for a group of 22 of the women.

For the Savings, the women all put in whatever savings they can each week for six months. This is recorded and run by one of the staff of the school. They can take money out when needed and then repay it as they can over the weeks (they have a 100% repayment rate). After the fifth month they don’t take any money out. Then after the six months they divide up all the savings.

The ‘Social’ scheme is similar with the women putting in what they can each week. This money can be used for health care or things like funerals.

This group of mothers also came to Brenda and said that they wanted to be involved in celebrating Women’s Day for the first time this year. They each brought a little bit of money for food, got their chitenge (traditional material) dresses made, Brenda had a banner made and Peter contributed some more food. They joined the march in town with their banner and then returned to the school for some food, dancing, singing and a woman teaching. The joy and pride were evident in these women as they were celebrating who God says they are and each other when in the past they have been ashamed to be a parents of a disabled child.

Brenda says that the goal here is to bring hope to the mothers because when the mothers are happy, the children are happy.

Current Issues and Challenges

A challenge is the amount of money that is available to pay these teachers. If the amount more closely matched the normal rate for a teacher, they believe that these teachers would be more likely to remain each year on staff.

Prayer and Praise Points

We are encouraged that the teaching about valuing disabled people is spreading further through Peter's trainings. 

Please pray for the teachers to find ways that they can stay and have a long-term impact in the lives of these precious children.

Comments

The budget was increased last year from $4,500 to $6,000 per year. 

Given the great teachers they currently have, we would like to suggest increasing this further but marked especially to increase the teachers' pay.  Even US$2,000 per year would enable them to have another 500K per month.