Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit 

Key People: Rebecca, Mr Parata

I met with Elizabeth, Mwela, Rebecca and Mr Parata (Elizabeth's husband) to chat about the partnership and make plans for the future. 

Recent Events

Orphans Programme

Currently there are 16 orphans in the programme, with four in grade 12 who will finish this year. They are provided with school uniforms and books, and any fees such as exam fees are paid. Three times per year the orphans come for a gathering to receive some goods to help them, and to have bible teaching and spiritual input. They are also visited by Mr Parata whenever there is an issue arise. 

Guardian's Support Programme

Last December, given the drought that the country had in the previous farming year, the group decided to help out the guardians with some programmes. They purchased some bags of maize grain to help with the problem of feeding the family and gave one bag per guardian family.

They also decided to give a grant/loan to people. 1,000zmk (US$40) was distributed to 13 guardians, totalling 13,000zmk. Some have used this in their businesses to help increase the goods and produce they are selling, and some who are a bit old to do such things just used the funds to cover household costs. So far, they have recovered about 5,000zmk from people who can repay. 

School Leavers

This is causing some headaches for the group as now days a good number of orphans who finish grade 12 are finding it harder to find employment. In their guardians’ words “they are doing nothing”, although that usually means they go farming with the family. The guardians are asking for more assistance to send the children to higher education, but as Mr Parata says, “even that won’t necessarily mean employment”.

They decided to give one school leaver who they thought would be good at business a grant of 4,000zmk (US$160). Her name is Mwela Chelwa. They are going to follow her up in the next two weeks to see how she is getting on.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth had a stroke in October 2024 that completely incapacitated her for three months. Mr Parata came home to find her just standing in the doorway unable to move in or out. They called a nephew who is a medical person and took her to hospital in a cab. Getting to hospital early was a good thing and has aided in her recovery. She is still able to walk and talk a bit, but does struggle, although they are seeing improvement each month.

She took a lot of pills, and some herbal remedies, so Mr Parata is not sure which of these has helped her so much, but he is sure that God knows.

Because of Elizabeth's sickness, and also the age of both Elizabeth and Mwela who have slowed down a lot, Mr Parata has joined the group to assist.

Personal Stories

Beauty Mikina and Lynette Leekesha

Beauty and Lynette have been helping out the group for the last three years, aiding the ladies by cooking food for the orphans and going to buy the uniforms, books and other school requirements. They are doing this volunteer work as they each have two children who have benefited from the programme after their own husbands passed away.

Lynette’s children, Mary and Geoffery Mumba, have both finished grade 12 but are currently not sure what to do next.

Beauty’s children, Alex Musenu is currently in Grade 9, and Silva Musenu finished grade 12 in 2024. She is currently selling sweet potatoes as a business.

Partnership's Influence within the Community

The community is very thankful for this organisation and how they have been helping to provide education for the vulnerable children in the community. They are saying at least with you the promise is completed, and you take our children right through to grade 12.

There have been many children who have finished grade 12 over the last 21 years, with policemen, nurses, teachers, one lawyer, bricklayers, and electricians being produced.

There is still a lot of pressure from the community for this programme to continue, with now many orphans coming out of the Covid period.

Ideas/Plans for the Future

We had a very long and sometimes heated discussion about the future. The main points being:
- What is the capacity of the group to continue with the work as they have not found any young ones to take over, and they are not getting any younger?
- Rebecca had mentioned to them to not add any young orphans to the programme five years ago but they didn’t think that was such a strong suggestion.
- Their ability to truly mentor the orphans, meet with them regularly and teach them spiritual things. This used to be the main part of the programme but due to their capacity they are no longer able to do so much of this.
- The pressure to carry on from the community.
- Rebecca wanting to hand over as she has left the area, but the other ladies don’t want her too. She has an issue with the ministry fund paying for her transport each time she has to come (three times in a year).
- Perhaps if they were given a time frame to stop, then they could break this news to the community and be able to say the donor has instigated this.
- The work they have done has been very faithful and for 21 years they have seen many lives impacted, with many being helped into employment but maybe the time has come to reconsider the programme.

Current Issues and Challenges

The big issues facing the group is that they are getting old and some sickness is coming in. Rebecca has to travel a long way from Chifuvma three times a year, which she doesn’t like using any funds from the ministry account to pay for. With Rebecca, Elizabeth and Mwela being the only signatories, and Elizabeth not able to move much this is causing some issues with the double signatory required to withdraw funds from the account.

The cost of living has become very high. A couple of examples is salt, that a year ago cost 10zmk per packet and now goes for 15zmk per packet, and mealy meal has gone from 270zmk up to 450zmk within the last two years, although it has reduced a bit now at harvest time.

The power situation has also got worse in Chingola. They are now down to around 6 hours of power per day at most. Last year the government apparently imported some power from neighbouring countries like South Africa, Mozambique and Angola but they are currently having to pay that back by giving power off the grid, hence the power shortages.

Chingola was hoping that the re-opening of the KCM mine might mean that the mine would spend a lot of money into the economy on new parts and workers, but they have just carried on with old machinery and employed few people.

All these factors have made it tough to survive economically and have seen the rise of stealing especially by youths who finish school but who have nothing to do.

Comments

My recommendation here is to phase the funding out over the next three years. Currently the youngest orphan is in Grade 3 which means they have another 9 years at school, but I doubt the team will be able to carry on that long.