Home based care for OVCs in Lusaka

Two new ZOA/Estelle Trust projects are support for Twaywane Home Based Care in Lusaka and the Mpanshya Farm OVC.  Twaywane HBC describes its aims as follows. ‘Our goal is to empower the vulnerable of our community, namely people living with HIV/AIDS and TB, orphans, widows and the elderly, and to build the community from within. Currently we take care of 300 people living with HIV/AIDS and/or TB and 360 orphaned and vulnerable children in our community school. We serve our clients through a home-based-care programme and psycho-social counselling, different skills training, assistance with hospital visits and provide food supplements when neccessary. In our school we serve children in very difficult situations. Most do not have a safe place to stay, get abused and often our school feeding is the only proper nutrition they receive.‘ Twaywane HBC is run by a voluntary membership of women from the community who sustain the project by income generating activities (IGAs)  such as chicken rearing, gardening, crocheting plastic bags and block making.

The initial support for Mpanshya Farm OVC is in the form of farming inputs.  The Trust has also agreed to provide a wind pump based water supply installation during 2012.

‘Touching Kids Lives’ – a self-help community programme

Following a site visit by Deirdre Allison, the Estelle Trust’s In-country Representative and Mwibiana Sitali, the Programme Co-ordinator for Zambia Orphans of Aids, the Trust is funding a ZOA project run by the RICAP (Rise Community Aid Programme) in Kafue. RICAP is a community-based volunteer organization that was set up in 2005 in response to the rapidly emerging problems of HIV and AIDS: the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in the Kafue District is 19.2% of the population. This particular project is called the ‘Touching Kids Lives’ OVC Support Project and it has three elements. School requisites such as shoes, uniforms, books and exam fees will be provided for 130 school-age children. There will be a supplementary feeding programme for 20 malnourished under-5 year olds. The third element is the support through small grants to 20 female-headed households  to start small scale marketing enterprises such as selling kapenta beans, fish, groceries and charcoal.

RICAP staff with Deirdre Allison, the Estelle Trust In-country Representative

The Trust is also considering a programme with RICAP that would address some of the social problems caused by high youth unemployment in the area.

A group of the women who are helped to start marketing enterprises

Capacity building at Zambia Orphans of AIDS

The Estelle Trust has made a three year (2011-2013) commitment to work with Zambia Orphans of AIDS (ZOA) to help build its project management capacity in Zambia and fund more projects.  It likely that these projects will be mostly connected with the provision of education for orphans and vulnerable children.  The first and current stage of this cooperation is the development of the ZOA office in Lusaka and its administrative capacity to process and evaluate project proposals.  For information on Zambia Orphans of AIDS see “Partners”.

Kutemwa ndi Kusama Ministries: water supply for community and school project

Kutemwa ndi Kusama (‘to love and to care’) is a registered charitable society in Zambia that acquired 53 hectares of land at Chongwe  – about 90 km from Lusaka – and the community embraces 14 villages in a catchment area of around 3000 people. It includes a school for 227 orphans or vulnerable children. Its work in education, health and agriculture is supported by contributions from UNICEF, World Food Programme, Churches Health Association of Zambia and Goodshepherd Ministries. The wind pump and water storage tank that has been installed will meet domestic needs and help the community irrigate and cultivate its crops all year round in order to feed the children and create surplus produce to sell.

Education for orphans in Kasama

In Kasama, the  provincial capital of  the Northern Province of Zambia, there are estimated to be over 22,000 orphans of which less than 3000 are enrolled in basic and high schools. The Trust has funded the 2010/11 costs associated with the education of 85 orphans and vulnerable children (68 of whom are at secondary school or tertiary college) in Kasama,  The contribution pays for school and college fees, exam and PTA fees, books, school, uniforms etc. The project is under the auspices of the Zambia Orphans of Aids and its local partner organization, Kasama Christian Community Care.

Water for two Holy Rosary Sisters’ community re-settlement projects

Bore hole and wind pump base at OWDEC Village

The Holy Rosary Sisters are a small but well-established community in Zambia with a high reputation for medical and community work. Irish by origin, the community is based in Lusaka and lead by two Nigerian nuns, Sister Chizo Chiedo and Sister Salome Mbate. The Trust and Chapman Freeborn have funded the installation of wind pumps and water storage facilities at two of the Holy Rosary Sisters’ projects.

The Orphans and Woman Development and Empowerment Community is a resettlement project that is moving families that are living on the street or in shanty accommodation in Lusaka to rural land about 50 miles north of the city. With appropriate assistance, the families are building their own houses and farming subsistence plots according to conservation farming principles.

The second project is at Chipapa in the Kafue district south of Lusaka. This is a very distressed area with few facilities and a collapsed agricultural economy. The project is rebuilding the community based on four villages in the area, a school and revived subsistence farming.