How have things been in Zambia in 2020?
In March 2020, when European countries was starting to have large increases in the COVID19 pandemic, the media coverage meant that Zambia and much of Africa decided to follow their lead in locking down hard, closing schools and teaching everyone how not to pass on the infection. Many experts said this was vital because they were expecting massive problems when COVID started spreading widely in developing countries. But, for reasons which are still unclear, after a couple of months of waiting it seems that the coronavirus was doing terrible things in South Africa, but was not having a big impact in Zambia or many other places in the continent. This may be because there was very little testing and already a high death rate for other reasons. This is particularly true for the Northern “Copper Belt” of Zambia as the long drought and economic mismanagement (where all the nation’s surplus food was sold to other countries just before the drought took hold) was already causing food shortages and horrible hunger. In this context the lockdown was a terrible thing and put many families over the line who had been just about surviving by subsistence farming and selling in the market. So, with no evidence of Coronavirus, the government decided to open all the schools, open up the economy and allow businesses to trade but also encourage as much social distancing, mask wearing and handwashing as possible.
As you look at the pictures we have received from Zambia you will see people standing close together (which is quite disturbing when seen from the perspective of those of us living in the UK) and facemasks being worn. Our hope is that Covid19 will not reach Northern Zambia and this policy will be OK. In the meantime, the children are being sponsored, going to school and coming to their local churches for regular feeding programmes. So they are fully benefitting from the sponsorship programme as it is normally delivered.
NOTE: The first few weeks of 2021 this may have changed as there was a surge of COVID (possibly the South African variant) and the government closed schools for a few weeks. Exactly where things are going is hard for us to know.
Stories of Children
This is Stabiso (right). She is thrilled to get her school uniform and so being ready to go to school. as soon as she received her school uniform she put it on to showcase how wonderful she looks.
This is Carol (left). Her parents divorced and her father left. A little while later her father died. Her mother continued to look after her even those she had no stable income. As a child she had always “yearned” (her word!) to become an accountant. When she received her pack of school kit she was very happy as she felt it opened the way to her dream. She received shoes, books, stockings, pens, pencils, books, rubber, jersey, 2 facemasks and a pile of second hand clothes.
This is John (on right with the white top). John has been coming to the feeding programme at the local church. Who can resist nshima (maize flour paste – a local staple) with beef stew and beans? John couldn’t. He tells us he always feels hungry, thinking about food all the time; but, having had the Grassroots meal, he finds it easier to concentrate in school.
All the children thank God for the provision. KEVTC is a Christian organisation with integrity and a strong sense that they are doing God’s work. They encourage the children and parents to pray that God will provide through one means or another. They thank the donors and thank God who inspired them to give. KEVTC wrote to us saying: Our prayer is that as we support these vulnerable children “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Ephesians 1:17)
Food
One of the items the children receive as part of the sponsorship is a food parcel for their family. A reasonable response to being told this is to say, “Surely one food parcel is not enough to feed a family for a year.” If you would like to give additional family food parcels to the family of the child you sponsor you can do this by “buying” the family food parcel “alternative gift” on our website here: https://www.grassroots.org.uk/product/family-food-parcel-4/ and leaving a note that you want it to go to your sponsored child’s family.
Each sponsored child also has access to a local feeding programme. Throughout the last year Grassroots has had people give extra gifts to fund small grants to each of the 3 churches so they can provide meals for the children they serve – not only the sponsored children but all the children they work with in the local community. Just putting on a meal for the sponsored children would be cruel considering the number of hungry children around. It is also a happy time which allows the children to gather and the teams to check how they are doing.
If you would like to help us fund these church feeding programmes you can either send us a donation (with a note saying what it is for!) or do it via the “alternative gift” part of the website and pay for a meal for very hungry children. £20 gives one of the three local churches enough to serve a meal to group of about 40 children. The link is here: https://www.grassroots.org.uk/product/meal-for-very-hungry-child/
KEVTC made this comment when asked if the feeding programmes have been helpful:
“The feeding programme, in particular, has increased the abilities in the children to concentrate, learn and perform specific tasks or be engaged in activities appropriate for their age – for example active play or doing menial jobs at home.“
The school system in Zambia
In Zambia many children do not go to state owned school until the equivalent of year 4 in UK – aged 9 or 10. This sounds shocking to most Europeans. Part of the reason is that the children live in rural areas that are miles from urban centres (which do have primary schools for younger children) but the other big issue is that sending your children to school is not obligatory and those who cannot afford uniform, and “user fees” do not go. For one of the villages (a village is a wide area with disbursed small settlements, but with a small government administration centre where there is normally a clinic, pharmacy and primary school) where we work, there are well over a thousand children who are not in school.
One of the solutions to this has been “community schools”. These are schools organised by local people or community organisations, like local churches. The teachers are often parents or others in the community, often those without formal teaching qualifications, but with great commitment and enthusiasm. The community has to put up their own buildings and, although they would love to make this education free, normally charge “user fees” just to cover the costs. In some situations, these costs are covered by the church offerings, but that is another way of saying the local community has to find the cash to make it happen.
The government does exercise some oversight over these community schools and that is increasing. In the larger areas they quite well organised and professional, with school uniform and trained teachers. In the rural areas, not so much. Most of the children Grassroots started to sponsor were those moving up to official primary schools, where uniform is necessary, and the children often need to walk many miles to get to the village centre in order to attend. We are now also sponsoring children in the community schools and KEVTC are working with them to improve the education of these younger children.
Beyond primary school the children can go on to secondary education, and beyond that to vocational training (for which KEVTC run a brilliant vocational training school with minimal fees so that the poorest children get a chance to attend) or on to tertiary education. At one of our initial meetings with parents of the first group of sponsored children we were asked, “Will you continue to sponsor my child if they go to secondary school or on to further education.” Our response was that we would love to but what Grassroots can or cannot do it dependant on those who support the charity not on our wish to help. We are only the conduit for moving the money from the donors to the people in need. In our other sponsorship programmes, we have been going a while and have a large number of supporters committed to taking children as far as they can go in their education. As we are only just starting in Zambia, we have no spare funds allocated to the programme and we do not yet fully understand the costs of the different levels of education. However, we remain committed to doing our best. We also encouraged them to pray that God would provide for their child.
Development & Self Reliance Programme
In each community the child sponsorship and feeding programmes programme are delivered by a “Church Action Group”. As well as organising the child sponsorship and church based feeding programmes, these committees work (with KEVTC’s coordination) to organise groups of representatives of the very poor families to support one another and making money. This includes savings and loans, farming and selling, small business creation, training and trading. KEVTC are overseeing this programme (called “Raising Families” and funded for one more year by another international charity) with 60 churches across the region. The reason we are sponsoring children with only three of those churches is that we had to start small until we got more sponsors. Over the last year KEVTC have been saying over and over that combining this development programme with sponsoring children’s education is the perfect partnership for making the biggest difference and moving the community to a place where they may be able to stand on their own feet. Obviously, the success of this remains dependant on there being only a minimal impact from the macro-economics of the nation/region, the climate and disease, but where families start earning their own income and children’s education is consistent it only takes a generation for a community to be out of poverty. Our hope is that we will be able to expand the child sponsorship to a few more communities during 2021 and so get this glorious partnership working in those as well.
Another Child’s story
Gift is one of the children from Makubi Church of Christ who is sponsored. His mother suffers from extreme mental illness. After she became pregnant it was discovered it happened as a result of a rape and the man then ran away to escape justice. Gift is being looked after by his grandmother who is a widow. His grandmother is amazed at what God is doing in her grandson’s life through the sponsorship and extra alternative gifts his sponsor has sent. She is IS FULL OF JOY and affirms that truly God knows each one of us and our needs. Gift is now at school and has all the school requirements and this is a great miracle to his family. Gift received the pack of school equipment, some second-hand clothes, soap and an extra gift from his sponsor of livestock. KEVTC organised for this to be a goat (rather than a pig as on the Grassroots website: https://grassroots.org.uk/product/pig-business-family-start-up/) after consultation with his grandmother. The goat received is female and we hope that within the next four months it will reach maturity and ready to bear a kid – all things being equal. The grandmother could not stop speaking and praised God saying, “Truly God loves us so much. He is washing away our shame and clothing us with Joy and songs of praise.”
Visiting Zambia as part of a Grassroots team
Having made new friends in Ndola it has been very frustrating that we have not been able to visit them in the last year. We would love to take you to visit the children and introduce to the great people, both in KEVTC and the local communities, who are delivering this fantastic programme. There is no better way to learn about Zambia than than being in the country, chatting over food, travelling to far flung communities, listening to families tell their stories and being able to ask questions in person. We have been in touch with KEVTC but unlike other places in Africa, Zambia has very intermittent communications at the moment, so visiting as soon as we can remains be a priority. If you are interested in being included, please do drop us a note and we will make sure you are among the first to know when we have a plan.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Grassroots in the UK is not the 2 or 3 do the admin. It is the many who are praying, giving, coming on trips, organising fundraising and telling their friends, communities and churches about what is happening. If you have ideas about how to spread the word wider or get more people involved, please consider yourself part of the team!
Sponsor a Child…. please
£4.25 per month or £51 per year.
Want to know more go here: Zambia – Grassroots
Want to Sponsor a child now: Sponsor a Child Today – Grassroots
There are details on the poage on how to give annually by credit card straight away or (a little down the page) how to set up a monthly standing order with online banking or download a standing order form and send it to us in the mail.
And remember you can give “SPONSORSHIP PLUS”
Sponsorship Plus enables us to cover additional or unforeseen costs. With Sponsorship Plus you decide to give a bit extra on top of your sponsorship amount. For example a person sponsoring at £3.50 in Tanzania might make their standing order for £5 per month or £10 per month. This will help us cover additional items such as:
> supporting children that do not yet have a sponsor
> complex medical care for some sponsored children
> HIV care – which requires that children have extra special food, medicines and specialist assistance from a nurse
> changes in the exchange rate between UK Pounds Sterling and local currencies
> and more…
Adding “Sponsorship Plus” is simple. Either give an extra amount with your annual donation or increase your regular standing order. All details of ways to Give Now are here.
This money is vital as we attempt to make our sponsorship programmes both as affordable as possible in the UK and as effective as possible on the ground.