Beginnings......
In January of 2002 we trekked up to Zambia to see what could be done for the thousands of orphans that are a result of the AIDS epidemic sweeping Africa.Visiting from home to home the widows and countless children we were overwhelmed by the vast scale of the disaster.Day after day we encountered destitute families headed by widows or older children,with only enough strength to consider surviving for another day. I wracked my brain trying to think of some strategy that could provide hope for these children who have been forgotten on the fringes of civilization.A " God Idea" struck me as I returned one day to our small mine house in Mpatamatu.We could not tackle the problem of the thousands, and millions of destitute orphans, but we could at least do something for those few who were in front of us.I had noticed that these children I was visiting were not attending school. On enquiring I discovered that the school system in Zambia was not coping with even the needs of normal children and so orphans had no chance of getting a seat in the overcrowded local schools.We saw an opportunity to do something for a few little ones.We chose twenty five children who were orphans, all living in destitute conditions with either their mothers, relatives or neighbours.All were between the ages of four and seven, one was ten and had never attended school.We started a school in the Church across the road from our house, and from the first day we began to feed them a meal before their lessons began.This school developed over the next few years into the Zambian Community Schools Project.Within six months we were running five schools and had trained more than ten teachers.Three hundred or more little ones were attending schools which were all situated in Churches of various denominations.Vegetable Gardens were being planted, Church members were taking part in the care of orphans and the youth of the churches were shouldering the responsibility for the education of orphans.After two years we handed over the leadership to local leaders.Five years down the line , there are now more than two thousand children being cared for through the medium of community schools run by local churches. We see this strategy as an effective way for African people to take the lead in the care of their own orphans.The schools that we started have all been handed over to the local community and church leaders who continue to administrate and develop the schools according to their ability.More than fifty volunteers continue to be trained and this simple strategy is running like a bush fire through Africa, fuelled by the devoted service of volunteers who are willing for their lives to be burnt up in serving God by caring for ther children that God loves.Are you willing to be a wind that fans these sacrificial flames and spreads this work further?These volunteers have taken this burden courageously, with no salary and no future benefit for themselves.The work is not being funded by massive international aid programs and there is barely sufficient money even to feed the children and the teachers, let alone funds for salaries, buildings or insurance policies.For full information about how funds are administrated and to receive information about the reliabilty of this site and project, please contact our email address in the profile to your right.
Thursday
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