how our charity programs fight poverty in Zambia, Africa

CHALLENGE 

Impoverished communities in Zambia usually lack proper sewerage facilities, leading to water contamination, cholera and outbreaks of preventable disease. Most children in Zambia don’t have access to comprehensive health and dental care. Although government-run medical clinics exist in communities where our sponsored children live, these facilities are overwhelmed and understaffed. They also rarely have the necessary medications on hand, and patients must pay fees for services. Lastly, dental care is simply not available.

SOLUTION 

Education on healthy behaviors is crucial to help stop the spread of preventable diseases and enrollment in our sponsorship program helps ensure children have access to health care and dental services when they need it.

CHALLENGE 

Teachers in Zambia have to deal with overcrowding and a lack of educational materials, such as textbooks. Most classrooms in Zambia are a room made of blocks and concrete with a roof protected by timber, but in peri-urban areas there is even a shortage of schools in this dilapidated condition. Where there is no government school nearby, parents or guardians team up to establish their own community schools, which are likely taught by a volunteer who has recently finished his or her secondary school. Education for primary and secondary school is now free through a government policy instituted in 2021. While this is a step forward, the teacher-to-pupil ratio has sky-rocketed as high as one teacher per 80 pupils in the highly populated areas where we work. Many families cannot afford the basics such as uniforms, books and pencils let alone the cost of tuition.

SOLUTION 

Community centers in Zambia house libraries, computer labs and act as safe haven for our students to study and focus on school. Our education programs provide necessities like uniforms, shoes and books. Annual scholarships allow children and youth the opportunity to continue their educations. And tutoring programs to help children who have fallen behind catch up and stay in school.

CHALLENGE 

Although similar, hunger and malnutrition are not the same thing. Hunger consists of a lack of food while malnutrition is when an individual doesn’t get the nutrients they need to thrive, which can have serious lifelong consequences. Malnutrition is a widespread problem across Zambia and often causes setbacks that can follow a child throughout their lifetime.

SOLUTION 

Community centers in Zambia offer nutrition education as well as cooking demonstrations to teach parents low-cost, nutritious ways to prepare meals for their families. We also provide regular health and malnutrition screenings and, if needed, access to rehabilitation programs where a child’s progress is monitored for improvement.

CHALLENGE 

The average monthly income of a family in our program is around K1500 or 89 US dollars. Most families in our program survive by selling food and other merchandise at home in small makeshift shops commonly known as katembas while others sell their goods at a local market. Some families make their living through daily jobs such as gardeners and maids and their monthly incomes can be as low as K300 or 17 US dollars or as high as 83 US dollars.

SOLUTION 

Our programs support children throughout school ensuring they have the education they need to become employable youth. Our Into Employment^® and Social and Financial Education programs provide youth the skills and knowledge they need to gain stable employment and create lasting change in their community.