Challenges start early for children in Zambia. Drinking the water may give you cholera and other diseases. Hanging out on the streets leads to trouble and abuse. Education can be a way out but the government schools are overcrowded and the private ones are beyond what they can ever afford.
Read MoreThe Namumu Orphanage Center is making great progress on their strategic plans:
1. Finishing expansion of the medical clinic
2. Raising funds and constructing a building and equipment for a hammer mill to generate income
3. Working to build a better poultry house to generate income
4. Exploring what it would take to become a Vocational Training Center. This is a key part of their strategic plan and will shift Namumu from a residential orphanage program to an educational training center. When we visited, they shared with us there are no Vocational Training Centers in their region.
Since its inception in 2000, Namumu Orphanage Center (NOC) has provided vulnerable children with food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and spiritual and educational support. Through partnership with generous Outreach donors, a van was recently purchased. We received the following letter from Siakwale Matomola, Namumu Orphanage Center Director:
Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Read MoreEdna Sikavumbu, Samaria Hamunyongo, and Anthia Samende came from vulnerable households in Siavonga and were enrolled at Namumu at a young age. They received their primary education at Namumu primary school and proceeded to Mubuyu Christian Academy for high school, earning good scores for both grade seven and nine exams. Mubuyu Christian Academy is a private girls’ boarding school in Siavonga and one of the district's best schools. The Outreach Foundation is helping to support 16 children there by assisting with boarding fees, food, clothes, groceries, and more.
Read MoreBaby Prosper, one and a half-year-old years old, was brought to Alliance for Children Everywhere (ACE) by the Child Protection Unit (CPU) in Lusaka, Zambia. The baby was living on the streets with his twenty-one year-old mother. The CPU, in collaboration with several other stakeholders, removed Prosper and his mother and many other babies from the streets during one of their outreaches.
Read MoreWe thank our Lord who has been so faithful in the work of community schools. The government of Zambia has a policy of free education that presents challenges for the running of community schools. We are grateful for the support that we receive from our Outreach partners.
As reported in our April update, the COVID-19 pandemic did affect CCAP Community Schools. We followed government-required measures
Read MoreA Forever Home for Edward
Edward is an orphan who was referred to Alliance for Children Everywhere (ACE) in 2018. Prior to coming to ACE, he was in the care of his great-grandmother. Edward was seen by his neighbors regularly looking for food in the garbage dump. The neighbors brought their concern for Edward to the attention of the local police, and they brought him to ACE. They investigated and found that his mother died, and
Read MoreTwo little girls, Comfort and Charity have become the best of friends at the Bill and Bette Bryant Nursery (BBB) in Lusaka, Zambia.
Comfort was brought to the House of Moses (HOM) because her mom was in jail and unable to care for her. Since then, she has had no other family willing or able to take her into their home. As Comfort grew, she was transferred to BBB and continued to thrive. She is now three years old and can comfortably count to ten and say almost all her alphabet with a smile on her face! She has a fun and mischievous sense of humor and loves to make the other kids and caregivers laugh.
Read MoreGreetings from Zambia. I’d like to share a few glimpses of what it’s been like to be back here for about a month after being granted an exception from our church headquarters’ Covid-related ban on travel and in-person ministry. I very much miss Sherri, whose continuation in the U.S. under the ban allows her to have an in-person presence supporting a family member’s journey toward health. Nonetheless, my level of happiness went up a sizable notch when I landed in Zambia and arrived back at Justo Mwale University.
I've so loved getting to be part of the Justo Mwale community again – being together with colleagues who’ve become good friends over the past ten or so years, living in our home on campus and enjoying our garden as a place of prayer, but especially teaching and relating with students.
Read MoreInspirations from the Zambian Church
Dear friends,
Sometimes Sherri and I are asked what we find inspiring about Christians in Zambia. We’d enjoy sharing three traits that have particularly stood out to us.
Singing their faith
One of the things that has always struck us, both in Zambia and at Justo Mwale University, is that the Christian faith is something sung. Many supermarkets play worship music almost all the time. While walking around campus or working in my office, I (Dustin) hear students singing their hearts out numerous times a day. It may be a choir practicing (our resident student body of about 65 has several choirs), or it may be a class starting with a hymn, or it may just be a student walking across campus singing her/his love for God. Perhaps many Zambians take it for granted that life is meant to be spent singing to God. Singing is a main way people learn the faith, deepen it, and express it. Having near-constant songs of God in the air has a way of nourishing our faith. I also suspect it prepares us for the life to come. Additionally, African Christianity creates lots of music, and I’m thankful our students receive an education that helps people to think through the witness which they are singing and producing.
Read MoreThe Outreach Foundation has been in partnership with Namumu Orphanage Center (NOC) for nearly 20 years. Located in the Kariba lakeshore area in the district of Siavonga, Zambia, Namumu has provided vulnerable children with food, clothing, shelter, and education to help them reach their potential. Children who have “graduated” from NOC have trained as pastors, teachers, and clinical officers, and many have returned to serve in the community where they grew up. In response to the health needs of the area, a clinic was built in 2005, with the help of The Outreach Foundation, to provide essential primary health care services to the children and the surrounding community.
Over time, it became clear that there was a need for more and better health and clinical services. So two years ago, in collaboration with the Government of Zambia, the clinic expanded services and increased staffing. Currently, there are two volunteer clinical officers, four nurses, an environmental officer, a psychosocial counselor, and several community health workers and clinic assistants. They provide a full range of primary services to the community and local businesses. And the community has, in turn, helped to provide for and maintain these services.
Read MoreWe recently received this update from our partners serving vulnerable children and families in Lusaka. Their critical ministry is changing the lives of children, mothers, and families in Jesus’ name.
During the COVID pandemic, the Bill and Bette Bryant crisis nursery has continued to provide shelter for children five years or younger who are victims of the current weakening extended family system, neglect, abandonment, early marriages, unplanned pregnancies, gender-based violence, and poor parenting skills. While the children await reunification with their parents, original guardians, or other permanent family-based care, the children have access to food, clothing, shelter, and early childhood education.
Read MoreThe CCAP Synod of Zambia, an Outreach partner, was constituted in 1984 with four ordained ministers, two presbyteries, and 16 congregations. The church has grown rapidly and today has 16 presbyteries throughout Zambia. There are now 104 congregations with 95 ministers and a membership of more than 85,000. As the church has grown, the need for more places to worship has also grown. The need for training additional pastors and evangelists is also critical.
The Linda congregation, in Lusaka, has about 150 members and is led by Rev. Joseph Kaluba. The construction of the new church has now reached an advanced stage and requires funds to complete the roof. The Linda Church also hosts a CCAP community school.
Read MoreThe CCAP Community Schools Program in Zambia exists to help vulnerable and orphaned children receive an education. The daycare and nutrition centers, which began in 2001, have evolved into early learning centers for thousands of children who would not be able to attend schools otherwise. Demand for education is high as 52% of Zambia’s population are under the age of 18.
Like so many programs, the Community Schools Program has suffered under the restrictions of the government’s efforts to control the spread of COVID-19. There are 30 still-functioning schools in three provinces (Lusaka, Copperbelt, and Eastern) that are operating on a reduced schedule. Some schools have temporarily closed as parents and guardians have withdrawn their children to work, and there are no funds to pay the teachers’ allowances. Teacher training workshops have been suspended, and home life has also been challenging.
Read MoreDear friends,
We usually speak of Justo Mwale University as a place for preparing pastors. Indeed, JMU has trained many pastors for seven countries throughout Southern Africa. But additionally, JMU plays a key role in equipping scholars who themselves go on to train pastors in other African theological schools.
For instance, Rev. Bannet Muwowo, whom I (Dustin) advised during his master's program, now trains pastors himself as the principal at Chasefu Theological College in eastern Zambia. Rev. Agnes Nyirenda Nyondo, who graduated a few years ago, is a new lecturer at the University of Livingstonia’s School of Theology in Malawi. We also have former students teaching in seminaries in Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Read MoreThere are 40 community schools for orphaned and vulnerable children managed by the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) Synod of Zambia. More than 6,000 children are supervised by over 120 volunteer teachers. Many classes use church buildings but have been lacking student desks and teaching materials.
As reported in the June update, Zambian schools were closed in March to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Most of the schools reopened on September 21. There were some challenges in reopening the community schools since they did not have adequate space for social distancing.
Read MoreAfter COVID-19 forced schools in Siavonga, Zambia to close, they have reopened recently and some are offering online learning. In response to a request from the Namumu Orphan Center (NOC), The Outreach Foundation was able to provide $2,000 so that the secondary school children could access classes virtually.
With that $2,000, the director was able to purchase five computers, one smartphone, a modem, and a large bundle of internet usage time. With your support for Namumu, through The Outreach Foundation, you have enabled five high school girls to stay in school and learn virtually. With that $2,000 you have made an impact in the lives of these children and their community and country, beyond your imagining. THANK YOU for your generosity in support of the children at Namumu.
Read MoreChristopher Kasanda and Florence Chisangano grew up in vulnerable households near Siavonga, Zambia. They were each referred to Namumu Orphan Center (NOC) at a young age. There, they received care and were able to attend school. They did well in school and after years of study AND medical training, they have both returned to the Namumu clinic as clinical officers (similar to nurse practitioners). They are happy to return and Namumu is excited to have them back. They are role models for the 17 children at NOC. The Outreach Foundation is helping to support the children, including paying the school fees for the 13 children in secondary schools.
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