Canadian groups helping to support grandmothers in Africa and Asia. www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/grandmothers.htm
Blog Archive, Sam Weeks, ZCF Volunteer
http://zambiancf.blogspot.com/
9-27-06: HOPE IN THE POTENTIAL OF CHILDREN
Even when we are among the most privileged of men and women, we can not be separated to the problem the underprivileged are facing …..
Getting a KickStart: the Block Press |
Daniel’s Story |
Our Children Are Smart! |
Edith and Force Come To Chishawasha Ithaca, NY ZCF Working Group Forms & Explodes into Action
Getting a KickStart: the Block Press
How do you build a school and houses for Zambian orphans when the few available building materials are terribly expensive? When the Zambian Children’s Fund built its first house for children who were orphaned by the AIDS epidemic, the staggering escalation of construction costs made future buildings seem almost impossible.
In an effort to help the dream of building a school and houses become reality, members of the Ithaca (NY) Working Group decided that there might be a way to reduce costs. They began researching building materials in regions of the world where resources are scarce. On the Internet, they found the KickStart Company which develops and builds tools to help people in Third World countries overcome poverty. One such tool is the low-cost Block Press, capable of compacting local soils to produce building blocks. Could this tool be used at Chishawasha?
Further investigation, including soil-testing on the orphanage property, revealed that unskilled labor could operate the press, that the main ingredient is local soil, and that blocks produced would be stronger than concrete blocks for a cost of at least 50% less. The project might be possible! With the press, workers could produce 300 blocks a day, using soil mixed with a little (10%) cement and water. After seven days of drying, the blocks would be ready to use.
The Working Group ordered a press to be manufactured in the KickStart plant in nearby Kenya and air-shipped to Lusaka, Zambia. The press cost was only $525, but the cost of handling and shipping more than doubled that amount. (who raised money?)
In early March 2006, a large crate containing the Block Press arrived on site and a few days later, the first four blocks were produced. Since then, laborers (volunteers, staff, older children, and neighbors) have been compacting and stockpiling blocks. These were used to form the permanent walls of the school building that will replace temporary grass-hut classrooms. Construction started in the spring.
How do you build a Zambian orphanage school? One red earthen block at a time. And, how do you make earthen blocks? Mix soil with a little concrete and water; then compact it in the amazing Block Press.
Getting a KickStart: the Block Press |
Daniel’s Story |
Our Children Are Smart! |
Edith and Force Come To Chishawasha Ithaca, NY ZCF Working Group Forms & Explodes into Action
Daniel’s Story
When Daniel arrived at Chishawasha Children’s Home in July 2001, he was extremely dirty and covered with large, oozing sores. The policemen who found the abandoned boy said he was two years old, but he was the size of a six-month-old. Everything about him was small, except his head and bulging stomach. As the police left, they promised to return for him when they found his family.
Having never seen a white person, Daniel took a few minutes to warm up to Kathe. Very soon, though, he began calling her either “Mommy” or “Ambuya” (grandmother), and allowed her to bathe him, cleanse his sores and dress him for bed in soft, warm pajamas.
The next day, Daniel constantly asked for more food, even when he’d just eaten a large amount. (This is typical of a child who haven’t eaten well for months or years –their bodies have so much need, they don’t know how to “turn off” the desire to eat.) He also lay around most of the time; the combination of malnutrition, not knowing how to play, and never getting attention made him extremely passive.
After two week at Chishawasha, Daniel acted like a normal, active, intelligent two-year-old – constantly getting into everything, while talking almost non-stop in three languages (Bemba, Nyanja, and English). His favorite word, “n’cana” (I won’t) proved his two-year-old status.
With a doctor’s care, the sores (caused by a fly biting him and laying eggs under his skin; the larvae, then, eating his flesh and causing infection) were also drying up and disappearing.
Daniel grew a full inch in those two weeks, two inches the first month!
The police never did learn anything about Daniel’s family. Nor did Daniel show signs of missing anyone. Now, five years later, he is a happy, healthy boy, continuing to grow and learn. At Chishawasha. Daniel has found a family. Here, he has numerous doting brothers and sisters and he calls all the men on the Chishawasha staff, “Daddy” and the women “Mommy”. Kathe continues to be his white “Ambuya”.
Getting a KickStart: the Block Press |
Daniel’s Story |
Our Children Are Smart! |
Edith and Force Come To Chishawasha Ithaca, NY ZCF Working Group Forms & Explodes into ActionOur Children Are Smart!
In Zambia, all students, who want to go to secondary (high) school, must pass a government exam.
Zambia Children’s Fund’s goal for the orphans in its care is: “To provide quality education (K-12) and trade skills to all; to help those who can acquire a higher education.” This year, the fruits of labor toward that goal were harvested.
In 2001, Chishawasha Children’s Home Zambia started an accelerated learning program for children over 11 years of age who lived at the orphanage and never had had an opportunity to go to school. Four years later, children in the accelerated class were doing 7th grade-level work and studying to pass the exam to qualify them for secondary school.
In November 2005, seven students, some who had only three or four years of school, passed the test. They not only passed, they excelled! The top three students of the hundreds taking the exam were Chishawasha orphans. Siyanga John placed first, Thokodzile (a girl) was second, and Siyanga Wisdom was third.
Because all seven students scored so well on the exam, they were admitted into 8th grade at SOS Children’s Village Secondary School, which is considered one of the best schools in Lusaka. Sharon, a Chishawasha 9th grader, was also admitted to the SOS school.
Very few Zambian children get even an elementary education, because children who go to school must pay tuition. This is virtually impossible for the millions of orphans and for their caregivers, many of whom are unemployed or work for meager wages.
Chishawasha’s too-long waiting list of Zambian orphans who need a place to live and learn continues to grow.
Getting a KickStart: the Block Press |
Daniel’s Story |
Our Children Are Smart! |
Edith and Force Come To Chishawasha Ithaca, NY ZCF Working Group Forms & Explodes into Action
Edith and Force Come To Chishawasha
In January, after two years of having no place to live and moving from place to place, twelve year old Edith came to live at Chishawasha. Edith was so malnourished and eating such a rare event, for the first few weeks she had a tummyache after every meal.
Edith had a two-year-old brother, Force, who lived with an aunt. The aunt had a number of small children, including a new baby. The staff at Chishawasha worried about how long a toddler as malnourished as Edith could survive.
They invited Force to come to live at Chishawasha. Edith was pulled out of class to greet Force when he arrived. He instantly transformed from a shy, scared little boy when he saw Edith, the one person who loved him. He yelled "Edith!" and ran beaming to his big sister where he jumped laughing into her arms and positively bounced up and down while being held by her. He spent the rest of the day being held by Edith including sitting on her lap while she was in class.
Moments such as these keeps founder Kathe Padilla going back to Zambia to ccarrying on her work
Getting a KickStart: the Block Press |
Daniel’s Story |
Our Children Are Smart! |
Edith and Force Come To Chishawasha Ithaca, NY ZCF Working Group Forms & Explodes into Action
Ithaca, NY ZCF Working Group Forms & Explodes into Action
In October, 2005, Kathe Padilla packed her lightweight clothes from Zambia and Tucson and embarked on her annual ZCF fundraising and speaking tour to the East Coast. For the third year, the members of First Baptist Church at DeWitt Park in Ithaca, New York hosted her and scheduled speaking engagements to help her spread the word about ZCF and the ways people could help. Undaunted by early bone-chilling autumn frosts and the threat of early snow, Kathe borrowed long underwear which she wore unobtrusively under her African dress as she spoke about the Zambian Children’s Fund. Her message was compelling, consistent, and clear.
She spoke to groups at the church groups, the Alternative High School, and EcoVillage. Her week culminated with the keynote talk, at 11:30pm on a Friday night, to a regional Unitarian Youth Conference of over 100 high school students. At each venue, Kathe spoke from her heart about the needs of Zambia and its children orphaned by AIDS pandemic of southern Africa. With the aid of photos, she described how Chishawasha was being developed to provide homes, food, education and skills for some of these children.
People responded! At each venue people expressed their concern, caring and support. We began to gather their names, interests, offers of expertise and contact information for later follow-up. Follow-up? This suggested working together as a group, thru the long term, on behalf of ZCF and the programs at Chishawasha.
The ZCF Working Group-Ithaca was born. We gathered as a group and shared our interests and offerings in some detail. We adopted the following Goal Statement:
By working closely with ZCF staff, we will provide financial, practical, technical and research support for the ZCF. We will also host ZCF-related people (e.g.,Kathe Padilla) when they are in the Ithaca area.
We also agreed to meet as a whole group about once a month with the bulk of the work to be accomplished by Task Forces with short, medium or long term goals. People will work on the specificTask Forces that interest them.
Our first six months has seen a veritable whirlwind of enjoyable and satisfying activity which has included:
- “Send Sam Weeks to Zambia Project” (ongoing for 2006);
- writing and submitting grant proposals for sanitary engineering and sustainable agriculture to the Engineers for a Sustainable World, headquartered at Cornell University (probably ongoing);
- researching the usefulness, costs and availability of the Block Press made by Kickstart (completed);
- conducting a large clothing drive(need to complete shipping);
- researching the promise and problems of growing ostriches on site in Zambia(completed);
- offering a speakers bureau to local audiences (ongoing)
- revising and operating the ZCF website (just beginning).
We have already experienced a sense of accomplishment which has fueled much our interest and energy to continue. We use email and the web for much of our research and communication. If anyone is interested in forming a ZCF working group in their part of the world, we would be pleased to work with you. Perhaps if enough people work together, we can gather more help and resources and make the word “Chishawasha” or “that which lives on” a reality for more of the orphaned children of Zambia. Contact us through the ZCF office in Tucson or directly by email at:
lfmudrak@twcny.rr.com in Ithaca.
