The goal of CCHZ is to create a self-sustaining village to nurture up to 500 Zambian orphans by providing them with housing, clothing, nutrition and education. The vision is becoming a reality. Three homes have already been built on a 15-acre site about 12 kilometers north of Zambia’s capital city of Lusaka. Up to 70 children are being taught in a newly constructed primary school. The Calgary-based Glassco Foundation for Children has generously donated a water system for the project and funding for the first permanent, primary classrooms.(Close)

On July 4, 1999 Kathe Padilla read an article in the Arizona Daily Star with a picture of Zambian children and a caption that said, “These are some of the 100 children being fed by this organization, which has 2,000 children registered.” She was horrified at the thought of “how would a person decide which 100 kids out of 2000, would get food on any given day.” She dreamed of creating a place where, at least, some orphaned children could be provided food, shelter, education, medical care and a nurturing place where they could one day grow to be productive citizens of Zambia.

First, she did some fund-raising in Tucson and undertook intensive research, learning everything she could about Zambia. In October she flew to Lusaka, the capital city, to see what she could learn about the situation and how she might help. By the first week of November, she set up a non-governmental organization (the Zambian equivalent of a non-profit) and a meeting arranged with Zambian professionals also concerned with the welfare of orphaned children, provided the foundation for the first Board of Directors of CCHZ. They decided to name the fledgling organization the Chishawasha Children’s Home of Zambia (CCHZ). Chishawasha is a word from the local Bemba language meaning “that which lives on.”

Kathe returned to Tucson to start educating the public about the terrible situation caused by drought and AIDS in Zambia and to begin fund raising. She gathered a group of interested Tucsonans to sit on a U.S. Board of Directors, incorporated the Zambian Children’s Fund (ZCF). In late November, almost $12,000 was donated after the Arizona Daily Star ran a front page article about Kathe and her dream of starting an orphanage.(Close)

By January, 2001, the two sister organizations, CCHZ and ZCF, were in a position for Kathe to take an extended trip to Lusaka to get things off the ground. In February, with the help of Zambian Board members, a home-based support program was started. This program was designed to help orphaned children who had no means of support to stay in school. Many of them were living with grandparents or other family members. Some were living without an adult in the homes that their parents left them. In Zambia, despite widespread unemployment, the cost of public school must be paid by the students. So an interview process was set up and school fees, uniforms, shoes and school supplies were paid by CCHZ. In some of the most desperate cases, food and other necessities were provided.

In May 2001, a large three-bedroom house was rented in a middle class neighborhood in Lusaka. A careful screening process was developed, and children who had nowhere else to go, moved into the home. By the second week in July there were sixteen children living with Kathe and a hired live-in housemother. The children arrived dressed in rags, malnourished and with little or no education. The two consistent things they brought with them were parasites and disease. Most of the children had intestinal worms or worse.

The most rewarding part of living with the children was watching them turn from listless children who neither wanted nor seemed to be able to do anything, into bright, happy, healthy children in just a few months. Once a month, Kathe would line them up to check their height and weight. Children were growing one or two inches a month and gaining as much as 20 pounds. Because they arrived from all over the country, each of them immediately started learning all of the five different languages spoken in the house.(Close)

In September 2001, a teacher was hired and a small school was started in a three-room building in the backyard behind the house. In early October 2001, Kathe returned to Tucson for a round of speaking engagements and fund-raising.

Between fall, 2002 and September 2003, Kathe traveled between the U.S. and Zambia every three months. By that time, the house had filled to overflowing with 25 children (ages 2 to 16) and three housemothers. The school in the backyard had 40 students in three classes: a first grade, a second grade and a 3rd/4th grade accelerated class for the older children who had never before attended school. Five of the children living in the house attended the local public school. Twenty children from the surrounding area walked to the Chishawasha School every morning. The children who did not live in the house were given two meals a day, clothing, shoes and medical care. All of them desired to live in a CCHZ house full time. In the meantime, the waiting list of children, desperate to be part of CCHZ, continued to grow.

One of the priorities of the school was to offer older children, who were unable to attend school, an education program to catch up to their grade levels, so the CCHZ developed two concurrent school curricula. One is a regular full time school so that children can progress from Kindergarten to First Grade and on to Second and so on. Two classes are part of our accelerated curriculum for older children to learn two grade levels in one year up to the seventh grade. (Close)

Construction of the first five-bedroom house was planned and begun in late 2004. Knowledgeable Zambian builders were hired and the process began. Cement was mixed by hand in large troughs, and then placed in wooden forms to harden. When a block was firm, it was placed in the sun to continue drying for several days. When enough blocks were made, the walls of the house were begun. By spring the first five-bedroom house was completed.

In April 2005, the children and housemothers from the rental house moved into the new house. In June many of the children who attended the ZCF school from the N’gombe compound joined the household so they could continue their education. Construction on a second five-bedroom house was begun and funding for the first three-bedroom house, to be built after completion of a school, was negotiated. In July the 40 foot container from the U.S. arrived with new clothes and shoes for all of the children, plus furniture, books and other items for the house and school.

During 2005, two large, temporary grass classrooms were constructed. A storage building to house goods from the container and items bought in bulk was also built. (Close)

In November 2005, eight students from the Chishawasha School accelerated class sat for their 7th grade exam. Seven passed the exam, including children who had only 3 or 4 years of schooling, and the top three students out of hundreds of children from public shools were from Chishawasha! All seven had such good scores they were admitted into the 8th grade at the Secondary School at SOS Children’s Village. The SOS school is considered one of the best Secondary Schools in Lusaka.

Funding for the first wing of the elementary school was obtained and planning for the school began in December, 2005. Donated by the Glassco Foundation, a blockpress, purchased from Project Kickstart (www.kickstart.org ) in Kenya arrived in February. The press uses 20% cement and 80 % local earth to make sturdy, rammed-earth building blocks. Construction with blocks made of all concrete has become cost prohibitive. Initially the school will have four classrooms, a kitchen, a small office and library, plus bathrooms with eight showers.(Close)

In January 2006, Dr. Sam Weeks came from Ithaca, New York volunteering for a year, to serve as Assistant Director including teaching school and working on the sustainable agriculture program. As of March 2006 thirty-three children live in the two houses along with four Mothers who live in and one Mother who helps with extra work as needed. CCHZ employees are from a variety of tribal and religious backgrounds, so adults familiar with their different languages and cultures raise the children.

In May 2006 Kathe returned to CCHZ to oversee completion of the school. Other initiatives include construction of two three-bedroom houses, plus a clinic in a three bedroom house and further development of a sustainable food and nutrition program. (Close)

In January 2004 fifteen acres of land were purchased 12 kilometers north of Lusaka. Soon, small gardens including sweet potatoes, soybeans, and white “Irish” potatoes were planted. Things grew amazingly fast and seedlings of avocado, guava, papaya, mango, banana and pomegranate trees were also planted. In May 2004, the Colin B. Glassco Foundation for Children of Calgary, Canada provided the necessary resources to drill a borehole, donate a pump, two 500-liter tanks and a complete water system. (Close)

Since its inception, ZCF In the United States has provided leadership and developed resources and programs to provide Zambian orphans with food, shelter, clothing, medical care and education. ZCF provides a safe, nurturing community that serves to sustain the overall well being of the children so they can one day grow to be healthy, productive members of Zambian society. In February of 2000, ZCF was granted non-profit 501 (c) (3) status by the US Internal Revenue Service. Headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, it provides leadership and works with sister organization, Chishawasha Children’s Home of Zambia (CCHZ) in Zambia.

Founder Kathe Padilla serves as Executive Director of the Zambian Children's Fund and, in that capacity, divides her time between administrator duties in Tucson, AZ and Chishawasha, Zambia, and fundraising throughout the United States and Canada. The Tucson-based 13-member Board of Directors is composed of a cross section of professional educators and medical personnel, businessmen, authors, homemakers and therapists.
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