A Letter from Zambia

Dear Sponsors, We would like to express our gratitude for sponsoring our children that were able to get school uniforms, hygiene kits, drugs, school requirements and shoes on the 30th of June, 2010.This has really shown us how much love you have for our children. Your support has put a smile on our children`s faces. Without you, our work would have been very difficult. Continue with the strength, may the good Lord bless and keep you.
Regards,
CHILDHOPE Staff and Management.

*The girls above are Nkombo (left) and Joyce Muloba (right). Nkombo is sponsored, but 4 year Joyce is still waiting for a sponsor. To sponsor Joyce Muloba for only $9 a month, click "sponsor an ECCDE girl" in the upper right hand corner of the blog.

A Thank You to the Sponsors!

A Message for you from the Zambia Team

Money was sent yesterday for 16 sponsorships + an extra donation. The accountant (who I will introduce later) picked up the money from the bank today. Here is the message I received on the behalf of the Zambia team by Chim:

"We got the money today. Thank you and the US team for the work you are doing with us in meeting the needs of the vulnerable children in Zambia. Without you all our work would have been very difficult. We say thanks to you once again. To the sponsors we say, may God add more [money] where it has been removed.

God bless you all.

Regards,

Chim"

These are the children whose payments were sent (another wire will be sent at the end of the month for the children that have been sponsored since yesterday):
Sponsorship payments for 14 primary children:
10
18
39
45
72
91
99
101
103
142
148
150
160
202

and 2 Secondary children:
55
58

Extra donation= $70 (pictures will be taken of the items bought with the extra donation and be shared with the group once received)

Meet Chim Mvula!

“The happiest people I have known have been those who gave themselves no concern about their own souls, but did their uttermost to mitigate the miseries of others.”

—Elizabeth Cady Stanton
(1815-1902); social activist
Here is Chim! He has been helping children and their families since 1998! Check out the posts on this blog to see some of the things he has been able to accomplish in the past 12 years. He is still helping children, and hasn't lost his drive to change the country. He is one of those people that sees a problem and does something about it and then some! I can't wait to show even more of the things he has done for the poorest of the poor. For now, I just wanted to introduce him to you, and give you his actual job description:

1. National Co-ordinator
 Responsible for conducting the full range of activities required to prepare, submit and manage grant proposals to foundation and corporate sources.
 Supporting and co-ordinating the overall Programme Management of CHILDHOPE Country office.
 Performing prospect research on foundations and corporations to evaluate prospects.
 Working with finance team to gather information necessary to report to funders on current and/or completed grant programs.
 Complying with all grants reporting as required by foundation/corporate funders.
 Providing regular written updates/reports to current and past foundation/corporate funders.
 Coordinating arrangements for on-site visits and tours for foundation/corporate funders.
 Preparing grant award summaries for internal tracking and coding purposes.
 Maintaining current records in database and in paper files, including grant tracking and reporting.
 Identifying donor prospects through suggestions from staff, past and current Board members, advisory council members, existing donors and colleagues.
 Preparing introductory mailings to prospective donors, and coordinate follow-up activities.
 Coordinating house parties and other outreach events to strengthen donor relations, and introduce prospective donors to CHILDHOPE.
 Coordinating direct mail solicitations.
 Developing/coordinating ongoing communications program for current and prospective donors, including electronic communications.
 Preparing acknowledgment letters.
 Maintaining both electronic and hard-copy donor files.
 Responding to queries, electronic and otherwise, from prospective donors.
 Participating in professional development activities to enhance knowledge and skills, including subscribe to and read fundraising periodicals, journals and e-newsletters attend, professional development conferences, and other related activities.

How Child Hope Came to be:

The inspiration of establishing Child-Hope Zambia came from the community in Chief Mwanachingwala`s area in Magoye, southern province, Zambia. They realized that most of their children were vulnerable and the number of orphans was increasing without knowing exactly the main cause of deaths for the parents.

The community also realized that most of its children lacked education, health, nutrition and protection. It was during the first weeks of mobilization when the community realized that most of the children’s parents were dying as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, most of the children in the community became AIDS victims.

The community desired to support orphans and other vulnerable children but did not know where to start from. One day Mr. Chim Mvula, (who is now known as the coordinator of Child-Hope), was in this community with his brother, who normally went into different villages spreading the word of God.

One day, Mr. Mvula decided to take a walk around to see how one of the villages looked like. As he was walking around, he met some old men who were talking about the vulnerability of children in the villages. Mr.Mvula just listened to their conversation as he was following them behind. When these men realized there was somebody following them behind, they reduced their step and greeted Mr.Mvula as per culture in the rural areas. One of them said, “It looks like you are the one who came with those men preaching the word of God. I mighty have seen you organizing things.” Mr. Mvula responded saying they were right.

Another one said, “You could be the right person to talk to.” We are discussing how we could get some help from somewhere in order for us to help the orphans and other vulnerable children because there are a lot of problems affecting them.

The one who had approached Mr. Mvula first said again, “I thought of you because I believe with what you are doing currently, you meet a lot of people and it could be easy for you to talk to some people that could help.” Mr. Mvula said, “I heard your conversation as I was following you behind, I equally have a passionate for the children.”

Mr. Mvula went on to say several times he had visited different villages and had seen that rural children were really in need. Most of the community members when asked said a number of children had one or both of their parents die due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Mr. Mvula went on to say, most of the time he traveled to the rural areas, he equally saw children with big bellies, swollen faces and most of them looked hungry. Mr. Mvula also narrated a story of one family he had visited in the village which had not eaten for two days. When he heard the story of the family and how children looked like, he was prompted to go to the nearest market to buy some dry fish (kapenta) and pre-packed mealie-meal for the family to prepare something to eat.

Mr. Mvula also discovered that the children in that family did not have blankets and covered themselves with sacks in the night. He could not believe that some families went without food and covered themselves with sacks until when he sew this. It reminded him how some people in town had excess food and blankets which could help the orphans and other vulnerable children.

He told the old men that they were sharing the same vision. He assured the men that he would go to different places to look for support for orphans, AIDS victims in Zambia and other vulnerable children especially those in the rural areas.

When the men heard this from Mr.Mvula, they embarked on community awareness campaign. The community responded very well and formed a committee that looked at the activities that were taking place. Mr. Mvula went a major campaign of soliciting for donations from individuals, businesses, churches and well-wishers in and out of Lusaka. The response was good.

With the assistance from individuals, well-wishers, churches, charities, foundations, volunteers, donors, other charitable organization and the Government of Zambia, Child-Hope has been growing and spreading to other villages. Because of this, a lot of children’s dreams have been realized. We are thankful to all who have joined us in fulfilling the work of Child-Hope Zambia.