“My passion to help the poor and especially the orphans came about due to the fact that I was orphaned at a young age.”
I became an orphan in my early teens. After my father died of diabetes, two days later, I also lost one of my older brothers, Peter. The pain was just too much for my mother. She became very depressed and refused to eat. The lack of food caused severe malnutrition and a year later, my mother too, passed.
My two younger siblings and I then moved into my oldest brother, Michael’s, home. On several occasions, I would have sleepless nights and cry because I knew that we had not only lost our parents, but we had also lost our place in the community. I felt excluded from other children who would constantly talk about their homes and of their relationships with their parents.
PETER
Although we lived with my brother, I felt responsible for my two younger siblings and I became overly protective and assumed the role of mother. I made sure I bathed and fed them every day and I washed their clothes. My circumstance got worse though when I also lost my youngest brother, Herbert, six months after our mother had died. For many years, I would stay awake at night thinking about who else might die. I had constant nightmares about our future without parents. Each time someone asked me where my parents were, my eyes would fill up and tears run down my cheeks while I struggled for an answer.
I have watched the number of orphans increase rapidly due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Zambia. I have also watched many of these orphans roam about in the streets because there is no one to look after them.
My mother is standing in the middle, back row. I am the little girl sitting on my brother, Michael’s, lap.
Over and over, my heart has bled for these children and I have looked forward to a day when I could help them. I want to help them through education and through implementation of poverty alleviation programs that will help them become what God has called them to be.
Zambia is my starting point for the care of orphans and poverty alleviation programs because as an orphan, I imagined a day when I would help the community I grew up in by working to combat the poverty and devastation caused by HIV/AIDS through caring for those most at risk – the children – with loving, holistic care and an introduction to the gospel of Christ.
“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27a)
My goal is:
Rescuing Street/Homeless children
Caring for orphans and children in family-style settings.
Providing Christian caregivers.
Addressing physical, spiritual, and emotional needs.
Giving the Gift of Education
Meeting individual academic needs
Providing educational guidance
Encouraging High School education and vocational training.
Strengthening Communities
Meeting community needs to build strong ties
Addressing health care and disease prevention
Creating micro-enterprise solutions for economic development
“We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians, 4:13)
To read my Christian testimony, click here.