Joyce and Bernard Blendell
The Need
In North West Zambia there are many under-nourished children and old people living in abject poverty. There is much publicity given to AIDS and HIV but the biggest killer is actually poverty! Due to poor living standards, people succumb more easily to diseases such as T.B. and malaria.
To address this need, a combined orphan village and nutrition centre has been started at Ikelenge in N.W. Zambia. The project has been running since October 2007 and the number of children cared for has grown from 3 to 33 in the first two months. Every day we see more children and widows in need of food, housing, clothing and general care to sustain a basic living. We can manage to feed the present numbers, but if the vehicle breaks down or children need school fees or shoes, it becomes a crisis! We have a vision to provide homes for 40 children with 5 widows as house-mothers.
Charity, on a long term basis, is not a good prospect and we have seen many cases out here where financial support has been cut or stopped. To meet the growing need we have planned a programme of self-help and support. God willing, the children and house-mothers will be self-supporting in the future.
Setting Out Our Objectives
1.To plant and cultivate fields of cabbages, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, beans, soya and maize to supply food for the nutrition centre. We want to produce sufficient food, not only for our own resident children but also for the daily visiting children. The land itself is available for this cultivation at no cost but we need to buy seeds and materials.
2.To sell surplus produce both locally and in the Copperbelt markets. For this purpose we would need to build a Farm Shop and acquire a 3-ton truck. Transport is scarce and very costly (as we have already found out to our cost in the past year) and the truck would be very important to us, being put to several uses:
- Picking up and transporting our own supplies and goods.
- Transporting and selling locally purchased pineapples, which are in great demand.
- Raising money by providing a service, transporting goods and people to the Copperbelt.
We would like to start a fund to raise money for this project.
3.To teach the children the importance of growing, cooking and eating nutritious food. The children would cultivate the fields as part of their practical education programme. We want to train children from about 5 years to 16 years and make them useful citizens for village life in the rural areas.
4.To build a school and a church as well as more housing accommodation in our village.
5.To visit the outlying villages, educating locals in nutrition and providing help where needed.
