“Ukusefya ichaka!”—Happy New year, in Bemba! 
 
We received these words from Theresa when the funds to begin 2024 arrived in Zambia:
"I'm on my knees (Nakunkula), rolling on the ground, before Mama Cheri, and everyone who makes the fire of Living Compassion keep burning. On behalf of the Team here we say, "THANK YOU SO MUCH and HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU."
 
As part of our Full of Beans Bridge Walk campaign, we had three fabulous calls with Theresa and Sangha last month highlighting various aspects of the project in Kantolomba. 

If you didn’t get to tune in, or if you did and you want to hear them again, you can find those recordings here. 

Thanks to the inspiration of those calls, the email class with Cheri in the fall, and your generous participation, there are now 45,632 more beans in the pot in Kantolomba. (For those who may not have been following along from the start, each “bean” added represents another dollar raised.)
That’s A LOT of lunches; Thank you!

This makes our annual pot about a third of the way full. 

Here are just a few highlights of how your “beans” were put to work in 2023:

  • 35 cooperative members continued to serve their community and earn a stipend to support their own families. 
  • Three more young women graduated from college.
  • The “little ones” in the Girls Program (primary grades) once again finished the year at the top of their class.
  • Thousands of books were checked out of the Living Compassion library, read, shared and enjoyed.
  • Individual attention to community health needs saved countless lives.
  • And 385,075 meals were served!

If you missed it, be sure to check out the recent photo timeline Cheri included in the New Beginnings blog with a history of the project in Kantolomba. It’s an inspiring read!

Stay tuned in 2024 for further workshops, yoga, and other fun ways to benefit the project in Kantolomba. We have some new ideas to add to the pot.  
 
If you have ideas or ways you would like to fundraise for the more than 1,000 children and 35 cooperative members who make up the Living Compassion community in Kantolomba, please write to us at africa@livingcompassion.org.

We shall persevere until the pot is full.
 
In gasshō,
jen