News

Edna (front) and Mercy (second from right), with some of their classmates from outside Kantolomba.

Esther with her very proud mum, Living Compassion co-op member Zilo.

Left to right: Mercy, Esther, Karen, Edna, Cynthia (from outside Kantolomba), Joyce.

Edna and Mercy with Edna’s mum, Living Compassion co-op member Natasha. We seem to have caught Mercy in a tired moment after a big day of festivities!

A group photo at the end of a very special day. We boarded the bus and all headed home together, happy and proud!

Here are Karen Banda, Mercy Bwalya, Joyce Kazembe, and Edna Phiri a couple of weeks ago, looking so tailored and smart in their uniforms after returning from school. In Zambia many schools have their graduation ceremony before the national exams take place. These girls are taking their exams this week and we wish them all the best!

Mercy Bwalya won the Most Improved Student Award. We were all SO proud of her!

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One of our cute family groups: eldest sister Marian (left), younger sister Cheri (right), and and their baby brother Chikote.

Coop member Mirriam Sibale’s sixth daughter, Esnart, doing her morning house chores. Esnart is 13 years old and is in Grade Seven at Twatemwa Primary School.

This is Solomon Banda, the uncle to Esther Banda, one of the young women in our micro business program. Solomon has been making reed mats for quite some time. He is very creative and happy about his talent. He normally goes in the field to sell his reed mats to sustain his living. He lives here in Kantolomba and is the father of four, all of whom are in the Living Compassion nutrition program.

This is Karen N’gandwe, the first-born daughter to coop member Jowan and the late Reuben, who was also a coop member. Karen is in the Girls Program and just wrote her GCE exams (post-Grade-12 examinations). Now she is waiting for her results to know the way forward. The results are likely to come out this month.

Some of the team members pose for a photo.

Here is Onesta. She’s the one whose mum died recently and left a baby brother, Comfort. She’s saying "Thank you!" for the bags of mealie meal which are going to help her and her family. Comfort spends his days at Living Companion, too, being passed to many caring arms.

A couple of very cute faces to end our post! Here are Maxwell and Stanley at their home here in Kantolomba. They are the sons of our security guard, Jackson Kunda, and siblings to Christin Kunda, who is in the Girls Program.

Perhaps you remember Onesta? Her mum died recently and she was left as the sole caregiver to her young siblings, including a baby brother. We, the Living Compassion team, stepped in to provide childcare during the day so Onesta can continue to participate in the micro business program. She also now receives extra mealie meal, like all the cooperative members, to make sure she and her siblings have enough to eat at home. Here she is smiling to say thank you so much, Team, for showing her that she is not alone in this world to take care of her family. On her back is her baby brother.

Here he is!

And speaking of cute babies, here we are on a Tuesday call with the U.S. team with a visitor--Cheri’s son came with his mum to be with us. He is a very a cute baby who takes after both his mum and his grandmother, Josephine.

Here is coop member Jacqueline caring for another member’s baby at Living Compassion. All the babies are welcome, as we have a lot of hands and hearts to take care of them!

Now it’s Docus’s turn.

The delivery of our mealie meal is always a big event.

Malila and Doris share a light moment early one morning after cleaning before classes.

Many community members come to fetch water for their households from the Living Compassion tap.

Here is Elizabeth helping care for the Living Compassion compound.

Charity is helping, too.

Auntie Jowan cleaning the surroundings. This time of year it’s windy and a lot of leaves are falling.

Benadette picking up leaves.

Sometimes it is cold in the morning and the team sits in the sun when not working. Here some of the team members warm themselves and chat.

Audria working to clear some of the land.

Rachel showing off one of our locally made brooms.

Susan and Charity picking out the larger clumps of charcoal that can be reused.

Elizabeth smiles for the camera while working.

Rachel and Natasha are good friends and enjoy working together.

Docus is a happy mother of three and a very cheerful member of the team.

Malila organizing the blankets for viewing after they arrived.

Pauline showing off some of the blankets.

Pauline chose this one for herself.

Many cooperative memebers wanted to purchase a blanket!

We were so happy with the quality of the blankets.

Dancing and ululating was the order of the day. Susan, Pauline, and Brenda were so excited about their new blankets.

Susan, wrapped in her blankets, dances as Brenda sings along.

Other community members came to see the blankets as well.

Memory making sure to record everything in the little notebook that will hold the record of people paying for their blankets over time. Each person will be able to pay at a rate that works for them.

There are so many good developments happening right now. To start with, thank you so much, Team USA for the laptop! We will now learn more about it and our communication will be easier. We have been needing a new, simple computer for the young women to use as they begin to communicate directly with the US team and to start working on their micro businesses. Now we have the computer!

Malila and Memory watching "Queen of Katwe" on the new computer. This is an inspiring movie set in Uganda that we enjoy watching as part of our English practice. We don’t get to see many movies from Africa!

This Sunday, the younger girls who attend Oremus School got to get on a Zoom call with the US team. Usually they are at school when the calls are happening, so it was a special treat to schedule this call at a time they could participate. We had a lot of fun! Another great use of the new computer!

One benefit of being a coop member is that we get two bags of mealie meal each month. This is a huge help in feeding our families. Here, the bags are being unloaded for distribution.

Jowan showing off that she is strong and can carry four bags of mealie meal using a wheelbarrow.

Each of these bags will last us about two weeks. Thanks, Team USA, for putting smiles on people's faces!

Some very exciting news! Felistus, in the Girls Program and daughter of coop member Charles, is headed to college. She’s going to study HR. Here is Charles feeling so happy and thankful after Auntie Theresa gave him the loan money for Felistus's school. He immediately went and paid the tuition.

Charles says, thank you so much! This is a win for our whole community!

And more very exciting news. Susan is a long-time member of the Girls Program. She was born with a condition that makes her unable to walk. Her old wheelchair that Living Compassion purchased years ago has worn out. It’s with great pleasure we let you know that the wheelchair for Susan was purchased, and we got it from the store today.

The chair was delivered to Susan, who was so delighted and happy. She was so thankful, she shed some tears of joy. She said that she and her family will forever be grateful to the US team for the help she has been receiving.

She's ready to go!

A friend of Auntie Theresa’s, Mubanga, came round to teach the basics of doing business. We want to start a salaula business (second-hand clothes) here in Kantolomba. Although it is the younger women in the Girls Program who are starting this venture, even the senior coop women were interested and came to listen. Mubanga is going to come back a couple more times to talk with us and to help us purchase our first bale of salaula. We’ll keep you updated on our progress!

Meet Helen, a twelve-year-old girl who lives here in Kantolomba with her sister. Helen does not go to school, as her sister and brother-in-law can not afford to buy a school uniform and books.