This is the first of a two-part series by Children International employee Vong Hamilton, who accompanied the International Youth Day delegates from around the world as they visited New York City.
DAY 1
I fell headlong into humility in -- of all places -- a pizzeria in downtown New York City. And that was just the beginning.
I watched two of our youth delegates, Ranjit and Chengo, each order two slices of pizza, a cheeseburger and fries. I thought to myself, "Seriously...can they eat that much food?" To my surprise, they did!
As I listened to Chengo talk, something triggered a faraway memory, though I knew it could only have been drawn from my imagination as I'd never been to Zambia before except to lose myself in photos. I envisioned Africa’s poverty and desolation; and in that desolate place in my thoughts, I imagined what Chengo's life must be like.
I pictured him 24 hours prior, living in his squatter community with his mom, who is very ill. I pictured him in front of their shack, his little sister peeping from behind, and the rest of the world going on without them as they stared down the lonesome road, anxiety mirrored on their faces as they waited to see what they'd have for their next meal.
And there was Chengo...in New York...in a pizzeria...eating fries. Fries that I never think twice about throwing away if they get cold. Chengo and Ranjit couldn't believe they could choose anything off the menu. And I started to really reflect on how different their lives are from mine. How I get the liberty of having choices... deciding what to eat, what to wear and where to go; whereas, perhaps they just take what they’re given and are grateful.
Suddenly I felt appalled at all the materialism in my world…and yet appreciative at the same time of the simple things I overlook on a daily basis. I wished so much to do something special for the kids…as if a material gift could diminish their poverty. But I knew that, for them, being a part of something as special as sponsorship and getting to experience the trip of a lifetime was more than anything they could ever wish for.
Be sure and check back tomorrow as Vong finishes sharing her reflections on a trip that forever changed her way of looking at life...
Sponsored youth, Chengo Chewe from Lusaka, Zambia, Africa shares his plans for International Youth Day in New York:
I have been talking to a lot of people from all over the world about Zambia and the youth in Zambia. I am looking forward to meeting more youth and talking to them about their countries and communities. We will definitely share problems and successes we face in our various communities.
I am learning more about other youth activities that promote the Millennium Development Goals in other parts of the world. This will help me to teach my fellow Zambian youth what I learned and to do our activities like the others do to achieve maximum success.
I was so excited because I left my country for the first time in my life. I never thought I would one day fly to place where only the rich and educated go. New York is a very big city with very big buildings that seem to reach the clouds.
Definitely my life will never be the same when I get back.
Photo by Clementina Chapusha, Communications Coordinator for Children International in Lusaka, Zambia, Africa.
Erycah in Lusaka, Zambia Africa discusses how sponsorship helps to ease poverty.
Q: What is your favorite part of sponsorship?
A: My favorite part is gift distribution. My favorite gift was a blanket. I was happy because I didn't have one.
Q: What do you want your sponsor to know about you?
A: I want my sponsor to know that I am very happy. We used to suffer a lot before I was sponsored, but now things are better for my family and me.
Photo and reporting assistance by Clementina Chapusha, Communications Coordinator in Lusaka, Zambia.
Photos by Clementina Chapusha.
Despite living in poverty, kids are still kids and playtime is an important part of any day. Yet when many families in Lusaka, Zambia, Africa earn around $20 a month, children must be resourceful. These enterprising little kids show us their improvised toys and that their spirits can’t be broken so easily by their sometimes harsh surroundings.
Clay toys like this tractor are common.
Children play soccer with balls made out of plastic bags.
Pretending to cook like her mother, this little girl mixes mud in a discarded jar.
To sponsor a needy child in Africa, please visit our
homepage.
One of the best ways to find out the straight skinny on anything is to ask someone who does it. And for those who want to know the inside story on child sponsorship, there’s no better source than the people who sponsor and the professionals who run the sponsorship programs.
Does such a definitive resource exist for people who sponsor through Children International? The answer is yes!
The Children International Sponsors Google Group is a place where sponsors and professionals from CI get together and talk. You’ll hear sponsors share their happy stories…and some sad ones also. And you’ll get a chance to communicate with people like Neeta Goel (Director of Program Services), Paul Hooper (Regional Director for Africa), other staff from the Program Services department, Greg Jones from Sponsor Services, and many others.
So if you’re curious about how to sponsor a child in Africa…what CI is doing to help feed starving children through our nutrition program…what it’s like to visit your sponsored child in Guatemala…and any number of other questions,
check out the Google group today. You’ll like what you see. Most importantly, you’ll get a chance to share your ideas with other sponsors just like you – people who have decided to make a difference…and are doing it!
Do these smiling children look familiar?
Mary, Mwanza, Manase and Lovemore (not pictured: Clever).
Some of you may remember them from a couple of posts in last year’s blog. My colleagues, Gretchen and Scott, and I met them while we were in Zambia, Africa, last spring. Since their parents died a few years ago, the children have lived alone, fending for themselves any way they could. You can read about our visit in the following posts from our old blog:
A Fighting ChanceWhat It Means To Be AloneClementina, our Communications Coordinator in Lusaka, snapped their picture recently at one of our community centers. She reports that they are happy and well, and…all of them are now in school! A few months ago this would truly have been an impossible dream.
One year ago...
So a great big “thank-you” to all their sponsors. In the span of one short year you have made an incredible difference in these children’s lives!
By Clementina Chapusha.
Clementina Chapusha, our communications coordinator in Zambia, Africa provides this report in observance of World Malaria Day, which is tomorrow, April 25th. This year’s theme is Counting Malaria Out, and is a part of a global outreach program to educate people on the impact of malaria and efforts to stop it.
Malaria is responsible for nearly 1 million deaths annually, and infects hundreds of millions more around the world.
It starts with a shaking chill, followed by a fever that can exceed 104 degrees. A severe headache, body aches and nausea or vomiting then takes over. The fever typically breaks after several hours, followed by drenching sweats. The fever then become intermittent. If not treated in time it starts causing damage to vital organs, particularly the brain.
“Malaria kills an African child every 30 seconds.” These are chilling words from the National Malaria Control Center. To bring it closer to home, CI-Zambia last year lost six sponsored children to this deadly disease.
Seven-year-old Patson Mvula, a sponsored child from Kanyama, is a victim of recurring malaria. He is frail and rarely smiles, the pain he suffers shows on his face.
He sleeps on a chair the whole day listening to his friends playing outside and dreams of joining them. But his pounding headache and weak limbs leave him prone most of the time, too sick and exhausted to stand.
Patson was tested at the center using the newly acquired Rapid Malaria Testing Kit. He was found positive and immediately put on medication. His recovery may take some time but, thankfully, he is now out of danger.
According to Children International doctor Lalick Banda, Patson’s recurring Malaria could mean that his immunity is low or that he does not sleep under a treated mosquito net.
Thousands of children like Patson suffer from Malaria every month but without treatment they face possible death. In children below the age of 5, particularly infants, the disease tends to be more severe. Pregnant women are also more vulnerable since their immune systems are less capable of protecting them from the disease. And for the unborn child, maternal malaria increases the risk of spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, premature delivery and low birth weight - a leading cause of child mortality.
Malaria is a parasitic disease that is transmitted between humans through the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito. It is endemic to Zambia and continues to be a major public health problem. It causes severe social and economic burden on communities, especially on the poorest and most vulnerable households.
In communities like Kanyama and Chibolya, which are overcrowded, Malaria is very prevalent because of poor sanitation, uncollected garbage and lack of drainage; all these offer conducive breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
Children International-Zambia has made it mandatory to fight Malaria among sponsored families by providing insecticide treated mosquito nets. Recently the agency also purchased rapid testing kits in an effort to quickly diagnose and treat sponsored children, dramatically decreasing the potential severity of the infection.
April 25 is a day of unity in observance of the global effort to provide effective control of Malaria. CI-Zambia will join the rest of the world to mark World Malaria Day and continue working toward a time when we’ll all be “Counting Malaria Out.”
As I was looking through photos for today’s blog, these kiddos caught my attention – some children just love to have their pictures taken! Here are some of my favorite strike-a-pose, ham-it-up, please-oh-please-take-my-picture moments.
Chary and Nayeli in Barranquilla, Colombia work it for the camera.
Despite living in poverty in Legazpi, Philippines, these kids are all smiles.
Enjoying a little bit of shade in Lusaka, Zambia, Africa.
Massiel in Valparaíso, Chile, situates herself strategically in front of the Children International van.
Photos by Patricia Calderón, Anthony Lorcha, Clementina Chapusha and Leopoldo Montesinos from our child sponsorship agencies around the word. To see more awesome pictures of sponsored children and children waiting to be sponsored, please visit our website at
www.children.org.
Born to parents who were among the earliest Peace Corps volunteers sent out by President Kennedy, working as Regional Director for CI’s child sponsorship program in the Africa Region comes naturally to Paul Hooper.
Paul stands in front of the Nile River during a visit to Uganda, Africa.
Paul holds an International MBA and spent three years as a Peace Corps volunteer serving impoverished communities in Latin America. His wife, Julie, who works as a marketing manager for Children International, is also a veteran of the Peace Corps.
Recently, Paul shared with me one of the defining moments in his career:
“A couple of years ago I happened to be in Zambia when a young girl named Tina was being treated for a rare form of cancer. Our local staff had taken her to see every specialist possible, and they all concluded that she would need an operation to remove a large tumor from her belly, but that there was virtually no chance of her surviving the surgery. I visited Tina in her humble home one afternoon and took her a load of groceries that her sponsor had paid for and some candy valentine hearts – the kind with the little messages on them. She pulled one out of the box and asked me what it said. I told her it said “You’re Special”. Her sunken eyes lit up and she started to beam with pride. Tina died a week later.
The generosity of her sponsor brought a little joy to Tina's last days.
Without CI Tina’s final days would have been spent alone and hidden in shame from her neighbors. But thanks to CI, Tina died knowing that she was special and that someone out there, someone she never met, cared dearly for her.”
"My favorite memory is when I came to the CI center for the first time. It was such a wonderful experience.
I like the education part of sponsorship, especially the library. I also like the gift distribution because CI helps us a lot. My favorite gift was a beautiful shirt.
I would like my sponsor to come to Zambia and see what he has done for me."
Jeff is one of many needy children who benefit from Children International's child sponsorship program in Zambia. To learn more about how you can sponsor a child in Africa, please visit our website at www.children.org.Photo and reporting assistance by Clementina Chapusha.
Photos and blog by Clementina Chapusha, Communications Coordinator in Lusaka, Zambia.
Children International- Zambia, Africa with the help of generous donors, Robert and Deborah Holmes, recently renovated and furnished four community schools in the Chibolya and Kanyama Compounds. Before Children International’s support, the classrooms had no floors, and children were sitting on the ground during lessons. The classrooms were unpainted and lacked windows for ventilation.
With the donations the inner and outer walls of the schools were plastered and painted, and concrete floors were put. New latrines were built and old ones renovated. Windows and doors were added to the classrooms as well. Desks were purchased and delivered to all the schools.
“Our school has changed. The environment is now conducive. Teaching and learning is now enjoyable. If there is any better friend we have now, it is Children International,” Libonene School Manager, Wilbrad Moono said. Libonene is among three other community schools that were listed for renovation. The others include Chifundo and Fight Poverty Community Schools.
The International Children's Charity also built a classroom for the Chibolya Community School which only had two classes that catered to nearly 500 poor children. The school lessons were done in three sessions everyday, and each class had over 80 children per session.
Precious Mulilo has been at Chibolya Community School since first grade and is now in grade seven. She is about to leave the school to go to a secondary school and remarked:
“We only had two classrooms and very few desks. What Children International has done is a very nice thing. I now have hope that one day this school will be a secondary school.”
This is Bowazi Sakala from Lusaka, Zambia, Africa. When our Communications Coordinator, Clementina Chapusha sat down to chat with him at the community center, he had a lot of nice things to say:
"My favorite part of sponsorship is letter writing and medicals. My favorite gift was the pots I got for Special Hug. My favorite memory about coming to the center was the day I received a bag of Maize Meal, cooking oil, sugar, rice and school supplies. I would like to tell my sponsor to continue helping me because this help is changing my life."
To sponsor a child in Africa or any of the other 10 countries that Children International works in, click the link at the right. You can help change the life of a child living in poverty too.
In Lusaka, Zambia, Africa poverty is rampant and many children go hungry. The lucky ones eat once, maybe twice a day, yet Sandra Nkontankota and her three sisters count themselves among the most fortunate. With monthly special donations from a loving and dedicated sponsor, worrying about what they will eat has become a thing of the past for the Nkontankota family. The mother of the family, Juliet, explains, “We used to eat once a day. Now we eat three times. Apart from the usual, CI also buys us rice, juice and sugar.” In addition to the three meals a day, the girls also enjoy something almost unheard of in their village – snacks between meals.
While feeding programs are not the main focus of Children International’s sponsorship program, our Lifeline Food Program is there to help feed hungry or malnourished children that come to our community centers. The special donations that Sandra’s sponsor makes help to supplement the family’s nutrition even further. And for Juliet the difference in her children is clear. “I am very happy. My kids now look healthy, and they are in school.”
Photo and reporting assitance by Clementina Chapusha, Communications Coordinator in Lusaka, Zambia.
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