World Street Children News :: Zambia Streetkid News

Reformed Street Kid Embraces New Life

The Post (Lusaka)

July 14, 2006
Posted to the web July 14, 2006

Abigail Chisenga
Lusaka

A young man in Kitwe has a new lease on life after spending eleven years in the streets, and he reveals the vices that plague street children, including rampant homosexuality, STIs and drugs.

Dulu Chipampa, 22, who is now a reformed adult and employed by Beautiful Gates, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) assisting to rehabilitate street children in Kitwe, says it is difficult for him to believe that he has come this far.

‘I was about 11-years-old when I took to the streets and it all started by vehicle lining with friends’, says Chipampa popularly known as ‘papi’ in the streets.

The young man has never been raised by his family and says the only family he knew were the people on the streets, but says he visits his mother once in a while. The only thing he knows even up to now is the way of the streets, and that is ‘there is no sweet without sweat’.

When he went onto the streets, he did not know that he would be come a potential street adult, but he did it for the money, because people used to give a lot of arms. Little did he know that it was becoming part of him; he could not do without money and would sooner or later become a victim of circumstances.

‘It is not easy to be brought up in the streets I did not choose that kind of life, but due to bad company I found myself there. One has to be strong to be on the streets. It is a bad place to be found, and I never want to go back there,’ he says.

Many people have a negative view of street children, because of their behaviour, but have we taken time to think about the hardships that these people undergo? Maybe it does not affect us because they are not our relations, but suppose our brothers and sisters were the ones out there, would we leave them to live in agony and when are going to listen to the plight of these kids? Chipampa’s story is not different from any other street child’s. They go through the same agony and need to be loved like any other child. The reason they behave the way they do is that they have not yet found love and a sense of belonging.

"On the streets we treated each one like family and we really protected each other. The one reason I ran away from home was because I thought my mother loved my bothers and sisters more than me and I resorted to the streets to look for love and I found people who offered that," says Chipampa.

Chipampa says there are no rules on the streets; and what people consider to be bad is not bad on the streets; everything is good. The only wrong thing on the streets is when a street child is harmed by someone who does not belong to the streets and they become violent so as to protect their own.

He says there is homosexuality on the streets and street children have no problem with it because when they sniff glue they become very violent and out of control, their sexual feelings become high and sex is done with anyone nearby.

"Sex is not an issue on the streets, it is like play. Women who move late at night have been raped by young and older street children and of course it was under the influence of the drugs like cannabis and glue sniffing," he cries.

The former street child says the street is not a place to play with. When the street children and adults sniff glue, they become very violent and can kill each other. They play with different kinds of objects like fire, and if one is not careful, he or she can be burnt to death while others cheer and only realise when they are back to their senses.

"The glue is so nice to sniff. It gives a form of power that a person does not feel pain, cold or hungry. It takes over the body and one feels good, forgetting all the problems, thinking you are the most powerful person in the world," he says.

The reformed young man says diseases like HIV/AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) and Tuberculosis (TB) are rampant on the streets and a number of street children have died of diseases which can be cured because they do not have money to seek treatment. He adds that he was once a victim and knows how it feels to be in pain.

"People out there do not like street children and I do not blame them. They have never been there, they do not know how it feels to sleep in the cold, to go without a meal for a week, to be called a thief and continuously molested by street adults. You lose respect and become an animal, not having feelings," he says.

Chipampa says among street children the girls are defiled by security guards who guard banks and other places. "They call them and give them a place to sleep and after doing whatever they want with them they give them money." As a result, a number of boys get STDs from the same girls.

He says he had always wanted to move from the streets and his turning point came last year when he fell in love with a fellow street child and had a baby with her. Life became so hard for him because he could not afford to fend for both mother and child. The baby was sickly, and he did not have money to buy the baby proper food and warm clothing. Eventually the baby died from malnutrition.

" I loved my baby so much and it still hurts me that she died because I could not provide for her", he recalls bitterly. From then his passion for the streets was no more and he longed for a time when he would have a job, because the means of survival on the streets was watching over people’s cars, begging from passers-by. Usually the money was only enough for one meal.

"After so much hardship, I was helped by people from Beautiful Gates who used to come and preach the word of God on the streets. Apprently they were looking for someone to work on their farm and I jumped at the opportunity. Upon explaining my problems to them, they listened and took me in. They are good people," he says.

Beautiful Gates did not only help Chipampa move out of the streets, but helped his girlfriend reunite with her family and other streets children who have since gone back to the streets because they could not adjust to rules.

Chipampa says he gets about K250,000 every month and he is planning to marry his girlfriend. He says he wants to marry her and make up for the loss of their child, adding that he wants the best for his future wife and children.

" I want my children and wife to have the best. I only managed to go as far as grade four. I will make sure my mother and siblings have the best as long as I live. Even without an education I can make it," he says.

The hard-working man says he fears for the welfare of his friends on the streets and he is appealing to the public to help because they are vulnerable and could soon become a danger to society.

"I am urging all the street kids out there to try very hard to move from the streets because the streets are not good for anyone. I was a very committed streets kid and I have changed. My cry is that you find jobs and move away from the streets," he says.

Chitoba Expresses Concern Over Drug Abuse Among Street Children

The Post (Lusaka)
June 27, 2006
Posted to the web June 27, 2006

Inonge Noyoo
Lusaka

The Drug Enforcement Commission is making efforts to rehabilitate street children who are victims of drug abuse, commissioner Ryan Chitoba has observed.

And home affairs minister Bates Namuyamba has called on parents to talk about the lethal consequences of drugs to their children. Speaking at the celebrations to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking, dubbed ‘Drugs are not child play’, Chitoba said street children have remained prone to drug abuse. He said children’s exposure to drugs was becoming a great threat globally.

"The vulnerable children are one group which is prone to drug abuse under the influence of substances such as Genkem, Bolstick and these substances have serious effects to their mental development. The commission is working with government departments and NGOs to address the plight of vulnerable children on the street who are abusing substances that are not listed on the schedule such as genkem, bbolstick and alcohol," he said.

Chitoba said the commission has plans to put up a rehabilitation center for street children to undergo treatment without being pressurized into relapse by older street kids. He said drug abuse and trafficking has continued to negatively impact on the lives of children on and off the street.

"I wish to call on parents, guardians, teachers and the clergy to join hands with DEC by teaching our children that drugs are dangerous and are not child’s play, some children in school have been pressurized by older kids to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes and eventually cannabis and other drugs such as hallucinogens," he said. "This day must inspire us to do something about the problem of drugs in our families, schools, churches and communities. According to the latest estimates from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes indicate that 200 million people of the global population including children have consumed illicit drugs at least once in a year," he said. Chitoba said since January this year, DEC had seized over 70 metric tonnes of home grown cannabis.

And Namuyamba said it was the responsibility of all citizens to empower and protect children from the consequences of drugs. "Explain to your children that using drugs can severely affect their personal development as well as the country’s social economic development, let children know how these substances can cause problems in relationships and how they can tear families apart and lead to the risks of HIV infection," Namuyamba said. "By educating children on drugs, we will be empowering and protecting them from the consequences of drug abuse and other social ills," said Namuyamba.

More street kids to be trained
The number of street kids to be enrolled into skills taining camps will be increased this year.

Youth, Sport and Child Development Minister, George Chulumanda said this years recruitment exercise, which begins in August will also include girls.

Mr. Chulumanda said the recruitment will take place after the graduation of the first group of 216 former street kids in July.

He told ZNBC news that the ministry has made progress in ensuring that graduates, who will not be self-employed, are taken on by parastatal companies.

The Minister disclosed that he has written to ZESCO and ZAMTEL, to consider engaging the former street kids in labour intensive jobs.

The former street kids are training in various skills at Chiwoko in Katete, and Kitwe Zambia NAtional Service camps."

CNS STORY: Priest says poverty, AIDS cause Zambian street children problem:
By Bronwen Dachs
Catholic News Service

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) — Government-run camps where young people are taught skills are not the solution to Zambia’s growing number of unemployed youths living on the streets, said a Catholic official.

Poverty is the core problem, said Father Joe Komakoma, general secretary of the Zambian bishops’ conference.

Zambia, with a population of about 10 million, is one of the world’s poorest nations.

According to official figures, the southern African country has about 75,000 street children, but analysts say almost double that number live on the streets and turn to begging or prostitution.

Many are orphans whose parents have died of AIDS in a country with an adult HIV-prevalence rate of 16.5 percent, Father Komakoma said in an April 10 telephone interview with Catholic News Service from Zambia’s capital, Lusaka.

‘Others have parents who can’t find jobs,’ he said.

The government needs to draw up ‘a coherent, comprehensive policy that deals with poverty, education and the employment of young people,’ he said.

The National Service Skills Training camps, introduced by President Levy Mwanawasa’s government in 2004, ‘address only one aspect — teaching skills to young people — and the question needs to be asked, ‘Then what?'’ said Father Komakoma.

The national program, which emphasizes discipline, is aimed at youths between the ages of 15 and 25, and so far only boys have been admitted to the residential camps, also known as resource and training centers.

Sixteen camps have been set up, with more planned in all of Zambia’s 72 districts.

Camps in the towns of Katete in eastern Zambia and Kitwe in the northwest are training 207 young people taken off the streets, and they are expected to finish the program this year, after 18 months of learning carpentry, farming, mechanics and tailoring.

While a government official has said that those who graduate from the program will be given loans and equipment to set up businesses, "if there is a detailed plan for this, we haven’t seen it yet," Father Komakoma said.

"All these camps are is a firefighting activity, a response to the effects of poverty instead of addressing the core issues," he said.

But Anthony Kunda, coordinator of the food security and livelihoods program in the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Lusaka, said the camps’ strong focus on agricultural skills is "very welcome."

Zambia has "abundant natural resources such as water and land, and we need to direct the energies of unemployed people into agricultural production," Kunda said in a telephone interview from Lusaka.

"They need the skills to be able to use the land," such as being taught which animals thrive in which areas, "so that they can make a livelihood using what they have," he said.

The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace runs courses to teach agricultural production to people in rural areas in three Zambian dioceses, Kunda said.

"The aim of these courses is to help young people to be productive and able to stand on their own," he said. "But most of Zambia’s youth need support to live a better life, and we can only reach a small fraction of the needy."

Father Komakoma said young people should be taught at school the skills they are learning in the government-run camps.

"Institutional support — including bursaries — is needed to help children attend school," he said, noting that although education is free in Zambia "there are hidden costs," such as paying for books and examination fees.

"What money is required to attend school is beyond the capacity of orphans and children whose parents are unemployed," he said.

Also, "the quality of education needs to be improved so that children finish primary school with the skills they need to make a basic living," Father Komakoma said.

"Street children have been a big problem in Zambia since 1991, when privatization of national assets started and social protection disappeared," Father Komakoma said, noting that "there is a clear correlation between the end of subsidies and the rising of poverty levels."

Multiparty elections, backed by Zambia’s Catholic bishops, brought an end to former President Kenneth Kaunda’s one-party rule in 1991. Kaunda had been in power since the country gained independence from Britain in 1964.

Zambia: Taking Street Kids Back to School

The Times of Zambia (Ndola)

March 30, 2006
Posted to the web March 30, 2006

Mercy Chewetu

AT a time when street children are renowned for perpetrating violence, 14-year-old Kennedy Kamanga of Lusaka should be a privileged boy to have left the streets and gone back to school.

Kennedy who lives with his two young brothers, a sister and an ailing mother in Kalingalinga township, is currently doing grade seven at Kalingalinga basic school and has vowed never to abandon school until his dream is fulfilled.

"I have gone back to school because I want to become a doctor some day," says the boy whose father died in 2001 before relatives descended on the hapless family to grab the property.

"When my father died, his relatives grabbed all our property and we were chased out of the house and I went to stay with my mother’s elder sister. This is because my mother had to go to the village with my young sister and brothers."

While at his aunt’s place, he was mistreated, beaten regularly and being forced to do household chores on an empty stomach. At times, he only had one meal in a day while the rest of the family members could have three meals per day.

"Because of mistreatment, I stopped school and I had no uniforms and no money to pay for my school fees. Hence, I decided to join my friends in the streets because they assured me that out there, a haven is provided for street kids with people giving money and food."

Kabulonga shopping complex in Lusaka was his place of refuge. There, he learnt survival skills. Everytime he saw someone walking out of the complex with a trolley of groceries, he would stretch his arms while maintaining a solemn expression on his face. Then the Good Samaritan would drop either food or money in his hands before walking off.

Tired and dirty from the endless food hunting missions, the night would come when shelter was needed.

There was nowhere the poor boy could lay his weary body as the fear of street life gripped him. He had no choice but to trot back to his aunt’s place despite the mistreatment.

He still remembers how hard street life was. Especially the beatings from the elder boys who got into the habit of grabbing things from the smaller boys.

Street life could be incomplete without one being introduced to the infamous sniffing of substances like glue in dirty bottles or sniffing dried human excretes in bottles. To this vice, Kennedy was not spared.

"After some months, my mother came back with my brothers and sisters. They found a house in Kalingalinga, but life was not easy because my mother started getting sick. Being the first born, I had to take care of my younger brothers and sisters," recalls the boy.

Tragedy befell their house. His 10-year-old young brother was sexually abused by an elderly woman within the township and got syphilis. The matter was reported to the police and the woman has since been jailed.

Later, Kennedy became the bread winner through stone crushing. He used to get K 1,000 per one full wheelbarrow in a day forcing him in the afternoon to go in the streets to earn some extra money. His family could then have a decent meal on the table the following day.

"One day I was at Kabulonga shopping complex when I saw a car trying to park at Melissa and two ladies whom I asked if I could guard their car in exchange for bread and which they agreed," he says.

It was this encounter that changed the status of the boy. His long-dwindled school dreams were rekindled as the two kind women offered to sponsor him back to school, having learnt that he was not only in need of temporal bread but an investment in education.

"When they came out from the shop, they gave me a loaf of bread and asked where I stayed and if I was interested in going back to school. I agreed and they promised to come back the following day."

The promise was honoured. After a week, a school place was found at Kalingalinga basic school in grade five.

The two ladies turned out to be Monica Eisenbeig, a personal development consultant and Charity Moola a fashion designer who is also a minister of the gospel.

One afternoon, the duo was back at Kabulonga shopping complex. And when a guard asked them what name to write on the receipt, they told him to write ‘Back to School’ because they saw children going back to school.

After the school holiday, they eventually decided to form an organisation called Back to School Education Centre in Kabulonga.

The organisation was eventually born in November 2004 as a private initiative to help vulnerable children found on the streets to go back to school.

In the long run, it is expected to help transform the children into better citizens as they fulfill their dreams for a better tomorrow.

"Right now, I eat three meals just like any other kid and I know how to read and write because ‘Back to School Education Centre’ offers me extra lessons when I knock off from school."

Being on the streets does not mean one cannot be what they dream of in life. Everyone can realise their dreams, if only they could get just a little bit of help.

Ms Eisenbeig says the organisation supports children who are single or double orphans and because their families cannot afford to feed and take them to school.

Currently, the organisation has two children who are in grade 12 while others are in grade 10 with a good number doing their lower grades.

She said most of the kids found on the streets are as a result of losing one or both parents. The children between the ages of six and 18 years are exposed to different kinds of abuse including drug and sexual.

And Charity Moola says children need special affection for them to feel loved and cared for because the kids on the street are gifted with different talents and each one of them is different.

While some children resort to begging on the streets as a result of hunger, others end up on the streets because of they lack anyone to help them or any shoulder to cry on.

"We try to instill a sense of traditional values and respect in the children so that they can understand where they are coming from," said Ms Moola.

Although the two women consider themselves as parents, they still face a lot of difficulties and challenges in handling the children. One explanation is that by virtue of coming from the streets the boys are usually rude, aggressive and dishonest.

And since the organisation has been discouraging children from begging, it would only be proper to ensure its programmes are not donor-funded. And that is what has been happening.

Ms Moola says the organisation does not want to depend on donors because it wants to set an example to the children and society that begging is not a solution to one’s problems.

The children are taught on behavioral change, self-care and hygiene so that they do not get diseases like cholera and bilharzia which are common in the townships.

They are also encouraged to compete within themselves and not with others if they are to succeed in life because determination comes from within oneself.

Only if they compete within themselves shall they be able to realise their full potential!

Reuters AlertNet - ZAMBIA: Street kids open their minds to govt plan
27 Mar 2006 17:50:41 GMT
Source: IRIN

LUSAKA, 27 March (IRIN) - Poverty and HIV/AIDS are sending a growing number of children onto Zambian streets, where most have few options other than begging or sex work to get by

But when the government offered a young and homeless John Chibale an opportunity to access vocational training last year, he turned it down. He believed that the Skills Training and Transformation Programme was an attempt to decongest the streets by dumping street children in ‘concentration camps’.

Today, Chibale, 18, says he regrets the decision. He is a drug addict and the streets of the capital, Lusaka, are still his home.

The National Service Skills Training camps in the towns of Katete in the east and Kitwe in the northwest are training 207 other street children, and has helped open doors for them. After eighteen months of training the first group is expected to graduate later this year with skills in carpentry, farming, mechanics and tailoring.

Emmanuel Sandi, Deputy Minister for Sports, Youth and Child Development said the government would provide children who graduated from the programme with loans and tools to set up businesses, financed by a US $12 million revolving fund.

‘Agriculture [as a subject of instruction] is compulsory because we want to promote food security,’ he told IRIN.

Zambia officially has about 75,000 street children, but it is estimated that almost twice that number roam the streets. According to a study by the International Labour Organisation, most youngsters living rough or in prostitution were orphans.

‘We sent these boys to be rehabilitated and acquire skills but, above all, we are instilling discipline. They are not allowed to smoke cigarettes or drink any alcoholic beverages, and the confinement does not allow them to keep cash that can allow them to buy such things,’ Sandi commented.

Since the programme began in 2004, 32 children have deserted from the camps and two have died from various ailments during training.

Nelly Sambwa, 12, who lives rough in the northern town of Ndola has urged the government to extend the programme to include girls. So far only boys have been admitted.

‘I didn’t know that the government was offering us an opportunity to reform through skills training and rehabilitation. I would like to go if I’m given a chance,’ she said, a small container of what smelt like petrol by her side.

To date 16 resource and training centres have been set up, with more planned in all the country’s 72 districts, and will include girls. A camp has been earmarked for Kabwe, about 200 km north of Lusaka.

The Deputy Minister of Community Development and Social Welfare, Sebio Mukuka, noted that the training centres gave the children an opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty and hunger. ‘Can you imagine how good it will be if our children and youth can obtain skills, and how much money they will make and sustain themselves? Poverty can be eradicated if small-scale businesses are availed to the youths of Zambia.’

Sandi urged Zambians to prioritise family values and to provide a support system for HIV/AIDS orphans. ‘Family values are breaking up because of HIV/AIDS-related cases, and people are no longer willing to take responsibility for orphans. We are a very cultured society … [and] have for a long time believed in extended families. We should look beyond our own children if society’s moral fibre is to be maintained.’

Zambia has an adult HIV prevalence rate of 16.5 percent."

AngolaPress - News: "LUSAKA, 03/01 - The Zambian government has called on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country to build more training camps so as to help address the plight of street kids.

Deputy Youth Minister Emmanuel Sandi said Tuesday the government alone can not manage to meet the costs of tackling the problems that the street kids were facing.

He was quoted by Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) as saying the government has allocated 2.3 billion kwacha (about 700,000 U.S. dollars) to street kids training camps, but the money was not enough to cater for all of them hence the need of assistance from NGOs as well as other business institutes.

The deputy minister noted that training camps would facilitate the imparting of skills into street kids to enable them generate an income and feed themselves.

The United Nations Children`s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that there are currently over 75,000 children living on the streets of Zambia`s main cities and towns like Lusaka, Livingstone and Ndola.

Poverty is attributed as the main cause of emergence of street kids in Zambia, where about 70 percent people live under poverty line of one dollar per day.

The HIV/AIDS adds to the plight of street kids and UNICEF says the number of street kids is likely to increase in the next couple of years as the disease is decimating the country`s 11 million people."

Let’s Do Something About Street Children

The Post (Lusaka)

EDITORIAL
February 22, 2006
Posted to the web February 22, 2006

Lusaka

It is truly an absolute disgrace to have so many children living like rats on our streets.

Like Don MacDonald, we find it very difficult to understand how anyone can remain indifferent to the problem of street children in this country. No matter how much we try to turn a blind eye to this problem, the number of street children is on the rise. This is not an imaginary problem. These children exist in our midst, on our streets - we see them every day. And unless we choose to ignore their plight, we can do something for these children.

It is very difficult for us to understand how possible it is for us, as a nation, to ignore the plight of these children. These children are highly endangered. Many factors of living on the streets combine to rapidly destroy them. Contrary to the policy pursued by some individuals and organisations who believe that we should help these children while leaving them on the street, we believe that they are in a mortal danger on the street and that we should try to eradicate this way of life: on the street, they turn quickly to crime, they start to take drugs or prostitute themselves.

Street children are hungry. If they cannot find food, they will steal it, or the older children will force them to steal. Stealing will become a habit. At the beginning, they may be afraid, they know that if they are caught they will be beaten, maybe killed.

To pluck up courage, they take drugs. Anything is acceptable. They take cheap drugs: they put petrol on an old rag; they sniff carpenter glue. It all depends on the money they can get. These products are extremely dangerous as they destroy the brain, and after years of such drug abuse these poor children can become zombies.

Caught in such a life, children do not have many chances. And if they start living on the street when they are eight years old, they only have a one-in-two chance of reaching the age of 12.

We should take them off the street as soon as possible. If they are helped straightaway, they can be saved. Later, it is probable that as they are used to a certain amount of liberty - even with the difficulties involved - they will go back to the streets, to the drugs and the delinquency. We know that if we do not tackle this problem or if we simply pretend to help or talk without taking action, many street children will die. And the survivors will have a very bleak future.

Of course, to solve this problem in a permanent way, what is needed is prevention, so that new children do not end up on the street. But in the meantime, we must save those who are already there. As in medicine, it is foolish to choose between prevention and treatment, as clearly both are urgently needed.

Street children can be saved and all that is needed is political determination.

It’s very difficult for us to bear the thought that these children, even very young ones, are living and dying in the streets. We know that helping these children to get out of the streets is a tough job. But something can be done if the political will is there. We have no alternative but to do something because we can’t continue to watch these children in a perpetual brutal existence. We are denying these children a childhood. What we see at Manda Hill traffic lights and other streets of our towns and cities paints a very worrying picture.

Without really playing the blame game, we believe it should be the responsibility of government to ensure that these children are given a chance to live decent lives off the streets. But who is government? It is all of us. If this is so, why can’t we collectively do something about this problem? If government belongs to us, why can’t we tell government or force it to do something about this problem?

It seems the problem is that our government is making informed, deliberate choices that actually hurt childhood. But what should trouble our minds is that when so many of our children are growing up hungry, lonely and unhealthy, we should be ashamed that we have failed to deliver on the promise of childhood.

The consequences of not paying attention to the problems of these children do not need to be overstated. Meeting the Millennium Development Goals depends on reaching these vulnerable children across the breadth and width of our country. There cannot be lasting progress if we continue to overlook the children most in need - those on the streets, the poorest and most vulnerable, the exploited and the abused. Be that the indisputable reality, over 750,000 of our country’s children are vulnerable and 75,000 of these live on the streets. These children do not have homes, they only have food at the mercy of almsgivers and they spend cold nights on the streets. These are children who do not have any hope of getting an education. These are children whose future has been shattered.

When looking at this problem, what we should note is that it is less a factor of income than of basic rights. And this is why we urge our government to adopt a human rights based approach to social and economic development, especially as it is related to the plight of children. When making social and economic programmes or policies, our politicians should bear in mind the long-lasting effects on children. Otherwise, these children will continue being deprived of some semblance of a normal childhood. We have to change this and give children a normal childhood, which they should deserve as a matter of right and not a matter of privilege.

"Street Children Problem Needs More Efforts, Says Maureen

The Post (Lusaka)
February 1, 2006
Posted to the web February 1, 2006
Masuzyo Chakwe
Lusaka

FIRST Lady Maureen Mwanawasa has said there is need for more players to deal with the problem of street children.
In an interview on Tuesday, Maureen said there was no straight answer to the problem of street children.
Maureen said government had tried by opening centres in Eastern Province for children on the streets but there was need for more efforts.

‘We need more funding, long and short-term programmes as we do with other issues. We shouldn’t even be calling them street children because this is not how we would want children to grow up,’ she said.

Maureen said some of the children on the streets had homes with parents but had chosen to live like that.
And Maureen said a group of medical experts from the Harvard University in the United States, in partnership with government, would be coming to Zambia this month to create a Maternal Care Centre of Excellence.
She said a site had been identified by the government and that if it is approved, they would proceed with construction works.
Maureen said the group would be in the country for five days "

Friday, December 30, 2005

A Christmas Party for Street Kids

This year we were privileged to be a part of the annual Christmas party for street kids. There are hundreds of boys and girls as young as 5 years old living on the streets. They beg, steal, prostitute themselves, sniff glue to get high, doing anything to survive. These children desperately need the hope of Jesus.

The children heard a presentation of the gospel, played soccer, ate lunch, danced to "Uncle G’s band", and experienced a puppet show about Christmas.

Please pray for a young street boy named Adam that God has put in John’s path. Every time John sees Adam he tells him a Bible story and Adam seems very hungry for God. We would also like to see him come off the street to live in a center for street boys.