In February 2020, the Heart for Zambia Humanitarian Foundation opened a students’ residence in Livingstone, accommodating 30 students – 15 boys and 15 girls. The two houses, as well as the accompanying land and furnishings, were fully funded by Croatian people. As a result, the students’ residence is dubbed the “Croatian Heart for Zambia”. I visited the residence many times during my August stay in Livingstone, speaking with the students, directors, and Managing Board members… The residence was off to a good start, but the Covid-19 outbreak, as everywhere else in the world, caused various problems.
It gives me tremendous joy that a student who was once our Foundation’s scholarship recipient, and who studied in Israel and Spain, became a new employee at the students’ residence this month (September 2020). We hope that he will be of great assistance not just to the managing team at the students’ residence, but also to our students, by sharing his personal experiences from outside of Africa.
Scholarships for our students
In order for our students to be able to study and have all of the essential resources, it is necessary to provide them with scholarships. Therefore, we are asking all good-hearted and caring people to choose one of our students and commit to assisting her financially. Monthly fees are EUR 50.00 per student, with an annual scholarship of EUR 600.00. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has helped us in any manner with this amazing project. Let’s help these young people get an education. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” /N. Mandela/
Note: When making a scholarship donation, please indicate the name of the student you’re assisting under purpose of payment, and then e-mail us their name to: srcezazambiju@gmail.com.
Students who need scholarships
Ireen Mweemba
midwifery
Nosiku Njaaya
midwifery
Juliet Kalaba
nursing
Ketty Ngonga
nursing
John Muijenda
medical technician
Kirit Mwamba
midwifery
Sandra Nawakwi
nursing
Violet Siamubi
nursing
Ruth Zulu
nursing
Natasha Ngoma
nursing
Mooya Makondo
nursing
Iwake
nursing
Felicitas Muntali
nursing
Esther Phiri
nursing
Elizabeth Nsokolo
nursing
Mukelabai Mulasikwanda
medicine
Edith Mwila
medicine
Lyford Banda
medicine
Hussein Nkhata
medicine
Some of our graduated students
Frank Sep Mbonabi
from Nawinda
LIVINGSTONE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Fred Makumba
Double orphan from Shotokelo Village in Senanga District.
MONGU CATHOLIC COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Justina Changa Mebelo
Assistant nurse in Nawinda RHC. Wants to go for Diploma in registered nursing in Senangal
Martin Likezo
George Benson Christian college of education
Simushi Silumesi
Community SchoolTeacher in GRZ Walawala Basic School. Applied for distant course learning at David Livingtone TTC – Livingsand – accepted.
Nawinda mission students’ residence for high school students
The Nawinda mission lies in Zambia’s Western Province, the poorest and least developed region of the country, populated primarily by the Lozi tribe, who speak Silozi. The Nawinda mission encompasses thousands of square kilometres and hundreds of villages separated by great distances.
People in that part of Zambia have next to nothing – no running water, electricity, clothes, food, blankets, or adequate medical care. They sleep in huts made of mud and grass. Let’s help them obtain an education so that they can help themselves and break the vicious cycle of poverty. “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” /Chinese proverb/
We are planning to build a students’ residence for high school students, to provide them with the opportunity to complete their high school education, which is not free in Zambia. The plan is to construct two separate residences, one for boys and one for girls, accommodating 50 boys and 50 girls.
We have a corn farm in the mission, next to our residence, which is irrigated on a drop-by-drop basis. The farm will be extremely beneficial not just to the children living in the students’ residence, but also to the people of Nawinda and surrounding communities, particularly during times of hunger.
The boys’ house is already completed.
The land for the girls’ house has been cleared, and some of the building blocks have been prepared. Construction will commence as soon as we raise the much-needed funds. If you want to help with the construction of the girls’ house, you can make a donation to the Foundation’s bank account: Zaklada Srce za Zambiju, IBAN: HR7824080021100053032; SWIFT: PAZGHR2X; Partner banka dd Zagreb. You can also donate via PayPal account or the GoGetFunding platform.
Sponsoring our high school students
In Zambia, high school education is not free, and parents are unable to afford it for their children due to extreme poverty. Furthermore, their villages are 10, 20, 30, or more kilometres away from the mission and the school, making regular daily walks impossible.
This is why we are seeking sponsors to help fund the children’s education. With EUR 100.00 per year, we can cover nearly all of the expenses for one student, including tuition, food, and housing… Without our help, these children would not be able to attend high school. We are now caring for 50 boys and 19 girls. If you wish to sponsor one of our students, please e-mail the Foundation at srcezazambiju@gmail.com and we will let you know which youngsters don’t have a sponsor and need our help.
Medical equipment – wheelchair
At the end of August 2020, the World Health Organization officially reported that no new cases of polio had been recorded in Africa in four years. Africa was able to halt the spread of this horrific disease, which afflicted more than 75 000 children per year only two decades ago.
Although there are no new cases of the polio, there are children who contracted it several years ago and are still suffering from the effects of this debilitating disease.
In 2019, I celebrated a mass in the village of Kapone, taking confessions before the mass. One father brought his 16-yrear-old daughter Kanuwa on his back. Kanuwa suffers from polio and can move only by crawling using her arms. Unfortunately, her arms are now deformed as well, since she has been using them all her life to propel and drag herself along on the ground.
Kanuwa felt compelled to confess, and her confession filled my heart and warmed my soul. Living in the so-called western world, we have no right to complain about challenges or difficult times. As soon as I returned to Livingstone, I obtained a wheelchair and requested that our driver transport it to Nawinda. When the wheelchair arrived in Nawinda, a word was sent to Kapone, and the people arrived with an ox cart to pick it up. The journey from Nawinda to Kapone takes 5 hours or two nights on an ox cart. Because they must graze throughout the day, the oxen can only pull the cart at night.
In 2020, the mass was held in Kasompi, a neighbouring village, but we went to Kapone because I wanted to see Kanuwa. The wheelchair is a big help to her, because her father no longer has to carry her on his back.
This year, in the village of Mbulumina, I met a 4-year-old girl suffering from polio. Together with the Livingstone Rotary Club and our YCTC centre, the Heart for Zambia Foundation held a fundraiser. We pledged to provide wheelchairs to all the children in need in the Western Province’s distant and impoverished villages, to make their lives a little easier.