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DAVID C. EMMETT CENTER |
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| Children International / Brick by Brick / David C. Emmett Center |
| David C. Emmett Center: in the Chibolya community of Lusaka, Zambia |
Big Change in Chibolya
Opportunity beckons with the opening of a new community center in Zambia
By Erin Fitzgerald
For the Olson family, traveling to Zambia was a voyage of discovery, a glimpse into a world of poverty that most people never experience.
Visiting families in shacks with dirt floors, watching students learn English in a school without electricity, and hearing children describe their relatives dying from AIDS was eye-opening.
Attending the inauguration of a brand new community center built to serve at least 5,000 needy children was more than they could have imagined – a unique opportunity to see firsthand how the lives of countless children will be changed.
“My wife and I agreed that after our wedding |
The new Center was built to serve at least 5,000 needy children. |
day and the birth of our kids, it was one of the best days we’ve ever experienced,” explained Patrick Olson, who attended the opening with his wife, Tricia, and two teenage children.
The David C. Emmett Center was made possible with generous donations from the Olson family (left) and Jodie Emmett
(far right) and her family." |
The new center was made possible in large part by the Olsons’ generous donation. The family’s significant gift, which is being made over three years, allows them to name the building, and they chose to name it after a friend, former mentor and Children International supporter, David C. Emmett, who recently passed away.
The center – Children International’s second in Zambia – has a full-time doctor and nurse, as well as a dental clinic, pharmacy and feeding room for children to receive nutritional support.
In addition to the Olsons’ contribution, the Emmett family made a generous donation to |
fund the David C. Emmett Enrichment Hall, which is a space in the community center for health talks with parents of sponsored children and much more. Family members were overwhelmed when they learned of the Olsons’ decision to name the center after David, according to Jodie Emmett, David’s daughter. “To pull up and see David C. Emmett on the side of the wall, it filled me with pride that this is the kind of legacy he left,” Jodie said.
Devastating poverty has haunted the Chibolya community located in Zambia’s capital city of Lusaka for generations. In an area rife with unemployment and crime, the David C. Emmett Center stands as
a promise for a new beginning.
“The benefits we get from Children International are enormous…,” according to Mary Mwale, mother of two sponsored children. “With Children International, the future of our children is secure.”
The new center in Zambia is part of Children International’s global capital campaign to improve infrastructure. Opening new community centers is vital in helping us meet our goal of serving 400,000 children by 2011, our 75th anniversary as a humanitarian organization. Donors like the Olsons and Emmetts are essential in helping us expand our programs to reach more impoverished children. |
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“We have become part of an extended family, part of the combined efforts of so many good people here in the U.S. and in Africa,” Patrick Olson noted. “There is incredible satisfaction belonging to something bigger than one’s self. In Zambia, the need is severe and yet the dollar goes really far. The result is immediate and concrete improvement in lives. It’s very gratifying to see.”
No doubt David Emmett would be incredibly satisfied too.
Reporting assistance by Clementina Chapusha of our Lusaka, Zambia, agency.
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| Completed Centers |
Rural Guatemala
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Santo Domingo,
Dominican Republic
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Jalisco, Mexico
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Quezon City, Philippines
A Center of Possibility
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Barranquilla, Colombia
Doors Open to the
Neediest Children
New Community Center
Helps Sponsored Children
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Jalisco, Mexico
Center Is Inaugurated
Impoverished Children
Receive Health and Education
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Lusaka, Zambia
Big Change in Chibolya
A Legacy for a Friend
Center Gives Children a
Safe Haven
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Santiago, Dominican Republic |
Completed Centers
(Un-named and Available) |
San Lorenzo Community
Guatemala |
Villa Alemana Community
Chile |
Santa Rosa Community
Cartagena, Colombia |
Bogtong Community
Legazpi, Philippines |
Kaligayahan Community
Manila, Philippines |
Malilipot Community
Tabaco, Philippines |
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