By Kevin Fleming
The back tire kicks up a small plume of dust as Paul Kavuwanda darts past scrub brush on an ochre-hued dirt road. The shadow of his bicycle stretches large to the west as his legs pump rhythmically through the morning sun.
Paul is on a mission. He has a message to deliver.
Unemployment, malnutrition and AIDS disproportionately affect the community of Kanyama, a squatter community outside Zambia’s capital city, Lusaka. Since opening our first community center there in 2004, Children International has found no shortage of children who need our assistance. The need has been so high, in fact, that in August 2007 a second community center was opened in the neighboring community of Chibolya. Like the first center, it too will serve 5,000 children.
When a call went out asking for community volunteers to help reach the children of Kanyama and Chibolya, hundreds of compassionate people lined up. Selflessly, they want to serve sponsored children, including many who are HIV-positive. But reaching these children is not always an easy task.
Paul explains, “When I first began volunteering, it was very difficult to reach a lot of families. Walking from one place to the other made meeting our goal very difficult.”
Children International received a grant from the Zambia National AIDS Network, which enabled the purchase of 20 bicycles, or njingas (n-JIHN-guhs), as they are called in the native dialect. Volunteers use their njingas to carry out regular home visits, conduct awareness campaigns and make sure each child is attending school.
Alice Moyo became a bicycling volunteer for Children International because she was disheartened
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Three Children International Zambia volunteers prepare to visit
sponsored families. |
with the high mortality rate in her community caused by preventable diseases. “Children were dying and most of them were not attending school because parents could not afford medical and school fees. So when Children International came, I saw an opportunity to save the lives of children and give them the education they would never have had,” Alice says.
Sponsored child Agness Mukosayi participates in a mobile nutrition program. When her mother, Florence, sees a volunteer pedaling toward their simple concrete block home, she is filled with gratitude. “They have really helped me. At first I didn’t know how to cook for my child. I was taught how to cook soybean porridge and porridge with peanut butter, both of which are good for Agness.” Florence continues, “I have shared what I have learned with my neighbors.”
Alice and Paul represent thousands of Children International volunteers worldwide whose efforts keep us pedaling toward a brighter future.
Reporting assistance and photos provided by Clementina Chapusha from our agency in
Lusaka, Zambia.
Sponsor a needy child and begin your own special connection.
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