I am always thankful to God when I visit, see and hear stories of how local church initiated projects are increasingly manifesting true love through helping add one more orphan to the overwhelming list of those that are in need of help with school fees. Income generating activities are being initiated through our partnership for the sole purpose of helping  more orphans continue with an education. The local church, with its meager resources, has over the years struggled to manage the increasing number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS that show up every Sunday needing help. The burden in most instances ends up being borne by the local pastor as he cannot say no, but find ways of helping. Apart from offering spiritual help, the pastor and his local church has to offer physical assistance, such as food and or taking these children back to school.

We at Forgotten Voices International are always encouraged when we see our partners slowly begin to meet, be it even, one more child’s school needs through their locally initiated projects. For instance, the Ndeke Evangelical Church’s Tuckshop project is currently able to support one more orphan continue with school in addition to the over twenty children that Forgotten Voices has come along to assist the church. The pastor is optimistic that as the project grows, many more will be helped through the tuckshop in meeting their school needs.

Another is the Lubuto Church of Christ hammer mill project whose revenue is not only helping one more kid stay in school, but also assist the local community with affordable mealie meal through milling of corn (the local staple food) at a reasonable charge than they would normally pay at other retail shops. The local church is managing the project and giving hope to kids!

Equally another locally initiated project is the New Life Christian Center widows tailoring project that has helped dignify more and more widows by making them self sustainable and in turn help them manage to continue sending their children to school through their acquired skills in tailoring. Rev. Christian Bwalya and his local church have so far trained over 60 widows under their tailoring ministry through partnership with Forgotten Voices.

Our mission is to equip local churches in southern Africa meet these various needs due to the negative HIV/AIDS impact. It is local initiatives like these that encourage our partnership as we demonstrate the love of Christ by coming alongside local churches in meeting the physical and spiritual needs of these orphans.

I invite you to donate NOW, as your financial gift will help Forgotten Voices be able to reach out to even more local churches do what they know best… help orphans and widows in their time of distress!

Your fellow servant in the ministry of God,

Remmy Hamapande, Africa/Zambia Program Director

Filed under: General Blog