Summer in Chilubula (Part 3)

Jo's aunt had patiently knitted lots of gorgeous teddies to give to the children in the nursery class, and it was a great pleasure to hand them out and see the absolute delight on their faces as they each received their own toy!

The other picture shows the sports arena being watered to try and damp down the dust. This may not seem that remarkable, but the water is being transported along a pipe about 50m long and is being pumped from the well using a submersible pump attached to a petrol generator! This was the first attempt at using the pump and connecting it to the generator and was made possible by some excellent work from Leonard and my nephew Mbesha. The pump was able to fill a 210 litre drum with water in about four minutes and therefore saved HUGE amounts of time and energy.

Summer in Chilubula (Part 2)

We had some fantastic clothes and school jumpers donated to us by students from Newstead Wood and Ashburton schools and here you can see Jo sorting out the boxes and handing out the items. Students from age 8 upwards who are on our register of orphans and vulnerable children were able to come and collect some clothing. We saw and gave to approximately 90 children and young adults on just the one day.

Summer in Chilubula (Part 1)

We had three main aims for our visit to Chilubula this year: to organise a community sports' day, to make contact with people at World Vision in Kasama and talk to them about how they might support the Centre in Chilubula and finally to distribute clothes donated by students at Newstead Wood and Ashburton schools.

I am glad to say that we achieved all three of our aims!

The picture above shows me leading some of the crowd in 'The Luckiest Person' event at the Sports' Day, with the winner taking a prize of K10,000;more than a day's pay in the village! We had a crowd of about 650 spectators during the day with many participating in events such as the sack race, pole climbing, three-legged race and the ever popular pea spitting. All winners claimed prizes ranging from bread to dried fish and soap.

We may have been quiet, but a lot has been happening!

Although we have not had any new pictures or words, it doesn't mean that we have been slacking! Since the last post we have held a number of fundraising events and our AGM, and have been raising both money and awareness of the charity.

The 3rd Gala Event was held at the Hilton Croydon again this year and the attendees were treated to excellent food and entertainment. A total of just over £1800 was raised for our charity.

The residents of Crowhurst Village in East Sussex again were very generous in their support when we provided the refreshments at the Village Market. Another £200 to add to the pot.

We held a music quiz in May at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon. The teams had to grapple with music from various eras, and it was a tight contest, with my team being robbed of victory by 1 point! Better luck next time! £255 to add to our funds.

Our AGM in June was attended by many of our dedicated supporters and Jen and Reuben (two of our trustees) who visited Chilubula in December, were able to give them a real flavour of how things are progressing there through pictures and words.

We have been very fortunate in the last couple of weeks to have received much support from the staff and students at Sydenham School and the staff, students and Governors of Ashburton Community School. Sydenham School have donated enough coins and notes to pay for the Sports Day that Jo and I will be organising this August in Chilubula. The staff and students of Ashburton Community School will be collecting money from an 'own clothes day' and also handing in their old schools jumpers to donate to the children in Chilubula. The Governors have been very generous in providing some financial assistance to help fund our feeding and educational programmes for the next year. We feel privileged to have such loyal supporters.

Thanks to everyone for all they do for the charity.

More pictures from Christmas in Chilubula!

The local committee

Poultry rearing

Modelling the school uniforms made by the committee.

Christmas in Chilubula!

(Pictures showing the completed kitchen and toilet block.)

Two of our trustees, Jen and Reuben, spent most of their Christmas break in Zambia, and the bulk of that in Chilubula to catch up on progress since they last visited in summer 2006. They were so pleased with what they saw, and with the continued enthusiasm and vision of our manager in Chilubula, Leonard.

Whilst in Chilubula, they gave training to Leonard and his assistant on the laptop they had taken with them for the Centre. Meetings were held with the local committee who were able to talk about projects they were trialling to generate income; namely, sewing school uniforms and poultry keeping. So far, 20 uniforms have been made, with plans for 50 in total. The first round of chickens have been reared and sold, with the profits being used to buy a second round of 100. the hope is to expand to around 300 chickens over a period of 3-6 months.

This is just a very brief description of an incredibly busy time spent in Chilubula, but a time that was really positive and confirmed that progress continues to be made there!

World AIDS Day - Monday 1st December 2008

What will you be doing for World AIDS Day?

The organisation Avert has lots of ideas and information on their website http://www.avert.org/. There is a dedicated part of the website focusing on Zambia http://www.avert.org/aids-zambia.htm which has a huge amount of information about Zambia, the history of the AIDS epidemic, and what measures the government has put in place to help tackle the problem. It is a very interesting and informative read.

Update from Chilubula

Apologies that there are no pictures with this blog, as it is just a short one to keep you informed on progress.

Reports from our manager, Leonard, in Chilubula are full of positivity; the children in the school continue to make excellent progress and enjoy their food, the staff are so happy to be paid and hence to be able to support their families. More interest has been shown in the Centre by local and national government officials, who view it as a model set up! Communication has been quite difficult for the past few months due to the mobile phone network being very unreliable, so we have been relying on old fashioned snail mail, which can be very slow!

In December two of our trustees will be travelling from the UK to spend about a week in Chilubula to check on progress and discuss future plans with the committee out there. Lots of new photos on their return to share with you!

A date for your diaries- Friday 6th March 2009 is the date of our next fund raising Ball. More details to follow shortly.

Latest photos from Chilubula!

Hope you will like some of the latest photos from Chilubula showing the continuing progress on building infrastructure.

Two photos show the new kitchen to the left of the main school building, and the toilet blocks behind it. The third shows recycling in action; two new swings for the children to play on made from old tyres.

2nd Charity Gala Ball - Friday 7th March 2008

Friday 7th March 2008 saw us jointly hosting our second charity ball. The event proved again to be a really enjoyable evening for all who attended; good food, service, venue and an excellent band who managed to cater for lovers of many musical genres! Many thanks to all who attended and bought raffle tickets, bid on the auction prizes etc, etc. The sum raised for each charity from the event was just over £2500! A fantastic amount to support our work.

Progress continues in Chilubula

Things continue to progress in Chilubula; the kitchen was finished just before the new year (still waiting for pictures I'm afraid), the Manager is making real inroads into all the paperwork that is required now that we have more people on the payroll and have been certified by the Government (following an inspection) as a charitable organisation offering community service. The feeding and education programme for the nursery school age children continues to flourish, and the older children are enjoying the benefits of receiving food as well. Many families are benefitting from the food, education or employment opportunities arising from the Centre.

The Committee here in the UK have decided that our next fundraising efforts should be put towards the building of a dining room that will be adjacent to the dining room, so that the children can have somewhere dry and clean to eat their meals, particularly when the rains start.