Zambia – Street Children programmes reeling from research

Aaron and Josephine Chilunjika are an incredible Zambian couple who CRED has the privilege of partnering with and who I’ve just spent a few days with. Talk about selfless faith personified! They head up the Chisomo Street Children’s programme which they started in the early 1990’s as a response to the increasing number of children living on the streets of Lusaka.

Over the years, Chisomo has developed to include outreach work on the streets to identify new children on the streets and also befriend longer-term street children, pointing out alternative options than just staying on the streets.

There is also a Drop-In Centre for those children not yet ready to totally step away from the streets, but which gives them a safe place to come and sleep, get counseling, medical attention, food and the space to talk about leaving the streets.

And there is a Shelter for those who are wanting to go home – so they have somewhere to stay whilst the reintegration process takes place, and family members are sought, the children get used to routines of life off the streets, and also get used to going to school again.

On top of all that intervention work, there is also prevention work to try and keep vulnerable children in school and work with their families to provide support such that the children might not regress onto the streets. And there are self-help groups for the mothers/aunts / grandmothers of these children, as many of the children are at risk of going to the streets due to poverty and being orphaned.

Finally there is the ongoing support given to some of the children who have chosen to come off the streets, but for one reason or another can’t return home, and so see the Shelter as their permanent home until they have finished at High School (which invariably is a boarding school).

A pretty impressive list of activities, and with it comes a whole host of knowledge gained through the development of these programmes over the years. Aaron has served on many committees at different times, working with others to try and solve the problem of street children, and to promote various initiatives on the prevention side of things.

Finance has always been a vulnerable aspect, as with any non-governmental, not for profit organization, but the sacrificial and self-less lifestyle of Aaron and Josephine, along with their deep-seated faith in God, as the one who provides what we need when we need it (even if that means right at the last minute, and after a few hungry days) means that the work has gone on.

But now, a piece of research by an influential but seemingly misguided research agency (which Aaron chose not to disclose, so that I wouldn’t ‘diss’ them!) has thrown a new spanner in the works.

Apparently, this research has concluded that there are no street children in Lusaka, because all the children have families somewhere in the city, or surrounding country!

It is irrelevant that many of the children on the streets are single or double orphans, and so their ‘family’ is either one parent and a step-parent (who has doubtless thrown the child out as they represent a link to the previous family), or, in the case of double orphans the child’s family will be grandparents/ aunts / uncles who may well not be able to afford to feed another mouth.

It is irrelevant that child abuse can take place here, just as in any other city / country in the world, and as a result children run away from their homes and families, thinking that life on the streets can’t be as bad as the life they are enduring at home.

Poverty and child abuse are the two main factors driving the children onto the streets, and they don’t disappear just because the child has a ‘family’.

But, according to the research, the presence of a family means that there are no street children in Lusaka, and so as a result, the big funders, who base their funding criteria on such reports, have now withdrawn all funding for street children programmes in Zambia.

A death-blow for many of the programmes that, like Chisomo, were providing a service for the street children who really are still there. In fact a death blow for all of them, except Chisomo, which now finds itself as the only programme left in Lusaka

The temptation has certainly been there at times for Chisomo to close, but each time that occurs, Aaron and Josephine find that something happens to convict them of the need to stay open. It might be encouragement through unexpected donations of funds and or resources. Or it might be the arrival of a very vulnerable child who needs their support. Whatever it is, God touches their hearts, reminds them of His presence in it all with them, and they carry on secure in that knowledge.

A wonderful couple, demonstrating faith and trust in God’s provision in powerful ways, showing a willingness to go without so that others may have, putting others before themselves time and again.

The confusion that the research paper has brought to the funding available to organisations like Chisomo is not to be underestimated, but it’s good to know that God is bigger than funding hiccups, and that if we just pursue what we are being called to do, then He will provide. It isn’t always in the ways we expect, or at the times we hope for, and there is often learning on our parts along the way, but, as Aaron and Josephine can testify to time and time again, God will provide.

PS if anyone is interested in giving some volunteer time to the work of Chisomo in Zambia then there are a number of opportunities available. Just let me know!