[Press Kit]

20

Zambian children attend
class in a community school
in the village of Mazabuka,
one of many non-formal
education alternatives for
extremely poor children,
including those orphaned
by AIDS.

Resource-generating activities
Resource-generating projects are
managed by local CPTs and CHIN
committees. Most communities are
running a small shop and a vegetable
garden. The produce from the garden
benefits the aged, widows and orphans.
A long road ahead
Communities remain in the front
line of care for orphans in Zambia.

Although NGOs, CBOs, churches and
other volunteer organizations are
making significant contributions in
strengthening local communities, they
have a long way to go before making
an impact nationally. At present,
Zambia's volunteer bodies, churches
and NGOs manage to provide assistance to only around 7 per cent of
those children requiring it.
A number of factors make it difficult for these institutions to scale up
existing interventions. First, their
responses are not consistent and there
is little coordination between them.
Second, government involvement is
severely limited at the present time.
Third, the funding is totally inadequate to address the issues on a
large scale. Finally, institutions
are overwhelmed responding to
immediate needs of these children
and families. With little funding and
relying heavily on volunteers, many
are stretched almost to breaking
point. They have few resources to
analyse what is working and what
is replicable, much less to scale
up efforts.
However, the activities of these
organizations mitigate the suffering of
orphans. Many of the programmes
that exist have a good reputation and
community commitment is strong.
Supporting these efforts is crucial in
the monumental task of assisting
families and communities in Zambia
to care for the country's orphans. 0