Zambia

Protecting Children for a Better Future

Since 1965, CMMB has worked with provincial and district health offices of the Ministry of Health in all 10 Zambian provinces and enjoys a close relationship with the Zambian Episcopal Conference and the Churches Health Association of Zambia, the umbrella organization of Zambia’s faith-based healthcare institutions.

Program areas have included:

CHAMPS
Child protection, including support for orphans and vulnerable children
Domestic and international volunteers
Gender-based violence prevention
HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment, including prevention of mother-to-child transmission
Neonatal asphyxia
Prevention and control of malaria
Voluntary medical male circumcision

In rural areas, where government services may be sparse, CMMB Zambia partners with traditional leadership, from paramount chiefs to village headmen. These individuals play a critical role in defining community norms, and are often revered members of local governance structures. Collaboration and cooperation are critical to project effectiveness and sustainability.

CMMB has been particularly active in supporting the children and adolescents left vulnerable by the death of one or both parents from AIDS. Under the Luapula Foundation, a local NGO, we worked to strengthen district and community structures to support these children in Copperbelt, Southern, Luapula, Central, and Lusaka provinces. The Kusamala Project, funded by the GHR Foundation, is a child protection project intended to reverse family, community, and system tolerance for harmful practices and build their capacity to provide stable, protective, nurturing family environments for children. Toward this end, we work with families and local institutions to build support for child-friendly practices and to reverse tolerance for those that do not support children’s positive development.

Snapshots from Zambia

Community health workers, like Mwanamwambwa (r) are guardian angels to the people o

Women form groups to tackle community issues. This group is part of the Kusamala project, which helps identify runaway children who need to be reunited with their families.

Community health workers, like Mwanamwambwa (r), are guardian angels to the people of their community.

Rebecca, head teacher at Simungoma Primary School, knows the importance of clean, safe water for school kids.

The distance from home to clinic sometimes means the difference between life and death. An ambulance can save lives.

Women and children bear families’ burden of obtaining the family’s water and often spend hours each day walking to the water point and carrying the filled jerry cans back home. Sometimes young children arrive at school too tired to pay attention.

Women form groups to tackle community issues. This group is part of the Kusamala project, which identifies and provides services to vulnerable and homeless children.

A vegetable garden and training by a community health worker offers a bit of extra nutrition and income needed for women to support their family and fight chronic malnutrition.