Mission Direct partners in Zambia | Mission Direct

Mission Direct partners in Zambia

View our latest mission trips to Zambia here.

Main partner

Ask a Zambian child what they want and they will tell you: “I want to go to school.” Education is the single most powerful tool to bring hope to the next generation. It reduces the number of displaced orphans and street children. It transforms young people into productive citizens: leaders in their families, churches, communities and nation.

The goal of the Zambian education system is that every child should have 9 years of good quality education, but over half a million children are not in school. Many church and community-based schools have been established for those who would otherwise be unable to obtain an education. The situation is particularly acute in secondary school: only about half of pupils go on to secondary education because many parents cannot afford the costs, such as uniforms, shoes, exam fees and fees for practical subjects. Secondary School runs for 5 years from Grade 8 to 12.

When Dorothy Nsuuma started Crown of Life School in 2004 with just 15 pupils in a single class, she couldn’t have imagined how the school would grow to over 650 pupils up to Grade 12 on a new site.

When Mission Direct first met Dorothy in 2009, there were 300 children at the school, meeting in a cramped church hall. With substantial funding from Christ Church in St Albans, a new school was built between 2010 and 2012 on a green field site on the edge of Lusaka. Since then, the school has added more classrooms funded by Mission Direct volunteers, allowing the school to expand to over 650 pupils to include secondary grades from 8 to 12. In 2022, the school opened a Science Laboratory funded by Christ Church and in 2023 Mission Direct volunteers helped to build a second toilet block at the school. The outside of the toilet block will be painted by teams in 2024.

Crown of Life School serves the nearby shanty compound of Ng’ombe and the surrounding rural communities, which are being overtaken by the outward growth of Lusaka. The school has an excellent academic record, with most pupils passing their grade 7 examinations (equivalent to our 11 plus) in recent years. School fees are about £7 a month for primary grades and £10 for secondary, but many parents cannot afford to pay. In fact, about a third of the pupils at the school do not pay fees and many pupils are supported through sponsorship schemes.

In 2024, Mission Direct plans to build a Classroom at the school, to provide better facilities for the increased number of pupils and offices for the Headteachers and School Administrators, which will be sited in a prominent position near the school entrance to allow easy access for parents and visitors. The estimated total cost is £14,000.

Other projects

Evangelical Church in Zambia – Kiine School

Kiine School (‘kiine’ means ‘truth’ in one of the Zambian Kiine languages) is a primary and secondary school run by the Evangelical Church in Zambia (ECZ). ECZ is one of the principal Christian Churches in Zambia, with over 1300 local churches and two Bible schools. Ministries of the church include hospitals and community health, education at various levels, Christian Education resources for the church, discipleship, community, and cultural development.

Kiine School was founded in 1996 by a local couple and adopted by ECZ in 1999, to serve the orphans and vulnerable children from the nearby Kaunda Square shanty town. It is located at ECZ’s Chamba Valley site, where our teams are based. Since 2008, Mission Direct has completed 6 new classrooms at the school and refurbished 3 more. In 2014 a toilet block was built. Since then the pupil numbers have increased rapidly from about 100 to over 1000, thanks to the efforts of head teacher Gloria Kaimana. In 2022, Mission Direct volunteers helped to build an extension to the toilet block.

Several more classrooms have been completed in the last few years, thanks to very generous donations from MD volunteers. In 2024, we will be painting the outside of these classroom blocks. We also expect to carry out painting work at a number of other community schools.

Vision of Hope

13,000 children across Zambia are reported to live on the streets, some as young as 6 years old. Of these, roughly 10% sleep on the streets, while others stay with family members or friends overnight. Most of the children are boys, but about 10% are girls.

Founded in 2009 by Chitalu Chishimba, VoH aimed to address the problem of young girls living on the streets in Lusaka and girls forced to flee abusive home situations. Once they make the decision to come to the centre, the girls have food, clothes and a bed, and importantly, someone to listen to and care for them.

Mission Direct helped to build a new safe house in 2016 enabling more girls to be rescued from a perilous life on the street.

Footprints Foundation for Children in Zambia

Footprints works to help children living on the streets of Lusaka find a better life, working closely with organisations providing residential care such as Vision of Hope (for girls) and Fountain of Hope (for boys). Started in 2013 by Sevelino Vasco, formerly an outreach worker with Fountain of Hope, Footprints plugs the gaps in the work of other agencies. It also works with Mother Teresa hospice to provide medical help and emergency care for children living on the streets. The organization also takes responsibility for arranging funerals of children who have sadly died on the streets, as a result of accidents, violence or illness.

Some girls are forced to resort to prostitution, an extremely dangerous lifestyle, particularly in Lusaka where 20% of the population is HIV positive. HIV is widespread on the streets. 80% of children living on the streets have no access to formal education

Chisomo

Chisomo runs a drop-in centre for street children near a busy junction and shopping centre in Lusaka. They give children a safe haven, where they can eat, sleep and clean up. They have a programme of basic education and counselling, aiming to re-integrate children with their families or relatives. Typically, 15-30 children come to the drop-in centre each day, but for those who are serious about coming off the streets, Chisomo also have a residential centre where children can attend local schools.

Kumbayah Ministries

Amos and Ketty Lwabila, a Zambian couple started Kumbayah Ministries in 2004, running a primary school for over 500 children in a desperately poor shanty town in Lusaka. The school used to meet in cramped rooms in a former tavern, but in 2010 a UK trust, working through Mission Direct, provided funds for the construction of a new school. The new school opened to pupils in January 2012 and in 2014 Mission Direct built two more classrooms at the school to cope with increasing demand for places from local families. We continue to support Ketty and have further plans to develop the school.