accompanied by Brothers McCain

Can we choose the child we sponsor?
If you happen to visit Chikumbuso, you may get attached to a child you had a special experience with, in this case, unless the child is already sponsored, we will certainly connect you to this very specific child. With the distance, this magnetic experience cannot happen; this is why we will propose to you a few children to pick from. These children will have been selected according to their particular needs, as we try to prioritize the kids who are the most deprived.
What information will I receive from the orphan I sponsor; can we communicate with him, or even send him gifts? Does the child know we are sponsoring him?
As soon as the sponsorship starts the child is informed of the great news and directly starts receiving his monthly food allowance. We tell him the information we have on his sponsor, therefore feel free to send pictures or any other information in order to explain who you are and where you come from.
All correspondence from the sponsors can easily be delivered to the child as he reaches school, this may include packages. Dolls, games, ribbons, hair things, lip gloss, backpacks, sweatshirts, school fun stuff… etc. The children love getting gifts. As you can imagine, packages are a big hit. It is very rare for these children to get spoiled, so it is something we can’t keep away from them! The children will write letters in return.
Our address in Zambia is the following: Chikumbuso Women and Orphan project – PO box 31934, Lusaka, ZAMBIA
How much does it cost to sponsor a child?
The yearly contribution to sponsor a child is 450 US dollars per year, (amount which can be paid per month as well – 40 US dollars).

How is the sponsorship money spent? What percentage of my donation goes to the child and what goes to overhead?
Less than four percent of the total amount is used to pay a few administrative costs and the salary of one widow at Chikumbuso who supervises all sponsorship matters, takes care of the food distribution every month and the school supply distribution every term. She also administrates as much as possible the correspondence between the kids and their sponsors.

How can I be sure that my gift is actually benefiting my child?
Although you are sponsoring one specific child, a portion of the sponsorship money does benefit the entire school as we include in the sponsorship budget an amount for the school fees of our Chikumbuso community school. Our hope is to find sponsors for every child but while it is not the case, we manage to keep our community school open to many children in need of education thanks to the microenterprise project complementing the school project.
Will this cost rise as the child grows up?
If the cost of sponsorship has to rise an announcement will be made to the donors. The choice will then reside with the donors to carry on paying their existing rate, or adapt to the new costs to help us maintain the same level of quality sponsorship.
I want to sponsor a child, what should I do?
1. Write to chikumbusoproject@yahoo.com and stipulate your wish to sponsor a child.
2. If it is important to you, you may specify the age and gender of the child.
3. We will contact you with the picture and bio of the child you will sponsor.
4. If you are in agreement you can send your check in immediately to the following address:
Second Baptist Church – 12 Stillman Road – North Stonington, CT 06359
Please make checks payable to the church with Chikumbuso written in the memo. The church takes none of this money, they are just willing to give tax receipts as part of their ministry to Chikumbuso.
Are contributions to Chikumbuso tax deductible?
In the United States, yes. We are in the process of obtaining our own 501c3. Soon you will be able to donate through that organization in the USA which will send you all necessary receipts for the Tax exemption. In the meantime, the Second Baptist Church will provide you with these papers.
Second Baptist Church, secondbaptistchurch@cshore.com
Second Baptist Church – 12 Stillman Road – North Stonington, CT 06359

What is their community and school like? What is their living situation?
Chikumbuso resides in the middle of a high density area called Ng’ombe with approximately 10000 people. Most of those living in Ng’ombe are struggling to get by in life, doing what they can to care for their families. Many families have taken in other family members children in an effort to alleviate the burden of orphans on society. Chikumbuso center is a haven for those who belong at the center. We offer a safe place to spend the day, have lunch, and find a community of friends.
What access do the children have to health and dental care? Do they have immunizations?
Most all of the children in Ng’ombe attend the under five clinics where they are given free immunizations (BCG, Tuberculosis, Polio, Diptheria, Whooping Cough, Tetanus, Hib, Hepatitis B & Measles and Vitamin A Supplements) and their health and weights are checked.
Chikumbuso makes every effort to get local clinics to come by and test the children for the HIV virus, eye tests, and dental checkups.
Does sponsoring a child create bad feelings among other children who do not yet have sponsors? What about siblings?
Sponsoring a child brings help not only to that specific child but also to the rest of his family as the food he receives every month is brought back by the child to his home. In fact, due to this aspect, we try to spread the sponsorships as much as possible to make sure different families in the school can benefit from this system. It is then a rare case that we have two children of the same family sponsored (unless this particular request is made by the sponsor or, the number of siblings in this specific family clearly goes over the average number of kids per family).
As far as the other non sponsored kids are concerned, the access to our school is always free for them, which remains a big advantage. At Christmas and Easter, thanks to generous donors, we are usually able to provide gifts for all the children at Chikumbuso. Thanks to all these facts, we believe the bad feelings between the children are close to inexistant, therefore we encourage the sponsors to get in touch regularly with their sponsored child.

“To remember those who died,

To remember where we came from,

To remember to do for others.”

And we asked ourselves are we holding fast to this mission?

As a women’s group we often get caught up in the daily business of Chikumbuso and the endless production of bags and bracelets completely forgetting to stop, look up and see those around us.

As a first step I challenged the widows to come up with one word to “illustrate” where they came from. Just one descriptive word of their past.

Kulibe sangalala… not happy … no food…..too much thinking… sad… no friends… not free… any knowledge… not bathing (could not afford soap)…not stable.

Next, we searched for words to explain how they feel now as a group of women working together. There were wonderful examples such as good food, peace, no worries, sitting together, and friendship. My favorite description was gonabuino  “peaceful sleep”.  A widow’s mind is full of worries that keep her from this peaceful sleep.  She worries about her children, her shelter and her food. She worries about sickness, violence, death.   Chikumbuso has helped these women to sleep peacefully by bringing them friends and a protected community center where they and their children can spend their days. Through the community center they have been given a means by which they can support themselves and protect their homes. Verbalizing the differences between before and now brought laughter, singing and thankful hearts to all of us in the meeting.

Now we ask ourselves as a group of women are we ready to reach out again?  There are many widows out in Ng’ombe. So many that are not sleeping peacefully.  Ng’ombe, where AIDS still runs rampant, poverty wreaks havoc in families and children are often left alone.  I believe as a group we have clearly seen the changes in our own lives and family and are ready to reach out again.

We would like to thank each one of you for your support in this project and for helping us to reach out, again, to those widows and families in need. We could not do it without you.

A special thanks to all those who made all of this possible.  A very special thanks to Catie Chess who organized a community in Fairfax, VA to provide shoes to the neediest of our children.

We had a great Christmas party this year filled with dancing, gifts, games and laughter.  Thanks to all of you who helped make this possible.