Africa is a land of smiles and joy, of curiosity, enthusiasm, friendship and kindness.  The perception we most often see on the news is one of poverty and despair and undoubtedly there are huge problems, from disease, lack of education and medical facilities, conflict, corruption and natural disaster as well as the endemic poverty.  There is no magic wand to make these problems go away.  We can’t change everything, and in reality not everything needs changed!  We are then left with the choice of “do something” or “do nothing”.  It is as simple as that.  We want to do something.

Background

Life Begins is the brainchild of Lynne Mendelsohn after her life-changing trip to Africa in 2007.  Lynne spent several months working as a teaching assistant in Livingstone Zambia and working with orphans in Livingstone and Temane and Vilanculos, Mozambique, as well as spending time on conservation projects in Zimbabwe and South Africa and travelling in Namibia and Botswana. 

Lynne has persuaded a number of friends to join her in this venture and together we are hoping to make a real difference to the lives of children in Africa.  We’re starting small but our aims are big.

Goals

The charity is called Life Begins for two reasons - Lynne spent her 40_^th birthday in Zambia - a country where the average life expectancy is 34 and so she really took to heart the saying “life begins at 40”.  It is also intended to reflect our goal to provide children with as good a start in life as possible, to open up to them new opportunities, to improve their self esteem and to enable them to become confident, independent adults with the means to look after themselves.  Sometimes this will involve directly helping children, sometimes their families and sometimes whole communities. 

Projects

Life Begins and my business are currently supporting a small day care/nutrition centre in Ngwenya, one of the poorest areas of Livingstone, which is run by a wonderful lady called Susiko.

I met Susiko some months ago and since then we have been providing food for the 70 children that Susiko looks after. I deliver the food personally and spend time with the children every week. We also have provided toys, clothing and drawing/colouring materials over the last few months and paid for medical treatment for some of the children.

Susiko lives in a 2 roomed house; she has turned the bigger room (still only 2m x 2.5m!) into a class room where she teaches the children and tries to get them into the habits of learning.  In Zambia children don’t start school until the age of 7.  However they can only start school if their family can afford to pay the school fees and buy a uniform and shoes. After getting some great ideas from friends who are pre-school teachers, I’ve been making some teaching aids to give some of them a head start.

There are twelve 7 year olds whose parents/families/carers can’t afford to buy uniforms and pay school fees. I need to raise £25 for each of these children to get them into school next January. Ten of these children are pictured left.  They are desperate for the chance to go to school and be like other kids. Already they will be a year behind but everyone here, even the small children, recognizes the difference an education can make. Another £25 should cover the cost of books and materials during the school year.

The children here are all orphans or from very vulnerable families – many are HIV+, many suffer abuse and violence in their homes, and all of them know poverty and hunger. Susiko provides a much needed respite for these children – they can remember to be kids for a while and know that they’ll have something to eat.

Most of the children don’t have shoes or underwear and only have the clothes you see them in.  Having nothing here really does mean nothing. I would like to raise funds to buy a selection of essential items so that each child has at least 2 sets of clothing.

Another project which I am hoping to support engages children on a Saturday morning and arranges games and social interaction in 2 townships – Ngwenya and Dambwa. The carers are themselves from vulnerable families – usually grandparents are caring for several orphaned grandchildren or older people who have taken in orphans from the community.  They are given proper training and are paid for their services (albeit a very small amount) so that the wider community benefits from the scheme as well as the vulnerable children.  Once a month the children are fed at the same projects. Roughly 500 children attend feeding days (usually 250 on other days).  While feeding a child once a month is helpful, it’s not enough to make a big difference to its health. If I could raise £2,500 a year we could feed the children once a fortnight.  £5,000 a year could feed the children once a week, which would positively impact on their health and therefore their education.

I would also like to raise some money to buy books, art materials, games, and toys as this is a great chance to enable children to use the time to play and learn.  There are 20 caregivers who work at these project; some of these are the adults in the photos above and below.  They are paid the equivalent of £2.50 for every four sessions. This is a helpful amount but not enough to make a significant impact on their well being. We would like to double the allowance for the care givers and need to raise £1,000 per annum to do so.  This would mean that the allowance for the caregivers would be enough to buy enough mealie meal (the staple carbohydrate) for an average family for a fortnight so will make a big difference to the welfare of their families.

If we manage to raise any additional funds I have lots of ideas –trips to Victoria Falls or the local museum or game park and buy sports equipment (footballs, a cricket set, netballs, etc). Sadly, there will be no shortage of good uses.  One thing I will not do is hand out money. For various and complex reasons I strongly believe that is a wrong approach.