The Story of Chilipamushi Community

In Chilipamushi Community, people rely on their land to provide for their families. If there is a poor rainfall, it has the potential to put many people’s lives in jeopardy. Accessing clean water has always been a challenge in Chilipamushi, and when streams run low during the dry months, people only have access to dirty water. This increases the spread of water-borne diseases, leading to people becoming severely ill.

100 Children currently supported

18 Care Workers coordinated by Luka

Basic Services Started in 2022

40 km from the Kabwe Local Office

In 2007, Hands at Work began walking in Susu, another community within the same area as Chilipamushi. Although the situation in Susu is desperate, the local volunteer Care Workers are making a great impact, with the support of Hands at Work and partners across the world. For many years, there were two Care Points operating under the umbrella of the Susu Community Based Organisation. The purpose of multiple Care Points is to limit the distance that the children have to walk from their homes.

Over the last year, the Hands at Work team in Kabwe saw that many of the children who were identified as among the most vulnerable were not actually coming to either of the feeding points because it was too far to walk from where they lived – in an area called Chilipamushi.

Throughout 2021, Hands at Work was looking to mobilise additional Care Workers to support the growing work. By God’s grace, the year ended with eight new Care Workers joining the team, but they were from the area where the children who were not coming to the Care Point lived. At that point, they knew that they needed to start a new Care Point, enabling them to go deeper to the most vulnerable areas. In 2022, the Chilipamushi CBO was officially formed and began serving 100 of the most vulnerable children.

Meet Winfreda

Seven-year-old Winfreda* lives with both of her parents and four of her six siblings. Her devoted mother, Dyness, is a Care Worker at Chilipamushi CBO. Her father, however, uses the money he receives from his occasional odd jobs in the community to drink with friends at the bar. The family struggles to survive. Dyness and her children long for him to quit his reckless behaviour. Thankfully, she finds support and community among the Care Workers, including receiving help in speaking with her husband about his behaviour. In April, as the number of children supported by the Chilipamushi CBO increased to 100 children, Winfreda and her siblings were included in the programme. Dyness is so grateful for this because now, even though the family still struggles, she can trust that her children will receive a hot and nutritious meal everyday and be part of a supportive community.

The local Hands at Work team in Kabwe currently supports six Community Based Organisations, which exist to care for the most vulnerable in their communities. The office provides training, networking, and encouragement to those Community Based Organisations like Chilipamushi. It also gives administrative support, including helping with funding proposals, monitoring and evaluation, bookkeeping and reporting to donors. 

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