Partners for Life Advancement and Education Promotion (PLAEP)

Located in Zambia’s Copperbelt, the town of Kitwe was once an important commercial and industrial hub. However, an increasing population and continuing volatility in copper prices has seen unemployment skyrocket along with a rise in the number of children living in poverty. As families and caregivers struggle to afford the cost of educating the children in their care, many drop out of school and become more vulnerable to contracting HIV. As a result, the HIV prevalence in Kitwe is now 14.2%.

With Egmont’s support, Partners for Life Advancement and Education Promotion (PLAEP) is improving the chances of children affected by HIV & AIDS in Ipusukilo and Musonda, two of Kitwe’s most impoverished neighbourhoods. Children are being supported through the provision of school fees, extra tuition and a school feeding programme to ensure that they are receiving a nutritionally balanced diet. PLAEP is also working with the children’s parents and caregivers to develop income generating activities and form savings and lending groups to enable them to meet the costs of educating the children in their care.

Keepers Zambia Foundation (KZF)

Keepers Zambia Foundation (KZF) works in the rural Lukulu district of Zambia’s Western Province, where more than three-quarters of the population rely on traditional small-scale farming methods to support themselves. Low production rates and small yields caused by out-dated agricultural practices and compounded by inconsistent weather patterns means that many families are only able to provide one to two meals a day for the children in their care. In addition, although Zambia is making good progress against HIV & AIDS, still nearly 11% live with HIV and the effects of the epidemic on households and communities remain far reaching. 

KZF’s Egmont-supported project aims to increase the food and income security of 300 particularly vulnerable households headed by women, youth or people living with disabilities. Many of them are also caring for AIDS orphans. 

Household heads are being trained in poultry farming and backyard gardening as well as receiving vegetable seeds and chickens to enhance household nutrition and boost family incomes. The training includes climate adaptation and resilience, further strengthening families’ food security. Household heads are also being inducted into savings groups where they can save for the future, access loans to start or grow businesses and support their children’s education. Being a member of a savings group will also provide an additional buffer against economic and climate shocks. 

Kucetekela Foundation

With the 7th highest HIV prevalence rate in the world, HIV & AIDS continues to ravage the population of Zambia. Education remains a serious barrier to many Zambians with less than half attending secondary school.

Kucetekela Foundation (KF) works to improve educational opportunities for disadvantaged young Zambians with academic promise. With Egmont’s support, KF provides secondary school scholarships to 34 AIDS-affected and educationally gifted children. The programme includes tuition and boarding for each student at a secondary school in Lusaka as well as uniforms, textbooks and a mentoring programme. The project aims that by the end of their schooling, each student will have gained a place to study at university or have volunteering activities or work-placement opportunities in place for their gap year. They will also support 10 young people financially to study abroad with international scholarships.

Ndola Nutrition Organisation

Thanks to antiretroviral treatment, HIV prevalence in Zambia has declined over the last two decades from one in five of the populace being infected with HIV to one in nine. Now, 11.5% of the adult population are living with HIV and there were 51,000 new infections last year. Young women aged 15-24 are particularly at risk, as they are twice as likely to be infected with the disease compared with men of the same age.

Ndola Nutrition Organisation have been supported by Egmont to improve the lives of 626 women affected by HIV & AIDS in the rural communities of the Masaiti District of central Zambia. These women have all either lost a partner to HIV, are caring for someone who is chronically ill with HIV or are caring for HIV+ children. The women are trained in sustainable agriculture, ensuring that their crops are more nutritious, profitable and more resistant to changes in the climate. The project is also training them in business skills and enrolling them onto community-based savings and loans schemes to allow them to generate more income and better support their families. The project will also support 244 HIV+ children with nutritional packages to boost their weight and immune systems, as well as reaching over 400 adolescent community members to raise awareness around HIV.

The School Club Zambia

Zambia has one of the highest child marriage rates in the world with 42% of women aged 20-24 years married by the age of 18. Without many economic opportunities for young women in Zambia, many families take the decision to force their daughters to marry and thus reduce the burden on their income. Many women are also simply unaware of the opportunities that could be available to them.

Egmont Partner, The School Club Zambia, aim to target 30 young women who are either at risk of dropping out of school or who have dropped out already in the last three years. These young women will be supported with vocational training courses in IT, carpentry, bricklaying and other technical skills to ensure that they have employment opportunities after finishing school. The girls will also be offered training in personal development. The School Club will continue to follow up with these women after they have completed the programme to ensure that they have found either further training or employment.

Vision of Hope (VOH)

Egmont Partner, Vision of Hope, is the only organisation working exclusively with girls living on the streets of Lusaka. Their mission is to combat violence against street girls, improve their educational prospects, provide refuge and rehabilitation, and ultimately re-unite girls and young women with their families or extended family members.

VOH has a shelter where girls can stay, wash and access nutritional food, while the staff works to trace their families and undertakes home visits to ensure that the street children can be re-united with their relatives safely. Once the girls are safe, secure and well cared for, VOH enrols them in local schools and supports their educational needs, such as uniforms, shoes, writing materials and provides extra tuition.

Zambia Rainbow Development Foundation (ZRDF)

Working in the remote communities of Mkushi and Luano, in Zambia’s Central Province, the Zambia Rainbow Development Foundation (ZRDF) aims to improve the quality of life for families struggling to cope with the impact of HIV & AIDS. Across Zambia, over 55% of the population lives on less than $1.90 a day.

The communities that Egmont is supporting ZRDF to work with are highly dependent on agriculture and far away from government amenities, for example the nearest health post is 22km away. ZRDF helps these communities to form support groups and structures that integrate with available government services. Support groups are trained in best agricultural practices and provided with a more diverse range of seed to reduce the likelihood of crop failure. ZRDF will also be working with schools to try to address issues that are specific to young girls in the region such as child marriage and menstrual hygiene. They will also be working with children in schools to improve young people’s understanding of how to avoid HIV and how to help those who are HIV+ to stay healthy and adhere to their treatment.