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Orphanages in Nova Scotia are a thing of the past, The last NS orphanages closed their doors in the late 60s and early 70s. The children were then transitioned into foster care replacing the orphanage setting. 

There are over 1.2 million orphans in Zambia. These children cannot adequately get their basic needs met because there is a lack of government funding and support for these children.-” The Orphan Crisis: Zambia by Kaylin Schlonski.

This past January 2024, six Inverness County Cares members travelled to Zambia. In these six weeks we came across many cultural experiences. One of the most heart wrenching encounters were our visits to two orphanages. 

We spent a day at the Kacema Musuma (Good Shepherd) Orphanage administered by the Sisters’ of the Child Jesus, the same order of sisters who direct the Kawambwa and St Odilia Schools. There are 48 children at the orphanage age 2-18. Many of these children were abandoned in horrific ways. There is a set of twins, triplets and twins who were conjoined at birth, but surgically separated later and a baby rescued from a drain pipe whose hearing was destroyed by mud impacted in her ears.

The younger students go to school on site and the post-secondary students attend technical or trade programs and return ‘Home” to the orphanage for holidays. The orphanage is their only home and there is almost no hope of adoption. Although they are cared for and loved by the sisters, it is hard to process the fact that these wonderful children will never have a loving home where they are cared for by their extended family, as is the norm in Zambia.  

The orphanage is situated on a sprawling piece of land with huge gardens which the children help care for and run free as they play with goats, chickens, ducks, guinea fowl, rabbits and guinea pigs…all a source of food. Two dogs are on site as guard dogs. They have maize, sweet potatoes, beans, groundnuts, casava, squash, canola, orange trees, mango, banana, avocado trees and more. The children are taught how to care for a garden and are proficient in naming many plants and discerning the difference between a weed and a vegetable. Washing is done outdoors in a big tub and hung to dry in the yard. The sisters and children all participate taking some time to play with bubbles and water splashing. They are involved in cooking their meals, cleaning their living space and in general are very self-sufficient. 

They are one big family. We asked a girl if she had any brothers and she gestured to the other children and remarked, “They are all my brothers.” They care for each other and provide love and support. The sisters working there and other caregivers are amazing and are able to provide for the children the best semblance of a happy supportive family possible in their situation. There is a lot of loving care, and we heard the little ones calling the sisters mama, and we saw older kids carrying babies and toddlers everywhere. The atmosphere of the complex is of happiness and security. 

Children from this orphanage have become successful teachers. We met one blind young lady, a former resident, who was teaching at the primary school near the convent. We were told about how orphans are helped when they want to get married. The sisters spend a great deal of time trying to locate relatives who would act as family for wedding arrangements and general support so they could really feel they are part of a caring family.

The children are encouraged to join in community activities as they get older and many walk to the local church each Sunday afternoon to be with their peers in small Christian communities and little children playgroups.

We also stopped in to see the sisters’ at the Tetekela Convent School near Kasama. It is a school which takes in children from vulnerable families, feeds them and enables them to go to school every day.  Some children are street kids without a family to support them. They come to school each morning, have a shower, eat breakfast and attend the Tetekela school. John MacInnis met with Fr Alan MacMillan’s sponsored child, 14-year-old, Robert. John gave him gifts from Fr Alan and took him to buy school supplies. He was a very happy young man. 

Tetekela is a private school which also takes in fee paying students as well. Chalice has 33 sponsored children at this school and many more needing sponsors. This is a feeder school for the local secondary school.

We six ICC members were impacted tremendously by these children and their cheerfulness and courage in their situation. The Sisters of the Child Jesus must be commended on their incredible work with these children. The impact of this visit will be long lasting. We need to take stock of our comfortable way of life and appreciate the homes we have, where our children have all they need. 

Inverness County Cares (ICC) is a local charitable organization, founded in 2012 and based in Inverness County, NS, Canada. ICC works in partnership with Chalice.ca, a Canadian charity, based in Bedford, Nova Scotia. Chalice provides guidance and assistance to help ICC provide a better life for the children at the Kawambwa schools. The Kawambwa Project involves supporting two schools for albino and visually impaired students, in Northern Zambia. Inverness County Cares always welcomes new members. Individuals who wish to donate, can use the donate button on our website   https://invernesscountycares.com When using E-transfer, please include your mailing address for CRA tax receipts and a thank you message.   E-transfer address:  [email protected] or send a cheque to Inverness County Cares, 5414 Route 19, Judique, NS, Canada, B0E1P0. Taxation receipts provided for USA and Canada.

St Mary’s Special School in Kawambwa, Zambia and St Odilia School in Mporokoso, Zambia provide for the special needs of students with albinism, blindness and the visually impaired.  These students have visual disorders caused by conditions which diminish sight such as glaucoma, cataracts and injuries. The St Mary’s School in Kawambwa school for the blind has 26 learners who are totally blind and St. Odilia has 9 totally blind learners with a total of 35 totally blind pupils. The blind students, usually have lost their sight before they begin school. These are in addition to a good portion of the school population who have varying degrees of visual impairments.  

They receive medical care from both the local hospital and experts from Kitwe eye clinic (which is a minimum of 18 hours away, depending on road conditions).  There are students who have had cataract surgery and they are able to see and others are given medicines regularly to help with eye conditions. Some of the students manage to obtain medicines but the majority are vulnerable to the extent that they cannot afford the needed medication. It’s only through the generosity of donations from Canada, through Chalice, that they can sometimes buy the medicines required. 

Zambia is a country which struggles with poverty and low employment. Health care may be free but the medicines and costs associated with healing are usually beyond the reach of the rural workers. They subsist on the food they grow and the little they can sell at the market or roadside. Their yearly income can be less than $400 leaving very little for medical needs or eye care.

 Inverness County Cares members did not see any students wearing eye glasses. The reading glasses, handheld magnifiers and sheet magnifiers brought from Canada, were very gratefully accepted and the students with some sight find they make a significant improvement in what they can see. 

For children living with Albinism, their vision is poor and often we saw them making great efforts to see a page of text, by trying to position their eyes very close to the page, to accommodate their vision loss. The majority of them are short-sighted and their vision sometimes deteriorates with age. Therefore, they need both skills in ink and in braille so that when the sight is gone, they can be able to continue with their reading and writing skills. All students with blindness or visual impairment immediately begin learning Braille when they begin school. 

The blind students receive support and companionship by being with other blind students who understand the special needs of each other. They are welcomed and taught by staff members who have received a teaching certificate for instruction of special needs students. Some of those teachers are blind themselves or dealing with visual impairment so therefore very sensitive to the students’ needs and life situation. Those teachers are also great role models for these challenged students. The school is equipped with a limited supply of machines which can translate text books and other learning materials on to Braille and Braillion paper for the benefit of the learning needs of the blind. Sighted students are taught to come to the assistance of the blind and guide them in new and unfamiliar places and situations. Friendships are built. The school grounds are set up so that there are cement borders along the main pathways that help blind students feel their way more easily to their classes and dormitories and dining hall. ICC brought ten white canes to the schools so that students can be taught to use them as a guide to achieve greater independence in their movement. Student-teacher ratios are lower so that they allow for greater help and interaction. Students are taught not to use blindness as an excuse but encouraged to move forward as confident and independent people and good productive citizens of Zambia. Much is being done but great is still the need.

Besides learning to read and write Braille the students have a very important daily living class which prepares them to maneuver the world outside their village and beyond the boundaries of the school. Many of these children were isolated because of the shame of their disability. They come to the schools timid and afraid and leave with self-confidence and the skills to maneuver the challenges of the sighted world.

The school has a large catchment area which caters to the children from across the country but the majority come from the northern provinces of Zambia. The Sisters of the Child Jesus who administer the schools, provide a loving comfortable home for the children. They believe children who are blind deserve an excellent education just like any other children.  These children however often lack the support required for them to excel.  They need support in terms of equipment, medicine, social, physical, emotional and other assistance that can help them succeed in their education. They are so very grateful for the support from Canada. We have been told often of how Chalice and Inverness County Cares has transformed the school since their participation in the Chalice sponsorship program. 

Inverness County Cares (ICC) is a local charitable organization, founded in 2012 and based in Inverness County, NS, Canada. ICC works in partnership with Chalice.ca, a Canadian charity, based in Bedford, Nova Scotia. Chalice provides guidance and assistance to help ICC provide a better life for the children at the Kawambwa schools. The Kawambwa Project involves supporting two schools for albino and visually impaired students, in Northern Zambia. Inverness County Cares always welcomes new members. Individuals who wish to donate, can use the donate button on our website   https://invernesscountycares.com When using E-transfer, please include your mailing address for CRA tax receipts and a thank you message.   E-transfer address:  [email protected] or send a cheque to Inverness County Cares, 5414 Route 19, Judique, NS, Canada, B0E1P0. Taxation receipts provided for USA and Canada.Check out our blog at icczambia.blogspot.com

Alice Freeman donated herWinnie Rankin beautiful hand crafted  ‘Churn Disk’ quilt to Inverness County Cares.  

Winnie and Elaine Rankin took care of the ticket sales and presenting the quilt to the winner Eva MacInnis of Port Hood. 

Inverness County Cares would like to thank community members for their interest in the recent working trip of six of our members. They visited St Mary’s Special School in Kawambwa and St Odilia School in Mporokoso, Zambia. Inverness County Cares still available to present our story to interested groups in Nova Scotia.Community interest has already generated twenty more Chalice sponsorships of children at these sites. These sponsorships particularly assist not only the blind, visually impaired and students with albinism who attend these schools but also their families.

The science of albinism has not reached many of the people living in remote villages. They live with the belief that people with albinism are magical or even possessed. Black magic followers believe that a potion made with body parts of an albino person will bring good fortune and success in business, politics and personal lives. They pay substantial sums of money to purchase these potions. This leads to the kidnapping, death or maiming of persons with albinism, in order to create these potions. The poverty in these areas leads desperate people to participate in the trade of albino body parts.

 In keeping with this lack of accurate information on the genetics of albinism, when a seemingly white child is born to a black family the father becomes suspicious as to the parentage of the child and this leads him to abandon his family. Because of the shame associated with albinism, the child is often hidden away because of the dishonour associated with their skin colour. This leads to a high percentage of single mothers raising albino children.

The families are often subsistence farmers earning a yearly income of $400 Canadian or less. Their survival depends on the success of the crops they grow. The red sandy soil, in the North of Zambia, with very few stones, is favourable for small scale farming. These small farmers can’t afford machinery, so they cultivate their crops and do all digging with just a large, long handled hoe, no shovels, no rakes, just the hoe. We saw old and young, male and female working in the fields with this tool. The magnitude of acres they cultivate with just this tool is remarkable. From their labour comes a variety of tasty and nutritious food to feed their families, such as maize, cassava, peanuts, potatoes and squash.

Recently the threat of drought in Zambia and surrounding countries has led to a very stressful situation. A Chalice sponsorship of one child in the family creates a safety net for the whole family. When a family is sponsored, the parents still work very hard to provide for their family, and the additional funds give them an added measure of food security. Sponsor families form a community of families who meet on a regular basis, learn how to budget and collectively support each other. These are called Family Circles and may contain fifteen to twenty-five parents helping parents. They are stronger as a team.

Inverness County Cares (ICC) is a local charitable organization, founded in 2012 and based in Inverness County, NS, Canada. ICC works in partnership with Chalice.ca, a Canadian charity, based in Bedford, Nova Scotia. Chalice provides guidance and assistance to help ICC provide a better life for the children at the Kawambwa schools. The Kawambwa Project involves supporting two schools for albino and visually impaired students, in Northern Zambia. Inverness County Cares always welcomes new members. Individuals who wish to donate, can use the donate button on our website   https://invernesscountycares.com When using E-transfer, please include your mailing address for CRA tax receipts and a thank you message.   E-transfer address:  [email protected] or send a cheque to Inverness County Cares, 5414 Route 19, Judique, NS, Canada, B0E1P0. Taxation receipts provided for USA and Canada.