Community Schools

Recently, I was asked about the 28 community schools that are run by our denomination. So, I thought I would share the information with all of you, along with the video that Joel made about these amazing schools!

The community schools serve the most vulnerable children in Zambia, offering an education to students who cannot attend the public schools. Their inability to attend public schools has to do with the fees that are charged and the cost of uniforms. Most of the children are orphans; all of them are vulnerable in some way. The churches themselves run the community schools, and members of the churches actually seek out kids who are not going to school and invite them to attend the community schools. Here are a few ways that the community schools transform lives:

*Education: The teachers at these schools provide a very high-quality education; most of the teachers are volunteers from the church, some are paid a very small stipend. It is important to note that the passing rate for these schools is over 90%, well above the government schools. They are very successful in doing what they do; one of the teachers said that their success is due to the fact that the teachers are there because they feel that this is what God is calling them to do; they are deeply committed to the children. 

*Nutrition: Children at the community schools are provided one meal during the day; women at the church prepare the meal and the food helps the children learn, while also encouraging them to come to school.

*HIV/AIDS nutritional supplements: These are not provided by the Community Schools program, but some of the schools work in conjunction with the HIV/AIDS home based care program, which provides nutritional supplements to HIV positive children and adults. So, the children come to the school, and go home with small bags of groceries which provide nutritional supplements, thereby helping their anti-retroviral drugs to be more effective in fighting HIV/AIDS.

*Trauma counseling: This one is so important! Dr. Bob Bielke is a child psychologist, who has done multiple trainings for teachers and caregivers. The teachers and caregivers have formed after school clubs, where children can learn how to deal with trauma, loss, anger, and so many of the challenges they face.

One caregiver told me about a little boy who was angry all the time. It turned out that he had been alone with his little brother, when his little brother fell into a river and died. The boy could not save his brother and had to watch him drown. He has been dealing with incredible guilt for a very long time, blaming himself for the loss of his brother. The caregiver is working with him, using the skills she learned from Dr. Bielke, to help in his healing, and to help alleviate that guilt and anger.

In another case, a student felt guilt because his father had left his mother when he was born. He thought it was his fault that his mother was on her own and the family was so poor. The caregivers are working with him, too, to try and help him find healing and hope. These after school clubs help the children learn to deal with trauma and pain; they enable to children to make good choices, and to see the possibilities of bright, hopeful futures.  

*Spiritual nurture: The community schools involve Christian lessons, and encourage the children to live in love and peace. At the same time, the community schools are ecumenical and interfaith. Most of the students are not a part of the church, but are invited to come to the schools, regardless of faith or denomination.

The community schools care for the students in a holistic way: their minds, through a very good education; their bodies, through nutritious food and HIV/AIDS nutritional supplements; their spirits, through Christian education; their psychological well-being, through well-trained caregivers and after school clubs. 

We recently went to Matero Community School, where there is a new building that the school is using. The teachers and students are very excited about it! Here are some quotes from them:

Elizabeth

Elizabeth, volunteer teacher: "This building is very helpful because whenever we have a program at church, we have to send the children back home, but with this new building, we never have to send the children back home. That is so beneficial to us. Some of the community members are discouraged because of using the church building and all the unnecessary holidays, but with the new building, more children will come."

"It is very hard to teach with three classes in one room. The babies are screaming while the other children are trying to read and write. With the new classrooms, they will have their own room. There will be desks in the new building and each class will have a board. Right now they are sharing one board."

Tenashe

Tenashe, Boy, Grade 3: "I have been in school for four months. I like to learn reading in school. I am excited about the new classroom because it is quiet and there is no noise. When I grow up, I want to be a doctor."

Katija, Girl, Grade 3: "I have been in school for five years. My favorite subject is English. I am very excited about the new classrooms. I like playing on Thursday. I play football on Thursdays. I want to be a nurse when I grow up. When I come to school I come to learn, to teach us the songs, to play football, see the teachers, play the games."

Katija

Finally, here is the seven minute video that Joel created, about the work of the community schools. I think it is a very good overview, and worth the seven minutes!

A Church Without Walls (Literally)

“This harvest, there will be much food. We will not go hungry. And we have time for other things, too. We do not spend all our time in the fields. We have time to enjoy the life that God has given us.” Her pride was almost tangible; her joy infectious.

I looked at her, and beyond her, past the rough branches that acted as non-existent walls. The sky was brilliant blue and the clouds, white and fluffy like a child’s drawing. An artist couldn’t make walls so magnificent, I thought. Like a mural on a cathedral, this church had only sky and field, grass and crops, to create an image for worship.

The pastor spoke again, about the seminar they held on child sexual abuse. How to prevent it, how to report it, how to fight the stigma and the judgment that can create a double victimization. Another women stood, “Even if the man is the one who brings in money, we still will not accept it. It is a disease that hurts us all.” 

A report was handed to us, four pages of detail about this congregation’s community health evangelism (CHE) projects: providing nutritional supplements to people living with HIV; enhancement of security in women and child-headed homes; planting moringa trees to supplement child nutrition; teaching about natural insecticides; conservation farming seminars and model plots; seed and cassava distribution; holistic evangelism programs; solar cooking seminars; working with 200 households on food security. It was all there, on the paper, but it was also there, on the faces of the thirty men and women in that wall-less church. They were getting things done.

Having served as a parish minister in the United States for twelve years, I honestly can’t imagine a congregation, meeting in a building without walls, with tree branches driven into the dirt to hold up a tarp roof. Pieces of plastic tacked onto scraggly boards, an attempt to keep out the rain. But, instead of saying, “Hey, we really need to focus on our building project before we start working on nutrition, agriculture, HIV/AIDS, child nutrition, sexual abuse, holistic evangelism, seed distribution, etc....” Instead of holding off on the outreach, holding off on the justice work, holding off on the acts of mercy and compassion, this congregation has decided that it is okay without walls, for now. They will keep on worshipping, keep on singing, keep on praising God. And they will keep on serving, keep on caring, keep on feeding their community.

While there, we went to visit a woman’s home; she had donated part of her land as a model plot for conservation farming, and another part of her land was donated to sustain and feed the pastor. She beamed with pride as we saw the abundance of her land, the crops growing strong and tall and green. Food. There was food. They would be hungry no more.

I am hungry for a faith like this, for a church like this, for a world like this. Where our walls are as beautiful as God’s own sky, because we have forgotten to use any bricks. Instead, we have spent our time and our money and our energy on feeding one another, caring for one another, serving one another. And we realize that we don’t need the walls, after all, because the church stretches forth, in field upon field of cassava and ground nuts and maize and sweet potato. 

This harvest, there will be much food. Thank God for this harvest.

Broken Down

I couldn’t write about it until this morning, when the battery died on a washed out dirt road, enormous piles of rock blocking my path. The rain falling, of course, I stepped out of my car, into thick muck, foot sinking in, pink toe nail polish disappearing under brown ooze. And standing there, wondering if someone would stop. Broken down car on a sunken road, standing ankle deep in muck, as rain spattered my shirt. That is when I realized that I could write about it. About Victor’s death. A week ago. Because I was stuck in that car, and I just couldn’t move, and I am stuck on his death, and I just can’t move, unless I tell his story. So, here it is.

He was the youngest son of Elias Phiri, himself only a young father, twenty-five years old. Victor was one and a half. His older brother, Paul, is four; named after his Uncle Paul, a smiling, kind man who always helps me with my Chichewa. When we visited their home last year, Victor flew into his daddy’s arms, his tiny arms wrapped tightly around his smiling father. We walked into the small room that served as dining room, bedroom, and living room. A few chairs and a bamboo mat that doubled as the family bed. Paul Junior was shy; he clung to his mother. But little Victor was curious; safe in his father’s arms, he kept on peeking at me with enormous, deep brown eyes. 

That was almost a year ago; since then, Elias has become a part of the family, throwing Johnny up in the air, teaching Frankie to prune trees. He works two days a week as our gardener, allowing him an income that can sustain his family. He laughs a lot, and brings home mangos from our tree as a special treat for his two little boys.

But Victor, the youngest, has been sick lately. And we have been paying for medicine, for doctor’s visits, for anything we can, to treat the tuberculosis that left lesions in his mouth and a never ending cough. We have prayed, we have hoped, we have waited. And we thought he was getting better.

So last week, as I pulled into the campus, and saw Elias waiting for me, I was sure he just needed more money for medicine. But then I saw his face. Elias’s older brother, Paul, approached me as well. “Victor is dead,” Paul said, because Elias could not get the words out. “Last night, around 2am. That is when he died.”

I brought them to my home, and they detailed the funeral expenses. The cost for transportation, food for the mourners, a burial site, and a coffin. A small coffin. For a one and half year old child.

We cried with them and prayed with them, and gave them the money they needed to bury that small, beloved, sacred human being. And then they left, to travel ten hours into Eastern Zambia, where they would bury the baby in his ancestral home.

Victor Phiri was the youngest son of a very funny man, who loved life and loved children and worked hard and knew how to play. He had an older brother, Paul, named after his Uncle Paul, a kind and loyal and responsible man, who cared for all his younger siblings when their parents died. He had a mother, Amayi Phiri, who stayed up nights with him, held him close, willed him to keep on breathing. And he died last week. Of a treatable illness. And a few days ago, he was buried in a little, tiny coffin.

Awhile ago, I was telling a friend, someone who lives in the US, about life here, and death here, and I was furious. Just angry. And that man said to me, “Well, I guess the only thing you can do is just be grateful for what you have.” And I responded, without any filter, without any thinking, “No. The only thing you can do it get off your butt and do something about it.”

I don’t know exactly what it is. It might be donating money. It might be advocating for foreign aid. It might be supporting global health initiatives. It might be switching jobs. It might be getting on a plane. I don’t know what it is. But I guess I just think that we should all probably do something. Something.

In the mud this morning, rain seeping through my shirt, and I was stuck. Just plain stuck. A dead battery, wet and dirty and sad. And a stranger came, and he pulled over, and he spent some time, hooking and unhooking the jumper cables, pushing the car for a better angle, moving his car until the cables stretched. Standing with me in the rain, standing with me in the dirt, until the car burst to life again. And I could move again. I could go forward.

We do have it in us to do something. To stop our normal route, and pull over, and take the time to stand in the rain, to wade in the muck, to give life to someone else. And I think that is the only way we move forward. The only way I move forward. The only way you move forward. If we all just stop, stop what we are doing, and try a little harder. For Victor. For little Victor with his huge brown eyes, I think we can wade in the muck together. Can’t we?

Donate to fight the root causes of poverty (PCUSA):

http://www.presbyterianmission.org/donate/E052143/

Donate to fund our ministry:

http://www.presbyterianmission.org/donate/E200492/

Advocate for greater US foreign assistance (Church World Service):

https://secure2.convio.net/cws/site/SPageServer?pagename=advocacy_alert_foreign_assistance_saves_lives

Advocate for international food aid (Church World Service):

https://secure2.convio.net/cws/site/SPageServer?pagename=how_adv_301