Visiting an SOS Village for the first time

Ian Messenger, Group Internal Communications Manager for business group SThree, recently visited the SOS Children’s Village in Lusaka, Zambia and he tells us all about it in this report.

A warm welcome

I recently went on holiday to Zambia in Southern Africa and took a few hours out to visit the SOS Children’s Village in Lusaka, the capital, to see how an SOS Village is run and meet the kids and staff. SOS Children have two other Villages in Zambia - in Kitwe in the north and Livingstone in the south - with a third being built in Chipata in the east. All the money SThree raises for SOS Children will go towards the building costs of this new Village.

One of the main reasons for visiting the Village in Lusaka was to meet the child I sponsor as part of SOS Children’s ‘Sponsor a Child’ campaign. The young lady I sponsor is called Sherine Ngobol and is 5 years old. The £20 I pay per month goes towards paying for Sherine’s food, clothing and education costs. I’ll tell you more about my meeting Sherine later.

My hosts for the morning were Mutale Mwamba who is the Village Director of the Lusaka Village and Aaron Mumba, a Fundraising Officer for SOS Children’s Villages in Zambia. Mr Mwamba was very welcoming and answered all my probing questions with good grace and humour, and clearly is very passionate about what he and the team do at the village. He explained the villages are built to last and provide orphaned and abandoned children with a mother, a home, schooling and vocational training. Medical services are also provided in the Lusaka village although this is not the case in every SOS Children's Village.

A full house!

After grilling Mr Mwamba and Aaron (I can call him that as he was younger than me - etiquette in Zambia is very important), I went on to meet the mother of my sponsored child in the house she runs for a total of twelve children. SOS mothers tend to be widows and usually have grown-up children of their own. All the mothers go through a rigorous recruitment process as these are jobs for life and ones that will heavily influence and support many numbers of children over an extended period of time. Sherine’s mother showed us around the four-bedroom bungalow (which you can see in the pictures) and explained that each household receives a budget that is mostly spent on food and provisions although a little can be saved to pay for treats.

Meeting Sherine at the SOS Nursery School

Following the house visit, we all made our way to the nursery school (there’s a nursery, primary and secondary school at the village) to be shown around and for me to meet Sherine for the first time. The headmistress was a very dynamic lady and clearly used to showing corporate sponsors around - I barely got a word in! You can see a few pictures of the young kids at the nursery. After an introduction to Sherine - her class went on to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider and a couple of African nursery rhymes. I now understand to some degree how royalty feel when they are performed to - I couldn’t quite decide what to do with my facial expression or with my hands! All in all though, it was lovely and I’m really glad I had a tour of the school.

I would urge you to visit a SOS Children’s Village on your travels if you get the chance. Employees from corporate partners are always welcome at the villages across the globe. If you would like to visit one or would like information about the Sponsor a Child scheme, please contact Caroline at the UK office on 01223 365589."

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Find out more about SOS Children's Village Lusaka