Ministries

Working in Kasama, the Sisters of the Child Jesus manage their own programs, including operating the Tetekela Day Center serving 300 or more orphans. These children suffer from lack of family, food, shelter, and education, and come to Tetekela daily to meet these needs.

From there they administer all their ministries as well as staff Tetekela, a day care center serving 300 orphans who are without adequate food, shelter or education.

A 30 minute drive west of Kasama is Chilubula, the site of the original Mother House, now the Novitiate training center, as well as St. Fideles Hospital, St. Theresa Girls Secondary School (a residential school with 409 students) and the Demonstration Farm.

Several hours south (217 km) of Kasama is Mpika, the site of St. Theresa basic school (preschool to grade 7) and also the Mpima Seminary (the four sisters living and working there introduce the seminarians to home care for the elderly and HIV/AIDS patients, a powerful pastoral training event). An additional few km south is the Chilonga Hospital and School of Nursing and Midwifery where 12 Sisters are on staff.

Going north from Kasama a couple hundred km is Mbala where several Sisters do pastoral work and work in the government hospital there. Then up to the far northern border of Zambia at the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Mpulungu, you find the site of the Stella Maris Convent School with 428 students.

70 km northwest of Kasama is Kapatu, site of the Postulant training house with 11 in their beginning two years. Across the river is Lucena, a 400 hectare farm where two sisters are working agricultural miracles.

Another 96 km northwest is Mporokoso, site of a School for the Visually Impaired with 62 students and 6 Sisters.

Urgent Needs

Food:

Many of you have been reading about the global food crisis. This, coupled with the quickly approaching rainy season means a time of severe need.
We asked the Sisters for and received a “shopping list” to feed the children for the next three months.
$5,425 is needed to purchase 100 bags of maize, 15 bags of soybeans, 4 bales of dried fish, 14 bags of kapenta (another dried fish), and 2 bags of groundnuts.
100% of the funds given for food will go to the Sisters to feed about 300 children who depend on the center.
That comes to less than $20 per child!

Tetekela Center Addition:

The Tetekela Day Care Center serves orphans between ages 3-18, many of whom are in desperate need of overnight shelter. Currently, they must leave the center at 4pm due to inadequate space and staffing.
In addition to building materials and labor, further needs include: two electric cooking stoves, a freezer, classroom equipment, beds and other furniture.

Kawambwa School for the Blind:

Kawambwa School for the Blind provides care and education for children who are visually impaired. There are 68 students in grades 1-9 who live in four dormitories. The challenges at the school are many. The school motto is “Break the Barrier” to thrive. The focus is to train the children to be self-reliant. There is an urgent need to purchase or obtain:

A Braille typewriter (they have 2 for the whole school and the Sisters transcribe lessons by hand)
Braille styluses and hand frames
A Braille press
Magnifiers for the partially sighted students
Small, batter-operated tape recorder/players with blank tapes and extra batteries
Canes and walking sticks

Will You Help?

Do you have a “Heart for Zambia”? You can help the Sisters of the Child Jesus care for the children and families who depend on them. Thank you for giving!