Child Care Adoption Society cries for help

Child Care Adoption Society cries for help

By Potipher tembo
IN the 60’s and 70’s, the word street kid was unheard of. Orphans were not left to fend for themselves as the case is today.
There were always willing relatives and well-wishers to extend a helping hand to any child who had lost a parent or parents. Children roaming streets in towns always attracted attention of willing helpers.
However, this compassion towards these unfortunate children is no longer there these days prompting some organisations which have a heart to help out.
One such organisation is the Child Care and Adoption Society of Zambia (CCASZ) in Ndola.
Although the organisation has done a lot to help the disadvantaged children in society, it needs a massive injection of funds to enable it manage the home effectively.
CCASZ, which looks after dumped and orphaned children in Zambia, mainly relies on business organisations and individuals for its survival.
Though the society gets quarterly grants of K2.9 million from the Government, this is not enough to see it through.
CCASZ chairman Kevin Shone said in Ndola that the society was looking after 14 to 19 children in various branches but the task was hampered by lack of funds.
Mr Shone said some business organisations and individuals made donations to the society but this was usually in material goods like clothes and food.
“A number of companies and individuals donate in form of goods. But what we need is money because we have to buy food, pay salaries to the workers who look after the children and also pay for telephone and electricity bills.
“We need at least $800 per month to cover these and we appeal for assistance,” said Mr Shone.
Late last month, Barclays Bank Ndola south employees donated K500,000 to the society to help it buy gifts for the children at the Kansenshi home through a fundraising venture called “crazy Friday dressing”.
Barclays Bank south corporate manager Darlington Kapasu said the workers had organised themselves and decided to help the society which was looking after the poor children who did not have parents.
The employees made the donations possible through the “crazy Friday dressing” which took three consecutive Fridays prior to Christmas whereby male workers donned in colourful head-dress and chitenge materials. The “crazy Friday dressing” also attracted bank’s clients who donated generously.
“The bankers felt duty-bound to assist the needy children who did not have parents to care for them,” Mr Kapasu said.
“The workers here got together and agreed to donate something to CCASZ for three Fridays before Christmas. We thought this was the best way to help the poor children.”
CCASZ’s officer Sarah Longa who received the K500,000 donation said the society was grateful with the generosity shown by Barclays Bank employees.
“We are cheered with the workers’ generosity. The money will go a long way in helping the children. We will buy food and detergents for the children,” she said.
She reiterated Mr Shone’s sentiments that the society needed sufficient financial resources to run the home for the orphans and dumped children.
Ms Longa complained that ever since the society was opened, it had been appealing for assistance but this has not been forthcoming.
“We would like a lot of people, business organisations and well-wishers to come to our aid. We need to be helped financially and materially,” she said.
The society was started in June 1956 and was registered in 1957. It was then called the Child Welfare until 1970 when it was renamed the Child Care and Adoption Society of Zambia which was set up to look into the future of children in need.
The society looks after children aged between one to five years and these are children whose mothers die in child birth and those whose relatives cannot look after them until they are old enough.
CCASZ also looks after children abandoned by teenage or mentally ill mothers until foster or adoptive homes are found.
The society also admits children with HIV/AIDS and whose parents died of the same pandemic. Older children who have been abused are also admitted.
According to Ms Longa, the society keeps six to eight children who are dumped every year and their mothers are unknown.
“Some of the children lose their mothers soon after they are born and relatives could not manage to nurture them. These we keep until they are old enough to be looked after by their relatives.
“But there are other children who are dumped either by their teenage or mentally sick mothers. These we keep until we give them for foster or adoption,” she said.
The society takes care for the future of the child in need, protects the interests and promotes the welfare of the children, eliminates the plight of the children and all social evils affecting the welfare of children in Zambia, encourage and assist efforts through projects aimed at stabilising family life to improve the social and physical environment of children and cooperate with Government, municipals and other organisations in all matters relating to the care of children.
CCASZ gives child health, child nutrition, education, adopting, fostering, child delinquency correction, rendering help to abused children, child rights advocacy, child development and child welfare services.
Only a society with enough resources can afford to do this.
But since is impecunious, it mainly depends on volunteers who ensure the survival of the child.
It is for this that the society’s appeal for assistance for funds should be heeded. Maybe Zambia will revert to the stage where no one could say a child “has no relative” which is a very unlikely statement.