Scottish Catholic Observer

Jonathan Chimasula was a bit of a surprise for his parents, and although he was welcome, the Zambian couple were already struggling to survive in a country where 70 per cent of the population is in ‘informal employment’ and too many families get by on just one meal a day.

Born in Chawama compound, one of the challenged communities on the outskirts of Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city, Jonathan moved to Mtendendere compound when he was four years old. He remembers being an unhappy child and was often left alone on the house when his mum went out to try to make a few kwacha to feed the family. Sometimes that could lead to potentially dangerous situations—like the day he and his friend heated a knife in the fire and then had a fight. There were times spent on the streets, foraging for food with all the other youngsters from vulnerable families.

By the time he was seven years old, his granny—who often looked after him—had passed away and his brother was in the care of the Mthunzi Children’s Programme—a residential home set up by a former Comboni missionary to care for the increasing number of street kids and children from challenged families like Jonathan’s.

When Jonathan heard that his brother was living at the Mthunzi Centre, he asked his parents if he could go there too, and his parents were relieved to deliver him to the former farm out on the Kasupe road beyond the burgeoning compounds of Lusaka West.

It was always clear that Jonathan was as bright as a button. Given a mental arithmetic problem to wrestle with and he’d have it solved before you could say ‘Countdown.’ He revelled in school and if there was anyone around to help with homework, he’d rather spend an afternoon with them than joining his new friends playing games.

That’s not to say that Jonathan was a saint. An attention seeker (why wouldn’t he be, given his history?), he could land in trouble as easily as the next child, but channelled into the Mthunzi Culture Group, which began with the kids learning to play traditional drums and expanded to encompass music and dance, this was another area in which he could gain a sense of self worth.

In the early days, elementary school fees had to be paid, and the Argyll-based charity Mthunzi and Lilanda Initiative (MALI) aided the Mthunzi Children’s programme. When the Zambian Government made elementary school free, MALI took responsibility for the secondary education of the Mthunzi residents.

With its foundation in St Margaret’s, Lochgilphead, MALI reached out to other parishes in Argyll and the Isles Diocese, and with a rising profile achieved through cultural exchanges between the Mthunzi Culture Group and young Scottish musicians, the ripples of support spread ever wider. From Our Lady of the Assumption and St Medden in Troon, Ayrshire, to Star of the Sea in the Isle of Barra, people responded to the vibrancy of these former street children who could as easily sing Gaelic songs—taught them by Barra man John Joe MacNeil—as dance Fwemba (a traditional dance from Zambia’s Eastern Province).

MALI paid for traditional drums and costumes and for lessons with traditional dancers, using funds raised through organisations such as the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council and the National Lottery—funds that could only be used for such purposes—and Jonathan was a star of shows in Scotland during two visits to Argyll and he welcomed Scottish musicians to Mthunzi.

But MALI ’s ‘day job’ is to provide education for the Mthunzi residents, and Jonathan stepped back from cultural activities voluntarily when secondary school got serious. Jonathan’s ambitions were resolute and he had no intentions of letting anything stand in his way. He had achieved high marks on leaving elementary school. He wanted to do the same when he reached Grade 12 and the equivalent of Scottish Highers.

Jonathan had told MALI founder Marian Pallister when he was leaving elementary school: “I want to be a pilot or an accountant.”

When he gained top grades in his final exams, he still wanted to be a pilot, but now he saw the best route through aeronautical engineering, and MALI is now paying his college fees. His dedication to achieving a better future is impressive, and perhaps what is also impressive is his loyalty to his family, who he has continued to visit all these years.

Recently, a news story about Jonathan appeared on a website connected to the Mthunzi Children’s Programme. Mike Mwenda (above left) wrote it. Mike’s own story is as inspirational as Jonathan’s.

His, too, was a family in crisis, his a childhood lived on the edge, the saving grace of the Mthunzi Children’s Programme with a secondary school education supported by MALI.

Mike’s ambition was to be a journalist and he too was determined to achieve the grades that would allow him to do that. That determination led to him signing up in 2012 for a three-year diploma course in journalism and public relations run by the Zambia Institute of Mass Communication Educational Trust (ZamCom) and supported by MALI.

Mike has travelled to South Africa as part of his course and has a special interest in gender issues, which means he has a special interest in MALI ’s current project—building a secondary school at the Mthunzi Children’s Project to accommodate children from four neighbouring challenged communities.

St Columba’s—which will be administered by Teresian Sisters (above centre) and will welcome children of all faiths and none—intends to positively discriminate in favour of female students, a policy Mike is particularly pleased about.

His latest project is interviewing Justina Njovi (above right), who hopes to become a student at St Columba’s. Justina is 15 years old and is expected to do well in her final exams at elementary school. She lost her Dad and her Mum does ‘piece work’—sometimes picking up work as a maid or cleaner. Money is always tight and Justina’s grandparents, who have a smallholding, usually look after her along with several other grandchildren left in their care by their own deceased offspring.

Justina is part of a home-based care scheme run by the Mthunzi Children’s Programme with funding from an Italian charity called Amani. She goes there every Saturday for homework support and a meal. Like so many girls, her secondary schooling will not be a priority for her family—it simply can’t be.

In 2013, the headteacher at Tubalange elementary school—where Jonathan and Mike first went to school—told Marian Pallister and fellow MALI board member Fr David Connor that 40 children had passed to go to secondary school but couldn’t take up their places because the secondary schools where they were given places were too far away.

With the building of St Columba’s making huge progress, thanks to match funding from Missio Scotland, there may be justice for Justina. With a secondary school on her doorstep and scholarships available, Justina can follow her ambitions instead of having to give up on her education and follow her Mum into a lifetime of casual work, with the accompanying struggle to pay her way in life.

The board plans to have satellite classrooms in the neighbouring communities that children can access during the day and women like Justina’s Mum can go to in the evening for vocational studies. Converted containers using solar power cost around £7000 and are on our  ‘bucket list’ along with a mobile science lab that carries a similar price tag.

David Sinclair, a MALI board member who has made two Christmas visits to Zambia with his wife Theresa, said: “The children in Zambia are amazing. They are so hungry for education and it broke our hearts to realise how many children in the past have run into the educational buffers not because they didn’t have ability but because there was no help to get them to secondary school. That’s why St Columba’s is so vital to this area and why Missio Scotland’s support is so vital.”

n http://www.missionmattersscotland.org