Last year's rainfall in Zambia was the lowest since 1905. Father Andrew Leśniara, a Jesuit, has made a dramatic appeal for help in the fight against the famine that has plagued his parish in Chinkui. In the existing network of radio schools in the mission area, he wanted to resume feeding the students, who number more than 5000. Thanks to the generosity of the Secretariat for Foreign Missions of the Priests of the Sacred Heart Donors, not only was this possible, but toddlers who are not yet in school are also getting meals. Every day, more than 7000 children eat a hot meal. Thank you!
August 13, 2024
We recently went to help Choongo Special School, where among 800 students, more than 70 are children with disabilities. The situation of the facility was dramatic, the boarding school was already out of food, clothes, hygiene products... Thank you for your help!
August 19, 2024
The photo shows children waiting for water to appear in the bed of a dried up river. Animals also need to drink... Each family can draw water once every two days....
August 27, 2024
Some photos of the food delivery to the mission station and radio school in Cheelo. First, I celebrated Mass there. The bags of food we brought - mainly corn flour - are on their way on carts pulled by cows. Not every place can be reached by car....
September 5, 2024
Food delivery to Chona mission station behind us. We are getting a 25-ton truck to carry as many goods as possible to where the truck can go. We often use our all-terrain vehicle, which can drive into and out of dried-up riverbeds(!). A truck doesn't stand a chance there.
The new school year has begun, so we are redoubling our efforts in supply matters. On the first day, 2,000 children came to school. But by the end of the week it will already be "normal" - 5,000 students. The mission stations will probably add another thousand or so kids who don't go to school. Thanks to you, dear Donors, lunch will be given to everyone.
September 16, 2024
Our campaign is growing at a rapid pace. Children attending the radio school, and there are more than 5,000 of them, are getting meals every day. Last week we also began delivering supplies to mission stations located in difficult terrain. During three trips, we managed to deliver more than 12 tons of food to the people. Once again, we would like to thank all the Donors for their generosity and such a great relief effort.
October 1, 2024
Here are some photos from the action for children coming from families where someone has AIDS/HIV. The entire action was helped by the so-called caregivers, who have been taking care of AIDS families in our parish for years. Food was distributed to 486 families/caregivers (calculation: five people per family/caregiver*). We delivered bags of flour by bicycles, cow-drawn carts, carrying on our heads - as much as we could. Thank you!!!
*In total, food was distributed to nearly 2,430 people (editor's note).
November 22, 2024
We are still waiting for rain... Our feeding campaign is going well, although not without problems. There is a shortage of corn to grind it into corn flour. Well, but we managed to get something - the corn came from Tanzania, so we received another 1,000 25-kilogram bags of corn flour, for which we have already paid. We also ordered and paid for another 500 bags. With sugar, salt and peanuts there is no problem so far.
Kids get food Monday through Friday at radio schools. There are more than 5,000 children now. Those who don't yet go to our radio school (and there are more than 2,000 such children) get food at mission stations.
Once again, we thank you for your help and hope that somehow we will make it to March/April, when - as there will be rain - there will also be food...
January 15, 2025
The vacations are underway in Zambia, but we have not stopped distributing meals to children in schools. It has finally rained a little, so the corn is growing....
With grateful prayers +
Fr. Andrew Leśniara SJ, Zambia
More about the Nutrition children project in Zambia project.