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serving the orphans of zambia
Camp LIFE sign up for 2011 starts Wednesday, I better get the application ready 3 days agoCamp LIFE sign up for 2011 starts Wednesday, I better get the application ready 3 days ago
I work as the director of information systems for Family Legacy Missions International. We work specifically with the orphaned and vulnerable children of Zambia, Africa. Each summer we put on Camp LIFE for up to 10,000 children in Zambia. We also work with these kids throughout the year through our Community Resource Centers, strategically located all around the capital city of Lusaka. Our most vulnerable children move into the Tree of Life Children’s Village where they are under our full-time care and get all the love, education, clothing and food that they need.
One of the questions I often get is “how does a director of technology help the orphans in Zambia?” Really what my job enables us to do is to help thousands of orphans at once. Our database contains information of every child who comes to Camp LIFE and enables us to track information on every kid such as their age, where they live, who they live with, which Americans have been their counselor at Camp LIFE, health issues and photos of each child.
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For eight weeks during the summer, we bring about 1000 kids from the poorest areas of Lusaka and put on a week-long camp filled with impactful music, powerful teaching and the freedom to play around like a kid should. Each summer about 400 Americans come over for a week at a time to lead a small group of children and act as the “camp counselor.”
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In 2010, Mindy and I got to meet a little girl named Gertrude. When Gertrude showed up at Camp LIFE, she was so weak that she could barely walk and looked completely lifeless. She spent most of the first day at camp at the nurses station because she was took weak to participate. Mindy went with Gertrude, her mother and little baby brother the very next day to a clinic which does AIDS testing for women and children for free. The results showed that Gertrude and the rest of her family were all HIV positive. Gertrude also had tuberculosis and was more advanced due to lack of proper nutrition.
Beauty Mulenga is one of the children living in the Tree of Life Children’s Village. She is 13 years old and in the 7th grade. Beauty suffers from sickle-cell anemia, which cause severe pain throughout her body on random occasions. Beauty and her cousin Temba lived with her aunt who was very abusive. Beauty was raped when she was younger by her aunt’s boyfriend. Now Beauty and Temba are safe at the Tree of Life Children’s Village.
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Zambia is located in sub-Saharan Africa and is a country about the size of the state of Texas. It has a population of about 12 million people with over 3 million living in the capital city of Lusaka.
This summer Mindy got to meet Agness for the first time. Aggie is our sponsored girl who lives at the Tree of Life. She is 11 years old and was the youngest of 10 kids in her family. Aggie is known at the Tree of Life for her personality, dancing and huge smile! She cannot wait for us to come back because next time we see her we will hopefully have her a little brother or sister. She is hoping for a girl.
My favorite picture from Camp LIFE 2010. The kids get a chance to color on Tuesdays and they take it very seriously.