CHRISTIAN AID MINISTRIES – CAM IN PARTNERSHIP WITH AFLA

We are glad to inform you our dear esteemed sponsors and partners that our organization Christian Aid Ministries – CAM is in partnership with the Association for the Life of Africa- AFLA, Heartbeat International and Life International and we are now providing free Pregnancy crisis, counseling and Testing and free ultrasound scanning services to our vulnerable TB/HIV/AIDS clients who are expecting at our center. Our clients come from our catchment areas of Buchi, St. Anthony, Kamakonde, Mugala, Kamatipa, Kapoto and Chantete communities. We have started witnessing an influx of our clients turning up forfree Pregnancy crisis, counseling and Testing and free ultrasound scanning services at our center in good numbers and partnership with AFLA, Heartbeat International and Life International has started bearing fruit bit by bit.

Charity Muyomba and her two children Monica and Remy Muyomba

On Friday 11th June 2021, we had an opportunity to identify one client by the name of Charity Muyomba. Charity stays in Buchi community and is 21 years old with 4 children. Charity is both on TB treatment that she started taking in May 2021 four months ago now and she is also on antiretroviral drugs that she started taking since January 2020 last year. Charity and her husband are not working. Every morning charity has to go from one house to another washing people’s clothes where she earns some little income of less than $1.00 per day to buy food to feed herself, her husband and her 4 children just for her family to survive for a day. She has been struggling really hard to feed her family and taking them to school due to financial constraints. Last month, her youngest two children Monica and Remy were found to have malasmas at the hospital and almost died because of malnutrition and lack of food at their home.

This is brother Stanley Mulenga having a light moment with Monica and Remy at Christian Aid Ministries – CAM offices at Buchi TB clinic in Buchi On the 11th June 2021 two months ago, before their mother charity could collect 2 tablets of hygienix bath soap, 1 packet of boom washing paste and a 5kg packet of soya flour to take home for her youngest children Monica and Remy. We love sharing with the kids!!!

Now thanks be to God Almighty for His abundant grace – Monica and Remy are on Christian Aid Ministries – CAM Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays soya porridge and Nshima feeding support program every morning at our center at Buchi TB clinic and their health has really improved so drastically. At the end of this newsletter, you will be able to find malnourished children feeding from Buchi community and you will be delighted to find their names, address and contact information there. Monica and Remy are one of the 100 malnourished children in Buchi community who are on CAM soya porridge and nshima feeding support program and their mother Charity keeps bringing them on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays every morning and their health has started to improve drastically as you can see in this picture and we are so grateful for your support brethren. Please continue with this same spirit, the Lord is watching and He will continue to answer your payers!!! You are such a BIG BLESSING to CAM and to our family, and we love you so very much!!!

The Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays soya porridge and nshima feeding program to malnourished TB/HIV-AIDS children at our center and the monthly food distribution program to our TB/HIVAIDS clients in the community

In order to have healthy lives and growth, one has to be exercising, have good eating habits, and continue to have a balanced diet, among other things. A balanced diet comprises of energy-giving food substances such carbohydrates namely rice, mealie meal, sorghum, sugar, sweet potatoes, etc. There should also be proteins such as soya beans, fish, chicken, milk, meat etc for cell replacement and growth and availability of fruits, vegetables, and other vitamins like iron, calcium, potassium for body protection from other diseases and ailments. Good nutrition brings about good health both among children and adults. Children with poor nutrition often become malnourished and underweight and often experience diseases such as malasmas, kwarshock, TB in people living with HIV with compromised immune systems as a result of poor diet and stunted growth and other complications in children.

In adults diseases such as HIV/AIDS and TB compounded by malnutrition as a result of poverty and unemployment the consequences on the family particularly women and children are often lethal and devastating. Some women and men in communities where we serve with high TB and HIV/AIDS disease burdens and unemployment such as Buchi, St. Anthony, Kamakonde, Mugala, Kamatipa, Kapoto, and Chantete, end up in prostitution, abortion, drunkenness, and other illicit and atrocious activities such as burglaries while their children end up becoming street children as a result of unemployment and poverty.

Our organization Christian Aid Ministries - CAM has continued trailing the path of reducing the TB and HIV/AIDS burdens in Kitwe district on the Copperbelt province of Zambia by conducting community visitations counseling and screening TB suspects for signs and symptoms of TB and encourage TB suspects to submit their sputum to Buchi Main clinic for TB diagnosis and treatment at the TB/chest clinic where our office is based.

We have also continued providing free transportation to the most vulnerable TB/HIV/AIDS clients to enable them to access TB/HIV/AIDS treatment care and support services that they need as well as providing free education and sensitization on TB and HIV/AIDS treatment, care and support in the community and ensure that TB/HIV/AIDS clients adhere to treatment without defaulting.

We have also continued to provide free monthly and weekly nutritional support services to the most vulnerable TB and HIV/AIDS clients in the community and at the center respectively to encourage them to stick to treatment without defaulting.

We provide nutritional support and foods to adults such as mealie meal, rice, beans, cooking oil, kapenta, sugar, and soya mill at the center and in all the 7 communities where we operate mentioned above.

We have also started to provide nutritional support to 100 malnourished children in Buchi community who are either born from our clients who have TB and HIV/AIDS or orphaned and vulnerable children due to TB/AIDS in Buchi community who come at our center at the Chest/TB Clinic on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays every week. As intervals, we also provide nutritional support such as milk, soya, fruits, and vegetables such as bananas, oranges, etc to malnourished children at Kitwe Teaching Hospital Malnourished Children’s ward and their heath has continued to improve.

We are so delighted to inform you that ever since this nutrition support project for malnourished children in Buchi community and Malnourished Children’s Ward at Kitwe Teaching Hospital started, most children’s health has rapidly continued to improve, and taking their TB and/or TB medication is no longer a problem, they take it consistently without any problems of stopping on the way.

OUR CLIENTS CALL CHART

We do not visit our clients as regularly as we used to because of covid-19, we have selected Tuesdays and Thursdays on which we call our clients in the community using what we call our Clients Call Chart, where we have written all their contact phone numbers and addresses at our center and call them one by one on phone to find out how they are faring with their health with regards to TB and antiretroviral treatment that they are taking and they inform us that they are doing very fine. On Tuesdays, we make a total of 50 Phone calls and on Thursday, we manage to make a total of 100 calls to our clients in a week. This helps us to keep in touch with our clients on a daily basis in a week and it is very very helpful. Thank you so much for your support my dear brothers and sisters, partners and sponsors, May things continue to go well with you and prosper in every aspect of your life, we are so grateful for your support! We LOVE YOU and we are praying for you!!! THANK YOU and may our God Almighty continue to bless you!!!

Providing sugar, soap and washing pastes to our vulnerable TB and HIV/AIDS clients at the center and in the community

This is one of the bells of small 500 gram packets of sugar, dozens of hygienix bath soap and cases of boom detergent washing pastes that we carry along with us each time we are going in the field to visit our clients in in Buchi, St. Anthony, Kamakonde, Mugala, Kamatipa, Kapoto, and Chantete communities on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays every week. From our field work experince, we have learned that sometimes our clients may lack small things like sugar just to make a plate of porridge and eat or a tablet of soap to bath and feel better or even the smallest packet of boom washing paste to wash their clothes and look clean and feel the essence of life, but you find that even these smallest but important things may be lacking in their homes and make their lives seem miserable and unbearable during their illness. This is the main reason why we have started providing some of these smallest things to them now. We make sure we do not visit our clients empty-handed; we have to at least carry them something to motivate and make them feel loved, they really appreciate this very much!!!

These are other 16 bags of mealie meal and maize sample that we bought from Mpngwe Mealing Company on 23,24 and 25th of June 2021 in readiness for distribution in in Buchi, St. Anthony. Kamakonde, Mugala, Kamatipa, Kapoto and chantete communities.

We also bought 2 (50kg) bags Nakonde Rice, powdered milk, 4 kg of sugar that we bought to mix to the soya meal that we give to our clients at the center and in the community . We would love to convey our sincere GRATETUDE to you our PARTNERS, FOR YOUR SUPPORT, WE ARE very very GRATEFUL. Please continue with this same Spirit, THANK YOU!!

Identification of malnourished orphans and vulnerable children in dire need of nutritional support in Buchi community

Early this year 2021, Kitwe Teaching hospital and other clinics started recording an increased number of child morbidity and mortality rates due to malnutrition from Buchi community and other surrounding areas in Kitwe district. For this reason, our organization Christian Aid Ministries – CAM decided to identify a total of 100 malnourished children and orphans and vulnerable children in Buchi community and other surrounding areas who are in dire need of nutritional support between the ages of 0-12 years old with the support of Mrs. Tina Mumba and Maureen Mbao who are one of our staff members in collaboration with our community volunteers such as Mrs. Musandile, and others who conduct weekly community visitations to our clients in Buchi, St. Anthony, Kamakonde, Mugala, Kamatipa, Kapoto and Chantete communities with a high burden of TB, HIV/AIDS and adult and child malnutrition.

We have compiled a list of all the identified malnourished and orphan children in our folders and every week we call their guardians on phones or visit them to bring their children to our center at the chest clinic for soya porridge nutritional support program. We mix soya meal with sugar, powdered milk, maize roller meal and add a bit of salt to come up with a very rich blend and make porridge that we provide to some of these critically ill malnourished TB/HIV/AIDS patients and malnourished and orphan children at our center at Dr. Elizabeth Rini Medical center at the TB clinic in Buchi. We do not always give them soya porridge, sometimes we feed them with Nshima and Kapenta or beans with vegetables according to what is on that days menu in a week and you will be pleased to see how the health of some of those children such as Favour Kachinga and many others have improved so drastically in the following pictures, you cannot even tell that at one point they were even very very sick because of malnutrition.

THE SUFFERING OF FAVOR KACHINGA AND HER GRANDMOTHER MATHER

Favor Kachinga is 5 years old. Favour is a double orphan. Both her father and mother died when she was barely 7 months old as a result of TB and HIV/AIDS in 2017. Ever since that time, she has just been looked after by her 81 year- old grandmother Mather in Buchi community. Mather has been struggling to survive up to now. Favour was born with HIV/AIDS from her mother and she is on ART that her grandmother comes to collect at Buchi TB clinic every after 6 months. In 2020 last year, Favour was caught with malnutrition and she was later admitted to Kitwe Teaching Hospital Malnourished children’s ward where she stayed for 6 months. Her grandmother is still struggling to make loose ends meet as she only sells charcoal to fend for herself and her granddaughter to survive. Mather brings her to Buchi TB clinic for antiretroviral therapy treatment every after 6 months. When we saw her health condition and the way her grandmother was struggling to fend for her, we decided to adopt and commenced her on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on Christian Aid Ministries – CAM Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays soya porridge and Nshima feeding support program every morning at our center at Buchi TB/Chest clinic and their health has really improved now as you can see. She is happy and smiling!!! Thank you for your support our dear sponsors, thank you!!! May God richly bless you!!!

MALNOURISHED CHILDREN FEEDING FORM ON MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS AND FRIDAYS AT OUR CENTER AT BUCHI TB CLINIC IN BUCHI COMMUNITY

This is bana Mwelwa who is one f our community volunteers in Buchi community preparing soya porridge for malnourished and orphaned and vulnulrable children at the center on Friday on the 9th of July 2021.

To make this porridge more nutritious, we mix soya flour with powdered milk, maize meal and some small amount of salt. Sometimes we asl buy fruits such as bananas, oranges and apples tahat they eat after the soya porridge. We do not always feed them with soya porridge alone, we sometimes alternate it with rice mixed with powdered cremora milk, small portions of soya flour and salt on Modays. On Wednesyays, we feed them on nnshima that we prepare at the center that they eat with small fried fich such as kapenta, beans and vegetables. And at the end of the meal we give them atleast one banana or apple or orange depending on what fruits are available on that day. Most of thse children are HIV+ who were born from our clients and are on ARVs. Some of them are former TB patients who have successfully completed their TB treatment and are cured.

Maureen Mbao serving poridge to the chidren

Maureen works at our center as one of our counselors. She also accompanies our community volunteers to visit our clients in various communities who need to be encouraged to continue taking their medication and to educate them on the side effects of the medication. During their visitation, they are also able to idenify those clients who need to be taken for treatment and bring to us that report. This is the work that shehas been doing at our center and in the community. We are so happy to inform you our dear partners brother Mark that this program is doing very well as we have started seeing so many of the children recovering easily from TB and HIV/AIDS and malnoutrition. Thank you so much for your support my brother and may God almighty continue to bless you and your family. We love you and we are praying for you. THANK YOU SO VERY VERY MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT. PLEASE CONTINUE WITH THIS SAME SPIRIT, THANK YOU!!!

Children sitting waiting to be served porridge at the center

Maureen serving Margerate Mwamba rice at the center on Moday 5th July 2021

On Modays, Wednesdays and Fridays Margaeret Mwaba brings her two children to the poridge or nshima feeding program at our center and we are happy to report to you that their health has improved so dratically and there is great improvement in their growth every day. This is a great achievement to us and we are happy about it!

Children enjoying their porridge meal at the center on Friday 9th July 2021

Maureen serving Mwape some rice at the center on Wednesday June 23rd 2021

Mwape stays alone at her house in Buchi community as her husband has decided to abandon her after discoverung that she had HIV/AIDS and TB. We are so grateful to report to you that her health has also started improving after putting her on TB treatment and weekly and monthly nutritional support program at our center on Modays. We are so grateful for your support!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH AND MAY GOD ALMIGHTY RICHLY BLESS YOU FOR THIS GREAT GESTURE!!!!!!

This is Amos. Amos Nkandu is 10 years old. Amos is paralized as a result of prolonged illness a a result of cerebral meningitis that he developed as a result of HIV/AIDS in 2017. He cannot walk, speak but he can hear perfectly well. Amos is still on ARVs and he is feeling bette now. Amos is in grade 5 at Kitwe Central hospital private special children’s school where he has been perfoming so well in his academics. His uncle who is looking after him in Buchi is so delighted with our organisation Christian Aid Ministries – CAM to consider Amos for support. And we are grateful to you for your support brother Mark. May God continue to bl;ess you and your entire family, THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!!!

This is Justine Mutambo collecting rice at our center on Monday 8th June 2021

Justine Mutambo receiving TB medication from Stanley Mulenga on Monday 22nd June 2021

Justine Mutambo was on TB treatment in the year 2012 and he successfully completed taking this medication in the same year under our supervision and got cured. However he continued taking the ARVs until June this year 2021. Now Justine moved out of Kitwe and our supervision and went to some other place where he was staying and got married from there. He started smoking cigarettes and drinking beer and temporally stopped taking his ARVs for a long period of time until again he started coughing, sneezing, chest pains, sweating in the night and many other symptoms of TB and HIV/AIDS. This is when he came back to us at our center in June 2021 2 months ago and we started him with the process of TB diagnosis where we screened him for TB and allowed him to submit his sputum to the lab at Kitwe central hospital for diagnosis. And later, we discovered that the sputum came out TB positive and he was immediately commenced on TB treatment that he has started taking. Justine was diagnosed to have the kind of TB called pulmonary TB that is highly infectious. Now that he has been taking TB medication for more than 3 weeks now, he is no longer as infectious as he was before starting this medication Justine is under our care and he will be very fine soon. Thank you for your support!!!!