The ChildrenLearning for Life sponsors children who would not be attending school if they were not sponsored.
These children are found through the contacts/network of Learning for Life. Children can come from a single parent family situation, in which the father or mother has passed away and the single parent does not have enough resources to send 1 or more children to school; or families with a large number of extended family members, for instance orphans having to live with their aunts/uncles/grandmothers because their own parents have passed away or because their own parents are unable to care of them*. It is important that the children go to school every day (without gaps of unattendance) as well as allowing them time outside school hours for homework and practising. Each individual family situation is looked at locally and sponsorship agreement is only set up after the parents/guardians have committed themselves to support the child(ren) in every possible way. * There is not one single family in Zambia that is not affected by HIV & AIDS. Nearly 20% of all Zambians is HIV infected resulting in parents passing away in the midst of their life. Expectation for 2009 is that there are more than 5 million orphans (single- or double orphans, meaning having lost either 1 or both parents). It is the extended family - aunts, uncles and grandmothers - who then take in these children in their own households, often resulting in families with more than 6 children living in one small house. On top of the struggle dealing with HIV & AIDS there is a poor health care system and very high unemployment rates. |