Vision of Hope - supporting girls who live on the streets in Zambia
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As well as doing my day job at ZARAN I've been on the look out for some other smaller projects to support while I'm here in Zambia. I've been incredibly fortunate to meet with the guys who run Vision of Hope, a small Zambian charity that works with girls who live and work on the streets of the capital Lusaka. They're just starting out but having visited the project it is already clear what a huge difference Vision of Hope are making to the lives of the girls they support.
Poverty and HIV are the major driving forces behind girls as young as 12 ending up on the street. Once there they will often turn to sex work to make money and be exposed to violence and sexual abuse. Most of the girls Vision of Hope is working with are addicted to glue. Some of them already have children of their own. The weekly drop-in centre run by the very wonderful Chitalu and Meg gives the girls a safe place to bathe, wash their clothes, get checked out by a nurse, eat a couple of square meals and most importantly spend time socialising in a safe, secure environment. In the afternoons a trained youth worker runs sessions on hygiene, sexually transmitted diseases and other vital life skills. I've offered up some of my time to help them with logo design, web design and communications more generally and it's been a hugely rewarding experience. I'll post again once the website's live but in the meantime have a look at our appeal (attached as a pdf to this post) or just jump right in and donate.
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