By Winter Johnson
As the newly appointed country director for HOPE worldwide Zambia, Esther Chona has grabbed the responsibilities of the role with both hands and an infectious smile, enthusiastically organising the programmes on offer in Lusaka.
Here’s what’s happening under Esther and her team’s leadership:
- In the women’s economic empowerment programme, women are engaged in various activities to boost their income, such as processing groundnuts into powder for re-sale, baking scones to sell, operating a restaurant, and engaging in groups and programmes to help them increase their literacy and financial skills.
- Children in the kids’ clubs are learning lessons to nurture brain development and handle social issues, as well as enjoying a caring environment that equips them with the knowledge and skills to build their resilience and develop their character.
- Parents who can’t afford to send their children to school are receiving support from the Parent Support Groups (PSGs) on how to homeschool and feed their children nutritious meals. The PSGs are also a place to receive peer-to-peer support as they learn positive parenting skills and self-esteem.
Before a busy day serving those enrolled in the Kalingalinga, Mtendere, Kanyama, and Chawama sites, Esther sat down with me to provide details on HOPE worldwide Zambia’s current programmes.
HOPE worldwide UK: What are the main issues that our beneficiaries in Lusaka face?
Esther Chona: The people in our site areas face domestic violence, drug abuse, early childhood marriage, alcoholism, and the spread of HIV, although the rate of transmission isn’t as much as in the past.
The average monthly income for our beneficiaries is £11 to £15. The main issue is helping people to provide food for their families and educational materials for their children.
Many people have only one meal per day, which for most is porridge mixed with groundnuts in the morning.
To have three meals per day is rare.
HOPEww UK: How do you assess the impact of each of the programmes you offer?
EC: For the kids’ clubs, at the beginning and end of each year, we have questionnaires to assess the children’s knowledge and what they have learned, as well as interview the children to assess how we can help the child holistically.
These surveys help us determine whether our interventions are meeting the beneficiaries’ needs and addressing community challenges.
For the women’s economic empowerment programme, each woman receives an orientation and training in budgeting before engaging in a business.
Every quarter, our accounts team sits down with the women to help them with costing and budgeting, and we ask, “After the support was given, how are you accounting for your income? How have you been able to provide for your family?”
From that, we’re able to see if the women are benefiting from this initiative. Is it achieving the intended purpose? This serves as a control measure to assess if the economic initiative is helping meet their basic needs.
And with the parent support groups, every three months a new set of women begins after the other ones have finished the module.
They’ve learned how to provide nutrition for their children. They’ve been able to put the skills they’ve learned into practice, and they’ve seen changes in how their child is developing, in their cognitive, psychological, and behavioural development.
The same women also learn how to manage stress and deal with self-esteem issues.
HOPEww UK: How does HOPEww UK help with the work in Zambia?
EC: We have received a lot of help from HOPE worldwide UK. Thanks to HOPE worldwide UK, our organisation has gone through a lot of knowledge enhancement, monitoring and evaluation, policy formulation, help with preparing reports, help with budgets, help with donor reports, and development enhancement. It has really helped us.
Most of our policies for our organisation are from HOPE worldwide UK. Our accounting tools were also suggested by HOPE worldwide UK, and I meet with HOPE worldwide UK staff for help with grant writing and support with governance issues.
There’s so much to talk about. We are very grateful for everything — I have learned so much.
HOPEww UK: What are your goals for each of the programmes?
EC: For the kids’ clubs, I want the kids who graduate from the programme to be able to go to university and get good jobs and utilise their skills.
With the parent support groups, we want to help parents provide a nurturing environment for their children and to be hands-on in their children’s development.
With the women’s economic empowerment programme, my vision is that the women in these programmes get to a point where they can be sustainable and take care of their families, to be weaned off the programme and still be able to thrive.
Fast facts on HOPE worldwide Zambia’s programmes:
- 194 women are currently enrolled in the women’s economic empowerment programme across the four sites
- 50 mothers are in the parent support group in Mtendere, with hopes of expanding the programme to other sites.
- 466 children are in the kids’ clubs across the four sites
