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In 2006 we created a video of the first 100 kids in the Kantolomba
Project. You can download the video: Windows version (Windows Media Player) or Macintosh version (QuickTime). We invite you to visit the website of the talented, inspiring artist who wrote the music featured in the video.
The Kapendas grew up in Kantolomba compound, a dreadfully impoverished slum area near the neighborhood where the Living Compassion House is located. Houses in the compound range from cardboard shacks with plastic roofs to mud huts with tin roofs. The average house is approximately fifteen feet by fifteen feet, with one door and no windows. There is no running water or electricity anywhere in the compound. Sewage flows through the dirt streets; the children play in the sewage. Diseases flourish in the water and are transmitted readily to the children.
Everyone is hungry. There is a community (free) school in the neighborhood but few of the children attend—they’re too hungry to make the journey and to do the work.
Each time we go to Zambia, we visit the compound. Until recently we visited Mary Kapenda there (mother to Brother John, Ignatius, and Theresa). This year Mrs. Kapenda was able finally to move out of the slum into a slightly nicer house—still no running water or electricity, but no open sewage running down the streets.
During our visit in 2005, while playing with the children and talking about possibilities, we asked Theresa Kapenda if there were one thing she could do to help the children what would that be? Without hesitation she answered, “I would turn our family home into a kitchen and begin feeding the hungriest children.”
She said this with no trace of “something wrong,” or “not enough.” She had the clarity of vision of one who sees a situation for what it is and knows what needs to be done. We exchanged a quick, checking-in glance among ourselves, and said, “Let’s do it.” We agreed we would begin with 25 children.
During the first week of October 2005 we sent the funds to buy the pots and pans to launch the project. On October 17 we received an email saying Theresa and friends were feeding 40 previously starving children each day.
Since then the project has expanded rapidly. It now serves more than 100 children and includes a pre-school that meets in a simple church building renovated by Living Compassion retreatants and the people in the community of Kantolomba.
During our July 2006 visit, together with the community, we laid out the steps for the complete transformation of Kantolomba including safe water, reliable housing, employment, healthcare and education for all. It is an ambitious, exciting plan. As soon as the development proposal is complete we will post it on the website. Perhaps you will see a way to assist.
For now, the ways you can jump in and participate include:
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