Pilgrim, Salt in the Community – Project Update
This project is designed to help the local community through both education and health.
In 2008, Grace Sholoma (a nurse), Jastin Sholoma (a farmer) and Evans Mubanga (a head teacher) were shocked at the level of poverty, deprivation, and malnutrition that they saw in a widely dispersed community in a remote area of Serenje District, Central Province, Zambia. They developed a vision for a “Resource Village” in the area, and formed a local charity called “Pilgrim - Salt in Community” to implement their plans.
This is the project’s latest Newsletter dated June 2023
To all our wonderful supporters - without you all this would not have been achieved
PSIC (Pilgrim Salt in Community) is based in Kalilanama, Serenje District. GC-Z is the fund-raising charity in England supporting PSIC in Zambia. We are so pleased with all the encouraging news we receive from the project.
The school is continuing to grow, and there are 145 children enrolled, including 23 in the pre-grade class. Three teachers are now employed, Barry Chisala, Roster Mwanje and Florence Mambwe, and as at present there are only two classrooms, the older children have their classroom in the office. The building above will be the new pre-school classroom and below children wait in their assembly area before school begins in the morning. The classrooms have been painted in and out and children have been given health education regarding HIV/AIDS, STIs, malaria and Covid. The little ones are now weighed each month to check their health. All children receive a nutritious mid-day meal.
The next building project will be for good housing for the teachers and future health worker. The present houses are very small, especially if there are families living there. After that they plan to have weekly boarding, because the children have very far to walk to the school.
Grace Sholoma will be, in the near future, meeting Chief Kabamba (from whom the land is leased long-term) and the Director of Serenje Health Authority to discuss taking the Health Post to the next level and having a Health Worker employed by the Government. This also means expanding the Health Post to include a maternity area and a special shelter for weighing activities, polio, COVID and other immunisations etc. A new incinerator will also be built.
Hope Church, Kalilanama has a few new members, and a choir has been formed. Also, two more evangelists have joined the Pilgrim team, Danny Mwanza and Mr Chisalabunga, to help Jastin take the Gospel to outlying settlements and support the people practically.
In the fields the harvest is quite promising, with sugar cane planted for the first time. Another 5 hectares are due to be ‘stumped’ (trees cleared) soon for more crops and plans being made for fish farming, bananas, and a fruit nursery.
A real need is for another borehole to be sunk with hand pump so that children and employees can draw their own water. The current borehole has a petrol pump and is not really sufficient for so many people and is expensive to run.