St Francis Hospital, Katete AIDS Orphans Project – Project Update

Saint Francis' is a 350-bed hospital in rural Zambia, providing medical and surgical care to the people of Katete District (population 200,000), as well as accepting referrals from the whole of Eastern Province (population 1.5 million).

The Trust have for many years supported a project run by St Francis to care for and help to educate children orphaned as a result of the AIDs pandemic. Below is a recent update that the Trust have received.

The numbers of children that the OVC program is looking after has fallen, mainly because most of the young people completing grade 12 have graduated. According to the latest records, the OVC program are now looking after just over seven hundred young people. Due to the change in the way that PTA fees are charged in Zambia, the OVC program’s costs have fallen substantially. However, an increasing number of children are attending boarding school and these fees have increased dramatically. Due to the reasons described above, it is hoped to increase the numbers by 100 each year for the next three years.

During this year, the OVC program has appointed Emelia Mulenga to manage the program in Zambia.

Emelia sorting reusable sanitary towels for the young ladies in the OVC program