When I first met Joseph I asked him how old he was.
‘I am ten’, he replied in English. ‘No you’re not’, another boy said, ‘You’re four’.
Although FSC (Friends of Street Children) and have tried, his family have not been found. Joseph says that he went out to play one day and that he got lost. No one has come forward to claim him. FSC brought him up to a standard at which he was able to go back to school. He is a studious boy and does well there.
Joseph reaching out for a model of a mother and baby made by another boy, in the middle is a woman on a horse and on the left a family on a sofa, behind is one of the dormitories paid for by Romilly’s supporters.
Joseph rejoining school. FSC will have had to pay for his uniform, shoes, bag and some of his books and pencils.
In order to enable FSC to continue their work please make a small monthly donation here:
Romilly’s charities has no staff and pays no salaries to its trustees. Friends of Street Children is a Zambian NGO and is not owned or affiliated to Romilly’s charity. It is African but it does need our support.
This July Tim Drake retired from his trusteeship of Romilly. During a very grim time for us he was a tower of strength. He was a founder trustee of Romilly’s charity. He has always been full of enthusiasm for its work, very generous with his time and wise in his counsel. Thank you Tim.
Thank you to all who have sponsored Miki so generously in the London Marathon. You are helping to make a difference to children whose have had a very difficult start in life.
Miki reports.
“At 14km I vomited badly. I then felt better for about 5km but then I thought I was going to pass out / throw up again / stretcher case (no nutrients left in me I suppose?). This has never happened to me before. I knew that the only way to prove to you very generous donors was to walk gently to the end to get the medal.
Once again, THANKYOU for supporting me and the charity,”
I can only imagine how bitterly disappointing this must have been. Thank you Miki for all you have done.
If you have not donated but would like to, you can do so here:
Tomorrow, April 26th, Miki is running the London Marathon for Romilly.
Many thanks to all those who have donated so generously, sponsoring Miki’s gallant marathon for Romilly and FSC. Many donate anonymously. Where I can identify donors I will write to thank you, but for those who do donate anonymously please accept my heartfelt thanks. You are making a big difference to children who have had a very tough start in life.
Miki generates superlatives in the mind like a machine, like a word processor, like a dictionary…heroic, brilliant, gallant, amazing, courageous, determined, generous…Miki, 72 years old, has run so many marathons that she lost count of the them years ago. She has run at least thirty, and as many half marathons. What can you say about someone who is still aiming to improve her time?
It won’t be easy for her. She suffers from asthma, osteo-arthritis in both knees, a damaged hamstring, and the effects of fracturing two heel bones when running last September.
If you have not already done so and would like to, please sponsor Miki for Romilly by clicking this button: CLICK HERE TO SPONSOR MIKI
I asked for a taxi to take me to Kawama. Kawama is a poor, provisional, noisy, rough and ready shanty searching for better times on the edge of Kitwe. It is home to the Friends of Street Children’s (FSC’s) boy’s shelter. FSC had changed their board of trustees and I was keen to see how they were getting on and to meet the staff, trustees and the children in their care and to find out from them what had led them to where they were and how FSC was helping them.
The girl at reception could not find FSC’s address on her mobile and Yango (the Zambian equivalent of Uber) could not find it either. I called Meya, FSC’s manager , who sent one of her most trusted taxi drivers, William. I got into his car and turned round to say good morning, and there at the back of the gap between the front seats, at shoulder level was a little face.
‘What does your wife do?’ I asked William.
‘She works. She’s a nurse…..so I bought this car to earn some money, to send the children to school, pay for their clothes….it’s good but now I want a bus’. We both found this funny.
‘How old are you,’ I asked the serious face at my shoulder.
‘He’s three’….and turning to the child, as we drove through a muddle of pedestrians, cars, dust, exhaust fumes and lorries, ‘ Say please…..say please…’, and with a great deal more emphasis, ‘Say please’.
William’s style of driving was what I would call easy-cool free style. Quite a lot of the time he was on the phone, looking at the screen, or tapping the keys and driving one handed. Often, when gesticulation was needed to make up for lack of vocabulary, he drove without either hand on the wheel.
‘Where are the seat belts?’
‘There aren’t any……Don’t worry I drive safely’. I noticed a large cobweb of shattered glass radiating from just below the mirror.
‘What happened there?’ It looked as if someone had hit it with a brick.
‘My boys were playing football’
‘Why did you take the seat belts out?’ Surely this car, old though it looked, could not pre-date seat belts.
‘I covered them with the seat covers.’ And yes, sure enough, I could see his own seat belt disappearing under his seat cover.
We drove past small stalls, and huge compounds surrounded by walls topped with razor wire and electric fencing, their gates inscribed with Chinese characters. The Chinese investment here is massive, and there is a second tier of Chinese businesses to service it and the Chinese workers here. The West was asleep. We bumped and swayed past women in beautifully coloured robes carrying loads on their heads, boys too with loads on their heads, pairs of men pushing carts piled with timber, scrap, or vegetables, past stalls selling brightly coloured drinks, vivid fruit, and clothes, men sitting on the side of the road doing nothing, and billboards, one with the catch line, ‘Like a baby without nappies’. I’m not sure what it was selling.
I had a huge welcome at Kawama. All the boys were out standing in a line to give me cards they had made with messages on the inside. Even the young ones seemed to be writing well. There was one very sweet little boy, surely very young.
‘How old are you?
‘Ten’
‘No you’re not’, someone said, ‘you’re four’. We went inside for them to sing me a very loud welcome song. I was shown around.
I kept a diary when I was in Kitwe and over the next few weeks will post excerpts. If you would liked to be notified when I post these, please enter your email address and click on subscribe.
Dominic is 16 years old and studying Grade 11 at Mindolo Secondary School. Since his mother suffers from poor mental health and has been unable to take care of him Dominic has been moved from one relative to another. From the house of his last host, he was walking over five miles a day just get to and from school. He often returned late and tired, which led to arguments with his aunt. He was denied food for many days. His mother’s relatives treated him so badly that he ran away to take his chances on the street. At night he slept in a abandoned building until he was taken in by Friends of Street Children (FSC), who lodge him, feed him, and pay for his secondary school fees, books and uniform.
Dominic has always loved school and believes that education is the key to his future. His ambition is to become an accountant, but before he can, he must pass the exams and find the fees to enter university.
To come from such an unstable family background, to go from homeless to model pupil shows great character. We hope that his determination and hard work will be rewarded.
If you would like to help Dominic please donate through our Just Giving page here.
Street children with bottles containing solvent which they sniff. The chemicals damage their brains.
Small regular donations make a huge difference. Just one hundred monthly standing orders of £20/month would cover the staff’s salaries and some of the other expenses. You can download the Standing Order Gift aid form to make a regular donation. Click here to make a small monthly donation through Just Giving.
Mrs Vimbi Chingaleeshi, the cook at the boys shelter Kawama, prepares the nshima with Jack. They are cooking on scavenged bits of wood because the supply of charcoal has run out.
Than this…
Street children in the gutter. They look dirty. Their clothes are filthy and they are infested with parasites. The boy to the left is holding a bottle containing glue which he sniffs. It helps to blot out pain, physical and mental, but damages the brain. These children are at risk of every kind of abuse and worse. Some will disappear. FSC, which Romilly’s generous donors have been supporting since 2005 provides a lifeline and a refuge for children like this. Thanks to the generosity of its supporters Romilly’s charity sends £1200 a month to pay for the salaries of the staff like Mrs Chingaleesi, who provide care for the children who choose to leave the life on the streets. Please help us to continue to do this by making a small monthly donation at https://checkout.justgiving.com/c/3333173
The foundations of the new sanitation block being laid at the Kawaza shelter for street children.
The new sanitation block is necessary because visitors to the site currently can only use the WC’s in the dormitories, also many of the street children visiting the shelter have never used a WC before. The building will cost £850, which was kindly donated through a 2 Wheel Appeal fund-raiser organised by Miki Jablowska. Miki has been a tremendous supporter of Romilly and Friends of Street Children, running two marathons for them.
The young man with the pink shirt tail in the top picture is Edwin Chungu. He is one of the gardeners at the shelter and when not gardening helps to look after the children.
The pink building in the background is one of the two boys’ dormitories paid for by Romilly’s generous supporters. Both dormitories are in urgent need of maintenance. Please donate at
Meya Mbulo, second from left, and some of the girls at the Chibusa at the FSC shelter Kitwe, Zambia
Thank you. Your donations go to pay for salaries of the staff (not the trustees) at Friends of Street Children (FSC), Kitwe. They are heroic, soldiering on, often in very difficult circumstances. In the fifteen years that Romilly’s has been involved with FSC they have shown great dedication. Without them FSC would be no more than a collection of empty buildings. Through them your donations change the lives of very vulnerable homeless children. The alternative is terrible: on the Streets of Kitwe, homeless children are open to every kind of abuse.
Small regular donations make a huge difference. Just one hundred monthly standing orders of £20/month would cover the staff’s salaries and some of the other expenses. Please make a monthly donation here: https://checkout.justgiving.com/c/3333173
