Communities Without Borders

Background

The first group from Wellesley Village Church traveled to Fumbelo, a village on the outskirts of Lusaka, the capital of Zambia in the summer of 2008 – before a formal partnership had been established with Communities Without Borders. Members of the church had felt drawn to Africa by the many reports and images in the news of children orphaned by AIDS.

An introduction by one of Village Church’s ministers to Brita Gill-Austern, CWB Board member, resulted in this group traveling to Zambia. The group met and fell in love with the people of Fumbelo, returned to the Village Church and delivered a witness to the congregation. In the Fall of 2008, Village Church formally became a partner of CWB and the village of Fumbelo.

A second group of travelers visited Fumbelo in the summer of 2009. A third group will visit in July of 2010. A total of 23 people from Village Church and their partner church, the Historic Charles Street AME Church, will have visited Fumbelo as of July 2010.

Partner Activities

Friends of Fumbelo, which includes members from both churches, meet monthly. Among their many goals is to actively involve as many congregants as possible in the partnership, even if they never travel to Zambia. This has been accomplished in a number of ways:

• The church’s knitting and sewing group will have created and sent to Zambia approximately 80 KuKu dolls for distribution to Fumbelo’s children.
• Church school offering throughout this year was rain ponchos for Fumbelo’s children. The group will deliver almost 100 ponchos in July. Last year, the church school collected and the group delivered over 100 pairs of Croc-style shoes for Fumbelo’s children.
• A small group of women invested in a local micro-finance company in Lusaka, which resulted in 13 women receiving small loans to start their own businesses.
• A small committee is working to construct a medical clinic in the village of Fumbelo.
• Drives have been successfully conducted for school supplies, books, medical supplies, sports equipment, craft supplies, clothing and backpacks.
• Communities Without Borders and Fumbelo have been part of the Annual Alternative Christmas Fair, where congregants can “purchase” Christmas gifts for family and friends by making donations to charities of their choice.
• Fourth graders have successfully conducted an Advent Calendar Sale to congregants in the past two years, the proceeds of which go to Fumbelo.
• The congregation has sponsored and supported two Annual Concerts to benefit Fumbelo.
• Friends of Fumbelo sell donuts after church every Sunday, the proceeds of which go to Fumbelo.

Current Activities

In addition to the fundraising activities mentioned above, Friends of Fumbelo actively solicit contributions through personal letters to business contacts and acquaintances and family. They are also pursuing the possibility of writing grant applications and conducting a raffle.

Funds raised support the following initiatives in Fumbelo:

• Sponsorship of 99 children to attend government primary school and 7 to attend government secondary school
• Remedial tutoring for all students identified as requiring it
• Purchase of bicycles for every student accepted into government secondary school
• Underwriting twice-monthly visits by a doctor to Fumbelo to examine and treat the children
• Underwriting a combined breakfast/lunch program at the community school in Fumbelo
• Assisting the women of the village with funds to rent a garden plot, as well as providing bicycles to women to travel to the more-distant communal garden
• Underwriting water tests of the communal bore hole
• Funding a diagnostic assessment of the medical needs of the community

Past Events

On Monday, April 26, 2010, members of the "Friends of Fumbelo," CWB's partner in Wellesley, together with Dick Bail and his wife Lynn, enjoyed a lively discussion with Hannah Lantos, a former Peace Corps volunteer, who spent nearly 2 years in a village in northeastern Zambia.  Hannah is now a graduate student at the Harvard Kennedy School and a member of the Committee on African Studies at Harvard. 

The discussion ranged from thatched roofs and solar cookers to current theories of economic development (including Jeffrey Sachs and Hernando de Soto).

Hannah offered a number of practical suggestions for partner villages.  She told us of her experience establishing a library through Books for International Goodwill and using of "peer educators" to spread information about health issues.  In-depth discussions covered issues of clean water and sanitation (noting the research at MIT's Poverty Action Lab on point-of-use chlorination, as well as micro-businesses.