Participants:
Series Code: HIM
Program Code: HIM001118S
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00:03 Hi there.
00:05 I'm Jim Rennie, CEO of Child Impact International. 00:09 And I've got some exciting news about a new project in Zambia. 00:14 It's a unique new mission school opportunity 00:18 that will expand the Ministry 00:20 of our partner, Riverside Farms 00:23 through an expanded 00:24 Child Impact sponsorship program. 00:28 The Riverside Farm partnership with Child Impact International 00:33 allows for a great partnership 00:35 between two strong Adventist ministries. 00:40 Riverside Farm 00:41 provides a structured and well managed school project 00:46 with an Adventist education program. 00:48 While Child Impact provides poor children 00:52 an education and sharing key revenue 00:55 for the new school. 00:57 The government have approved the school 01:00 and it will be run by Riverside Farm management 01:03 on the same basis 01:05 that they run the current primary school. 01:09 The school will cover grades 8-12. 01:13 The school will be a day school 01:15 with lunch supplied for the students. 01:18 The approximate capacity will be 40 students per class 01:22 with 2 groups per day 01:24 since the classes are by subject 01:27 and not by grade. 01:29 The school will be located 01:30 300 meters from the current primary school. 01:34 Housing will be provided for the headmaster 01:37 and the deputy headmaster. 01:40 The need for education is strong, 01:43 and there is no Adventist Secondary School 01:45 in the area. 01:47 The school will allow the 150 primary school students 01:52 to expand their education. 01:54 Within the attendance of 300 students in the future, 01:59 sponsorship will grow to 150 plus. 02:03 The school will give the local needy children 02:06 an Adventist education 02:08 and will be a key outreach for Riverside Farms ministry. 02:13 ASI and donors have provided 02:16 one day buildings for the schools foundation 02:19 and construction of the base buildings. 02:22 Child Impact has been asked to complete the project 02:25 and furnish the school with furniture 02:29 and educational resources. 02:31 The need is $150,000. 02:35 We have some great news for this project. 02:38 We can double your donation. 02:41 Child Impact has matching funds for this project. 02:45 Each dollar given 02:47 will be matched with $1 to $75,000. 02:51 For each dollar you give 02:53 it will be matched dollar for dollar. 02:56 Why should you support Child Impact 02:59 and Riverside Farms in this project? 03:02 Let me explain. 03:04 It explains the mission average of Riverside Farms in Zambia. 03:10 It widens Child Impact's mission 03:13 in Zambia. 03:14 It will extend the sponsorship life 03:17 of the Child Impact children 03:20 already sponsored at the primary school. 03:23 It insures over 254 children 03:26 sponsored by Child Impact 03:28 will be given an Adventist education 03:31 through to grade 12 or higher. 03:34 It is valued for the donors funds, 03:37 as the school has a construction time 03:39 of less than 12 months. 03:42 There will be no cost overrun 03:44 as Child Impact on Riverside Farms, 03:47 guarantee the project costs. 03:51 And there's a proven project management team 03:53 at Riverside Farms led by Ellen Knowles, 03:57 who is well known for construction 04:00 of this type of one day buildings. 04:03 Please go online right now 04:05 for full information or to donate. 04:09 chidimpact.org is our website. 04:12 That's childimpact.org. 04:14 Or call us at 4239100667. 04:21 That's 4239100667. 04:27 I really want to thank you if you can join us 04:29 for this exciting project. 04:44 As a child growing up in Zambia, 04:45 more than likely you would be living 04:47 far below the poverty line. 04:48 Your parents are probably either copper miners 04:50 or farmers 04:52 and what determines if you can go to school 04:53 is the current price of copper or the weather. 04:55 If the crops fail, your family goes hungry 04:58 and you must focus on surviving. 05:00 All hopes of an education are gone. 05:08 This economic growth 05:10 hasn't helped their poverty line however, 05:12 the cities are growing well, 05:13 but the rural areas are stagnant. 05:16 They have few economic prospects 05:18 and with that, it limits the ability 05:20 for other works to exist 05:22 when the skills needed or too difficult to acquire. 05:26 Such skills require proper education 05:28 a resource that Zambia is desperately lacking. 05:31 Zambia is very isolated 05:33 and more so in the underdeveloped areas 05:35 of the country. 05:36 The people are struggling to make a living 05:38 as well as having the needed skills 05:39 to break free from their poverty. 05:43 Zambia's declining economy 05:44 causes about 60% of Zambians 05:46 to live under the nation's poverty line 05:49 with rural poverty standing at almost 78%. 05:54 You might be asking, 05:55 why is Child Impact expanding into Zambia. 05:59 Well, it's very simple. 06:00 We will have a partner on the ground 06:02 running the school 06:04 that is very, very reliable, and is mission focused. 06:08 We believe that all children are precious to God. 06:11 Our goal is to give hope 06:13 by fostering permanent positive change 06:15 in the lives of the disadvantaged children 06:17 of Zambia. 06:19 Central to our mission is building the infrastructure 06:21 of the local school 06:22 empowering it to meet the needs of its own community. 06:26 We see a need in Zambia 06:27 that can be met with the help of our sponsors. 06:30 We know that education is necessary 06:32 for the future of any community 06:33 to grow and improve their conditions. 06:35 Zambia desperately needs our help. 06:38 Riverside Farm is well known in the community 06:42 and will be able to do a great job 06:44 not only in running the school, 06:46 but administering the sponsorship program. 06:50 We also know that no funds will be wasted 06:53 and that they will be genuinely poor children, 06:56 that will be help. 07:01 Another challenge is that even existing schools 07:04 suffer from a lack of scholastic materials. 07:07 The lack of scholastic materials 07:09 is something few in the US can imagine. 07:12 A class of 50 pupils 07:13 often only have enough books for 10. 07:16 Drawing charts becoming possible 07:18 without pencil and paper. 07:20 It takes everything you have dipping into your own pocket, 07:23 knowing your meager income 07:24 you receive at the end of the month. 07:26 And even then it's never enough, 07:28 especially since most rural families 07:30 have to spend 60% of their money on food. 07:33 But there is a glimmer of hope. 07:36 My name is Craig Harding. 07:37 I'm the executive director here at Riverside Farm Institute. 07:40 And I manage the programs we do here and run the farm. 07:44 Well, I'm Pauline Knowles 07:45 and we're at Riverside Farm in Zambia, Africa. 07:49 The school program here has been really exciting 07:51 for the primary education program, 07:52 but 20 years ago, 07:55 the school buildings that are there, 07:57 were built 07:58 and we've been running the school there since. 08:01 In the district that we're in, 08:03 we get the highest success grade rate 08:07 for the students that are graduating on 08:08 to go to secondary school which is exciting for us. 08:11 Zambia's government 08:13 is struggling to meet the budget needs 08:14 of the growing population when it comes to education. 08:17 Schools in rural areas are suffering 08:19 with a lack of classrooms. 08:20 The main problem 08:22 is students continuing their education 08:23 past eighth grade. 08:25 Since fees are due after grade seven, 08:27 they tend to stop their education early 08:29 so schools can afford to add more classrooms. 08:31 If there are no fees in certain schools, 08:33 the children have to walk really far 08:35 in order to go to schools. 08:38 The families cannot even afford the basics 08:40 like uniform, books, and pencils. 08:42 It's hard to tell how many are and are not going to school. 08:46 We have found a major need in establishing schools 08:48 for the children in this country. 08:50 We are going to focus on the rural area 08:52 south of the capital to help this deprived region. 08:55 Attaining enough funding to help these children 08:57 is a vital part of the mission that still has to be done. 09:02 Funding will go to help these children attend school, 09:04 purchase academic materials 09:06 and better prepare them for the future. 09:09 Zambia is struggling but there is hope 09:11 through educating the next generation. 09:13 We decided to build a new school 09:15 because not only do we want to expand 09:18 but it's right in the middle of campus. 09:20 And with all these children there 09:22 it can be a little distracting at times. 09:24 And so now they have a nice setting 09:27 out in the woods in the wet, 09:29 there's trees and and it's out in nature. 09:33 And we're just excited 09:34 about having a different location 09:35 and to add more students to the school. 09:38 Now the school looks a little remote 09:40 when I first drove in 09:41 but in fact that's not far from the local villages 09:45 where the sponsor children can come from. 09:47 This is a great facility. 09:49 It's going to be well managed. 09:51 And it's a great opportunity for child sponsorship. 10:04 Riverside Farm 10:05 is a public benefit organization 10:07 here in Zambia, 10:08 we do a number of different projects, 10:10 including the farm that helps to promote the program. 10:14 We run a primary school, 10:16 we also do an adult training program 10:18 for people coming out of the village, 10:21 doing tailoring, agriculture and different programs. 10:24 We also run a wellness center, 10:26 helping people with different wellness 10:28 and health issues. 10:29 And we also run a farm program. 10:33 Well, we've been here for like 30 years now. 10:37 And how we got here was, 10:39 when my husband and I got married, 10:41 we thought, "Well, 10:42 if we just have a house of our own, 10:46 we'll be happy." 10:48 And then after we had a house, 10:49 "Well, if we just had our children," 10:51 then we had two boys. 10:52 And then after that, we started thinking, 10:54 but there's got to be more to life than this. 10:57 And so we just started praying about it. 10:59 And we ended up working 11:00 in a self-supporting institution 11:02 in the states and never dreamed 11:04 that we'd be asked to come to Africa. 11:06 But here we are. 11:09 The life of a missionary is very different 11:11 and often challenging, 11:13 but the rewards make it all worthwhile. 11:15 Riverside Farms works tirelessly 11:17 to be the hands and feet of Jesus. 11:20 Reaching out to the villages around them 11:22 to provide for their temporal and eternal needs. 11:25 The farm offers locals not only work 11:28 but valuable training in modern agricultural methods, 11:32 while the school gives their children 11:33 the opportunity to gain valuable skills 11:35 to not only improve their lives 11:37 but also the lives of those in their communities. 11:40 God is blessing their efforts 11:42 and the partnership with Child Impact 11:44 opens great possibilities for the future. 11:47 On opening day, the school will have 11:49 about 100 children. 11:51 And then it will be able to grow 11:53 to somewhere around 250 children 11:56 over the next year or two. 11:57 We're excited 11:59 about the Child Impact involvement 12:00 in the school 12:02 because there's a number of kids 12:03 who would otherwise have no educational opportunity 12:07 because their parents are small hold farmers. 12:09 And anytime there's a crop failure, 12:12 they have no food, 12:13 their families begin cutting trees 12:15 burning charcoal doing things just to survive 12:18 with no income for for them to have an education. 12:21 And then on years when there is rain, 12:24 they're still going hungry, 12:26 oftentimes coming up into the periods 12:28 where there's where there's crop harvest. 12:31 So this is an opportunity for them 12:33 to be able to better their lives 12:35 so that when their children come, 12:36 they're able to have a life that's not so dependent 12:39 on the unpredictability of rain in this arid region. 12:42 They can't afford to send them and they just stay home. 12:45 And so we are really excited that Child Impact has come 12:50 and they're going to help 12:52 some of these unfortunate children 12:53 be able to attend school. 12:55 Starting out, it would house around 150 students 12:58 but hopefully double and keep increasing 13:00 since there is such a high demand. 13:02 Because of this 13:04 Child Impact saw the need to go to Zambia, 13:06 the lack of money 13:07 makes this new school underutilized 13:09 because families can't afford 13:11 to take their students to school. 13:13 Helping with the students' financial needs 13:14 will guarantee they have materials 13:16 so they can focus on learning. 13:18 This will also alleviate the financial burdens 13:20 that families have, 13:21 which will allow them to buy food 13:23 and care for the basic needs of their family. 13:26 But most importantly, 13:27 this will provide the children 13:29 with a Christian Adventist education, 13:31 an education that will teach them 13:33 Bible truths that will help 13:34 further spread the gospel to this nation 13:36 that is poised to receive the truth. 13:38 Well, it's an exciting day 13:40 because for the first time I'm sitting in a classroom 13:43 in Africa, here in Zambia, 13:45 and we're at the Riverside Farms School. 13:48 And shortly they'll be moving into a new school 13:51 where we'll have over 50 sponsored children. 13:54 And I'm here with Daniel 13:56 and there'll be many children like him 13:58 that will be able to enjoy sponsorship. 14:01 You can sponsor a child 14:03 or you could help by just giving a contribution 14:06 to our unsponsored child fund. 14:09 This is a very exciting time for Child Impact 14:12 because we're really going to be 14:13 impacting on the real needy around Riverside Farms. 14:18 Your support will make a real difference, 14:21 either with sponsorship 14:22 or contributing to the unsponsored job fund. |
Revised 2020-11-23