LearnServe Zambia 2018, Day 12: The Human Connection
Saturday, July 7 – As humans each of us has a deep connection with the Earth. We live alongside the Earth and depend on it. The Earth is our livelihood, and it deserves love and protection in return for what it endlessly gives to us. Unfortunately, we as humans misunderstand the word endless when it comes to protecting the Earth. We use its resources but don’t think to consider replenishing them. In response, issues of global warming and climate change have become very prevalent.
Today we met Uncle Benj who really understands the words “love and protection.” Uncle Benj is known as the Director of Trees for the organization Green Pop. Green Pop’s mission is to “collaborate with passionate individuals and organizations with years of experience to run contextually relevant environmental projects across Sub-Saharan Africa,” to restore and protect our biodiversity. As the Director of Trees, Benj works towards a spike in the population of vegetation around the world. To do this he has incorporated various individuals and groups that envision the same thing, to collectively work together to replenish the Earth’s vast variety of resources. With Green Pop we had the opportunity to plant orange trees at a local primary school in Livingstone, Zambia. The purpose of this was for the children at the school to continue to foster the Green Pop vision by protecting and nurturing the orange trees. Thus the generations to come will have a beautiful Earth to enjoy in the future.
Later, we had the opportunity to camp in Livingstone. By doing so we saw the perspective of an environmentalist. This experienced allowed us to really connect with nature on a personal level and really understand the value of being an environmentalist. Being a environmentalist, one experiences joy once they have done something to protect and restore biodiversity. This experience also helped us to understand the impact we have on the planet, both to create and to destroy, and how we can help create a beautiful green Earth.
Just as all humans have a connection with the Earth, we also have a connection with each other. On a daily basis we interact with each other and should treat each other equally with love, compassion and understanding. Unfortunately there is not that much love and understanding focused towards special needs individuals living in Zambia. Today, we had the opportunity to meet Loveness. She also understands the meaning of the words “love and protection.”
Loveness is an amazing young woman who created the Loveness Hangoma Foundation that focuses on making a difference in the lives of the special needs population in Zambia where these children are often overlooked or physically hidden from the public by their parents. As adults they struggle to find work because of their disabilities. Today, we had the opportunity to meet some of the women involved in her program: her sister Sarah, and two of the women in her program, Claudia and Precious. Sarah has supported Loveness since the beginning helping to run this program. Sarah has even traveled to different parts of Zambia to start sister programs for the Loveness Foundation.
Claudia is a fashion designer who started the Trash Fashion Collection. Her collection is made up of recycled materials from the community. She holds a large fashion show every year with models from the Loveness Foundation. This fashion show brings awareness to the disabled community in Zambia and also highlights the value of recycling and protecting the environment. Claudia is also a teacher. She teaches English and math to disabled children at Loveness Foundation. Precious, is a up-and-coming caterer. She loves to cook Italian food and occasionally cooks for the community. She is hoping to have her own restaurant soon.
Talking with Loveness about her struggles to continue the foundation, she mentioned that she doesn’t always have sufficient funds to support these kids, but she doesn’t give up and neither do the kids. They always come up with a solution, overlooking the bad and focusing on the good. She gave an example of times when she did not have food to feed the kids and tried to send the them home, but among themselves they gathered enough Kwacha for a meal just to stay with her because she gives them so much love and care, more than they would receive at home. With her foundation, Loveness cares for and empowers these individuals, molding them into strong, independent people who realize they are truly no different from everyone else. She provides them with important skills. Loveness even does campaigns to advocate for the disabled and bring awareness to the positive and productive role they have in their community. Loveness has such an impact that these women and children call her Mommy Love. This shows the gratitude and love that they have for Loveness. Just being there for them and interacting with them in a way others would not is so important in their lives.
I believe Uncle Benj and Loveness are both courageous for what they do. They both saw a need in their community and took action without hesitation. With such big projects like these, that require lots of effort, funds, and support. Some people would have given up, but Uncle Benj and Loveness persisted until they achieved their goals. And they didn’t stop there: every day they set new goals to accomplish. With faith in their success, they keep going despite discouraging comments from those around them at times. I just want to say thank you to them on behalf of LearnServe because we respect and believe in what they do. They deserve so much credit. Thank you.
Afia-Grace H., Wheaton High School
