The Stories of Transformation Series: Lost Childhood

This week we introduce the second story in our three-part Stories of Transformation Series, which helps connect you to the children that Spark Ventures serves in Ndola, Zambia. We hope these stories help show the incredible potential of these children, potential we hope to help them achieve with your support.

This month's story is that of Steward Chileshe, a fourteen-year-old student at Hope Community School whose father died years ago and whose mother recently committed suicide. It tells of his trials and his incredible strength as he forsakes the carefree pleasures of childhood to take care of his four siblings, including his six-month-old half sister, Grace. You can read his full story here. 

Many of the students like Steward are supported through the Spark/Hope partnership. If you are interested in joining one of our upcoming Partnership Trips so that you can meet Steward and the hundreds of others children that we serve, please visit our Partnership Page and fill out our brief application.

The Stories of Transformation Series: Once Abandoned, Now Transformed

Every child that Spark Ventures serves in Ndola, Zambia has a story to tell, often a story that is heart wrenching and inspiring at the same time. As we invest in these vulnerable children to help them achieve their potential, we would like to share their stories with you so that you might connect with these children like we at Spark and our past Transformation Trip participants have by meeting them in person. 

This month, we begin our three-part Stories of Transformation Series with the story of Joseph, Moses and Mary Mwitwa. These three siblings were abandoned by their families less than two years ago, but with the help of a selfless stranger, Spark Ventures and Hope Ministries, they have been able to thrive. Read their full story here.

If you are interested in joining us for our upcoming Transformation Trips so that you can meet these incredible children and the hundreds of others that we serve in person, please visit our trip information page. 

The Stories of Transformation Series: Missing Generations

Series: Stories of Transformation 

Today we publish the final story in our three-part Stories of Transformation Series, a set of stories that we hopes helps you connect more deeply to some of the children that Spark is serving in Ndola, Zambia. These stories show not only the hardships that the children at Hope Community School endure but also their seemingly limitless resilience and potential.

This story is that of Mildred Songa, Helen Mulenga and Kangua Mulenga, three young students at Hope Community School who are cared for by their great-great-grandmother because their family has seen the death of nearly two entire generations. Mildred, Helen and Kangua’s story is one of the many stories of both hardship and possibility at Hope Community School. You can read the family’s full story here.

If you are interested in joining us for a future Transformation Trip so that you can meet Steward and the hundreds of others children that we serve, please visit our partnership information page and fill out our brief application.

Spark's Zambia Partnership Trip featured on Groupon!

Spark Zambia Trip Featured on Groupon

It isn’t every day that a small nonprofit organization like Spark Ventures receives national recognition. But that’s what has happened this week with the offer of Groupon’s first ever volunteer vacation deal in partnership with Spark.

The trip was released with the launch of Groupon Grassroots as a Groupon Getaway.

“The collaboration between Spark Ventures, Groupon Getaways and Groupon Grassroots has created an incredibly impactful and enriching experience,” said Patty Huber, Director of Groupon Grassroots. “Service trips like these are transformative – people are changed forever – and we’re thrilled to be able to offer this opportunity to our subscribers.”

The Spark Ventures Volunteer Vacation in Africa will be available on the Groupon Getaway page now and runs through Wednesday, April 25 or until sold out. With the purchase of the $2,000 getaway voucher, Groupon subscribers will join a nine-day, all expenses paid trip in Africa including time spent directly with the children served through Spark’s partnership work in Zambia, an unforgettable safari in Botswana and a magnificent trip to Victoria Falls. The deal includes all in-country expenses including meals, lodging, excursions and local transportation.

“We are excited to partner with Groupon to bring volunteers to Africa for a life-changing volunteer vacation,” said Rich Johnson, Spark Ventures CEO and co-founder. “It is a fantastic combination of meeting and volunteering with amazing children and the local staff who serve them, and incredible cultural experiences with meals, markets, a safari and Victoria Falls.”

For more information about the trip, you can view the July 2012 itinerary or January 2013 itinerary. Also, you may want to read reviews from former trip participants on Spark’s What People Are Saying web page. To purchase the deal or simply make a donation, visit Groupon Grassroots. Contact Spark at 773-293-6710 or at info@sparkventures.org for more information.

Stories of Transformation in Zambia

This is the story of Michael Kalenga, a student at Hope Community School who receives education, nutrition, medical care and emotional support through the Spark-Hope partnership. His story was taken by Brady & Liz Josephson during the June 2010 Transformation Trip.

Michael Kalenga is thirteen years old. Or thereabout at least. The truth is he is not sure when he was born. To most, it would seem an easy question to ask and answer, but when a family has beendecimated by AIDS, there remain few easy questions and even fewer answers.

Thus, Michael’s story is one of uncertainty, of painful surprises and unexpected challenges from the very beginning. When he was still an infant, Michael’s mother died from AIDS, leaving him to live with his father, who later remarried and had two more children before his second wife also succumbed to AIDS. The family managed to struggle onward, though, and Michael was able to enroll in Mwabombeni Basic School, a well-regarded government school near his home in Twapia. He was finally able to enjoy the simple pleasures of childhood until uncertainty returned a few years ago, and Michael’s father died from AIDS, leaving no one in his small family to care for him, no one to remind him when he was born.

Moving in with his elderly grandparents, Michael could only dream of returning to school because despite his grandparents’ best efforts, his family could not afford even the $20 per year for tuition to Mwabombeni. Phillip Chunga, Michael’s grandfather had worked for years at Apollo Construction Company, and his lifetime of hard work earned him a pension that was only almost enough to cover the family’s basic needs. Michael’s grandmother, Harriet, still spends long, hot days in the local markets making a drink called munkoyo to help provide food, water and shelter to their grandson, the only family they have left now that all of their own children have passed away from AIDS.

As had happened so many times before in his short lifetime, Michael again saw his family take a turn for the worse when Apollo Construction Company could no longer pay for his grandfather’s pension, and the family was left on its own, two elderly grandparents who had seen a lifetime of work and one young child who had seen a lifetime of suffering. The family now has trouble earning enough money for food, much less the education Michael needs to break free from the poverty that has enveloped his family for so long.

Two years after he was forced to leave Mwabombeni, though, Michael happened upon Hope Community School where he has since been able to receive a free, quality education from a caring staff that is devoted to the children it serves. With his enrollment in Hope came what he had long been seeking: certainty. Michael is now certain that he will receive hot, nutritious meals year round. He is certain that he will get medical check-ups twice a year. And he is certain that he will receive comprehensive HIV/AIDS education that will help him escape the grasp of a disease that has claimed so many in his family.

So while his family continues to struggle to meet its most basic needs, Michael walks every morning to school with his best friend, Levi, and dares to dream about a life of certainty.

You can help support Michael in a variety of ways. See our Make an Investment page for more information. If you're interested making a first-hand impact on Michael and children like him, travel with us to Zambia during our next Partnership Trip!

Stories from Zambia

Recently, Sara Blumenshine returned from spending six months with Spark’s partner in Zambia. Sara had visited Hope Ministries before through a Spark Ventures Partnership Trip with North Park University, and she returned as a Global Intern to work directly with the children and serve in the classrooms of Hope School. From her first day, she was touched by the incredible Zambian hospitality: “The instant you get there, you become family.”

Recalling her favorite day of teaching, Sara describes a particular afternoon when the seventh grade classes were all busy with testing, using a number of the classrooms in the school. Her sixth grade class was moved outside, where she held a reading lesson under a tree. It was a gorgeous afternoon and as the school day drew to a close and the other students funneled out into the schoolyard to play, she gave her students three options: “They could stay and listen to me read, they could take a nap here in the shade of the tree, or they could go run and play. Not one kid left their seat.”

Sara was stunned and impressed at her student’s desire to learn. Throughout her six months in Zambia, they constantly impressed her with their enthusiasm.
The incredible and immediate respect Sara received from her students was different from any classroom she has experienced in Chicago, but Sara says there are still some universal truths in classrooms no matter where you are: “They’re still sixth graders, so the boys are still chasing the girls.”

Sara also became very fond of George, one of her students who had endless questions for her. One day, he began doing an “I’ll be back” Arnold Schwarzenegger impression. It took Sara a fair amount of time to have any idea what he was referencing, but once she figured it out, George wanted to know if she had ever met the California governor. She’s not sure how he learned about Schwarzenegger, or how he knew that he was a governor, but she found herself smiling as she explained to George that no, she hadn’t met him though she had seen him in movies.

In addition to the students she taught directly, Sara left a lasting impact at Hope School with an afterschool reading program she and her fellow Global Intern, Stacey Ernvall, helped implement. The original intent of the reading program was to focus on remedial reading, but many more of the children from the school attended their afterschool classes. She and Stacey focused their efforts on teaching phonics skills as they found that, while many of the children could recite the alphabet perfectly, they still had trouble identifying the sound a specific letter makes – a critical skill if you are working to sound out the letters in a word.

Consistent with Spark’s mission of strengthening the organization as well as serving individual children, before Sara and Stacey left they worked with the teachers at Hope School to teach them the basics of the curriculum they had created, so the afterschool reading program can benefit many more children in the future.

Sara will never forget her time at Hope School. “It was just amazing. You go there, expecting to teach them and give them your input, but you go there and you just become so taught by them.”

George, we’re betting someday she’ll be back.

Related Posts: One Volunteer's Experience in Zambia

9 Ways to Support Spark Without Spending Money!

If you are excited about our the way we lift children out of poverty through our sustainability-focused partnership model, there are many ways that you can show your support- even without financial investment!

One of the main steps in growing Spark’s base of support is via awareness of who we are, what we do, and the impact that our work has. Social media is the best way to help us spread the word. Whether via Facebook, Twitter, blogging, or simply forwarding links to our news articles or e-newsletters, you can help us tremendously!

1. Find us on Facebook and give our page a like! We frequently update our page with photos, events, and stories from our partners abroad, so make sure you look for us in your news feed.
   
   
2. Share our Facebook posts on your own wall! Introduce your friends, family and network to Spark and our amazing friends and partners we support in Zambia (and coming soon… Latin America!)
   
   
3. Tag us on Facebook and spread the word! To tag us, include @SparkVentures to ensure that your content is included on both your wall and ours. (The @ symbol will disappear but the name and link to Spark will remain.)
   
   
4. Follow us on Twitter @SparkVentures! We would love to connect with you and share tweets, not to mention provide a platform where we interact with other like-minded organizations and discuss relevant topics of interest.
   
   
5. If you see a tweet that strikes your fancy, retweet it or tweet directly about content we’ve posted with a link to our page. That will greatly help in increasing Spark’s exposure to new friends.
   
   
6. If you have your own blog, consider referencing Spark Ventures. The easiest way to do that is to copy & paste the link to our website, www.sparkventures.org, or directly to the article of interest.
   
   
7. Check out Spark’s YouTube Channel to share and "Like" our videos.
   
   
8. Help us reach our goal! We currently have a goal of getting 2,500 Facebook fans and 1,500 Twitter followers by the end of May, so consider sending a quick email to your friends and family with an introduction and links to Spark Ventures. And, if you’re able to invest in Spark financially, thank you in advance, consider the Spark Fund-a fun monthly giving program where you get to vote on which project to fund!
   
   
9. Encourage your friends to sign up for our newsletter! We only send out periodic emails, and we'll never share or sell your information.

Many thanks for being a fan and supporter of Spark Ventures! We couldn’t do what we do without you.