It is always heart-warming to know about the different works our alumni are doing back in their respective homes. Recently we covered a story about the wonderful work Stanley Shereni is doing in Zimbabwe with Prison ministry. Today we bring another powerful story about Collence Chikuni all the way from Zambia. Collence is involved in the benevolence ministry where they help poor families with fundamental needs for day to day living. “My spirit always moves with compassion whenever I see people suffering in our society,” Cellence declares where his passion for helping emanates from.
This ministry is called Helping Hand Ministry, and has been in effect since 2012. Collence and his team started with providing aid to one family that was comprised of a woman aged 110 years and her blind daughter of 70 years old. Today the ministry has expanded into adding more families under its wing, old people’s homes and other areas where help is needed. Of the families that Helping Hand is involved with, there is one which they are constructing a house for an elderly woman since the family is cramped in the small one roomed house they currently live in. Everyone in the family is not working hence this dire situation. There is another in which the father is blind and suffered stroke some time back, and the Ministry is helping them with food parcels. Then there is the young orphan who, in the words of Collence, “I identified him when he came home with his friends looking for piece work.” The basic needs for this young man are decent clothes and food, which the Ministry is also providing.
There is a nearby old people’s home which Collence’s team is also affecting through the work they do. The people who live in this home are there because of many and different reasons. It is a strange practice in African societies though to see old people without any relatives to live with. However, Helping Hand tries to bring comfort to these senior citizens by providing food, mosquito nets, washing paste and clothes. Not only do they do the above narrated acts, they also help the Lubasi orphanage with basic necessities for the young children. Their belief is that these youngsters need to be looked after because they are the future leaders of the community. From the above stories, it is vivid that Collence is making a great impact in the community. It is also worth noting that there are many people who need to be included in this ministry work to receive aid. However, due to inadequate resources, they are not able to assist everyone who needs help.
One huge challenge that the team is facing is limited time to carry out the programs. This is because all the members have full-time day jobs to earn a living, which means that most of the programs are done in the evenings. Also, when funds are not enough, they then have a mammoth task of neglecting other people and prioritise the elderly people.
Challenges or no challenges, we are happy about the work Collence is doing in Zambia for his community. We do know that it is not only for his community, but it is an act of love towards God. The writer of the book of Hebrews reminds us in chapter 6:10 that, “For God is not unjust to forget your work and labour of love which you have shown toward His name, in that, you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.”