Community Support

Hanada – The History

The Hanada Project grew from an idea of Mrs Hilda Hampondo who wanted to help the many orphans in the Mfuwe area. These vulnerable children are usually cared for by the extended family but problems arise when that family is already struggling to make ends meet. Her idea was to provide a daily meal, and later, if funds allowed, accommodation.

In 2007 she approached us to fund a building project on land donated by Chief Mhukhanya.

Clean Drinking Water

Phase 1 entailed sinking a well for clean drinking water and phase 2 the construction of an office and store which was finished in 2008. In 2009 Derek personally supervised phase 3, the building of a thatched chitenge as a place for the children to play and eat, a long-drop toilet and the sinking of a borehole. Phase 1, 2 and 3 were funded by Derek and I directly, and supplemented by very kind guest donations.

At the end of 2008 we donated our tailor to train some local ladies in the use of donated sewing machines. Under the oversight of Mrs Hampondo, several ladies were taught to make wrap around skirts to sell at a local craft market to try to generate an ongoing source of income for the project. Whilst very modest in size, this project generates gainful employment for a few of the local ladies.

The Cause of Veronica

In 2009, we took on the very desperate cause of Veronica Lungu. Veronica is one of the vulnerable children on Mrs Hampondo’s list, she is 16 years old and lives with her grandmother. Veronica had a goiter that was threatening her ability to eat and even to breathe. Veronica, along with her grandmother and Mrs Hampondo moved to our home in Lusaka where she lived for several months whilst Doctors tried to figure out the best way to remove this huge growth, whilst giving her the highest chance of keeping her voice. Scan after expensive scan was required to try and figure out how they could do this.

Veronica then moved to the hospital where she was an in-patient for more than a month, it was touch and go several times during the process, but the growth was successfully removed AND Veronica kept her voice. We were unable to send newsletters at the time all this was going on, and so in order to fund this process we had to dip into the building funds, we felt confident this would be OK knowing that Veronica’s cause was one that would touch the hearts of all our kind previous donators. In addition we are extremely grateful to the valley Doctor Rhona Whiston for her kind donations towards Veronica’s treatment.

Also in 2009, we purchased a new bicycle for Mrs Hampondo so she could reach the children in the outlying areas to assess their circumstances and deliver care parcels when available.

Future Direction

Our two camps (Kaingo and Mwamba Busch Camp) are located deep inside the national park and so are situated 2 hour’s drive from the Hanada project. Our commitment to personally oversee the building and to ensure each donated dollar has been most efficiently spent, combined with Veronica’s operation and the global downturn and a decrease in donations has meant the project has proceeded quite slowly in recent times.

In 2009, we banded together with some other like minded lodges to form Project Luangwa–The mission statement of Project Luangwa is: “To ensure the people of the Luangwa Valley gain the full benefit from tourism by investing in education and business development.” Whilst we are still responsible for fund raising and we’re remaining very much involved in the direction of Hanada, this organisation will be taking over the administration of the project.

The administration costs are funded by the conservation and community levy charged by the participating lodges. What this means is that each and every donation from our guests for the Hanada Project goes 100% to the Hanada project and directly benefits the children. This element was critical in our decision to join the Project as we have always promised our kind donators this level of application of their monies.

In consultation with Project Luangwa a new direction was decided upon for Hanada. Whilst huge amounts of money and some years would be required to build housing for a very limited number of children, it was decided that the site would currently best be used as a pre-school for our vulnerable children, as whilst grades 1-7 are free, pre-school is only available for a fee that these extended families cannot afford. We hope that the teacher’s wage can be supported by the profits of the sewing project. By starting a vegetable garden we hope to supply a mid-day meal for the children. The ladies would use the original building to house the sewing project.

Hanada Shopping List

• Build a gravel path to the chitenge
• Construct an outdoor kitchen
• Hand pump forexisting borehole
• Additional toilet block
• 30 small desks
• 30 small chairs
• Blackboard kit
• Teaching materials
• Kitchen equipment and plates

In 2009 Robert Revak one of our kindly donated a significant amount of money in memory of his wife Julia, which is enabling Shenton Safarisand Project Luangwa to further assist Hanada in developing the sewing project and pre-school, but funds are required for the ongoing support of these children. If you would like to make a donation please do get in touch with us at info@kaingo.com or you may send monies to:

A/C NUMBER 00603700000001127

A/C Name Hanada Shenton Safaris

ZNCB Mfuwe Airport Branch

SWIFT CODE ZNCO ZMLU