Abundant Futures of Northern Zambia

Zambia is one of the poorest nations in Africa, and most of the resources are in the southern part of the country around the capital of Lusaka.

Latterrains Christian School was birthed in 2007 in Mpika – near the center of Northern Zambia – by Belinda Chitusa Siame with 5 learners at inception. Today it has over 240 children.  Many are the poorest of the poor and pay nothing, as the Lord has laid these children on Belinda and Geoffrey Siame’s heart as they exercise “true religion”

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
(James 1:27 ESV)

Having been orphaned at a very tender age, Belinda went through a lot of hardship just to finish 12th grade.  She married Pastor Geofrey Siame and started working at a private school as a general worker. Her passion for learning and teaching grew. She raised enough to complete a one year certificate in pre school teaching in 2002.  Her passion to help vulnerable children get an education in a Christian environment surrounded by lots of love has driven the growth of Latterrains as she continued to grow her own education and skills, earning two degrees along the way.

The testimonies of many children whose lives have been impacted through Latterrains are tremendous.  The school has operated at a deficit for many years, but the Lord has provided through the resourcefulness of the Siames and a variety of small business initiatives profits have gone to fund the deficit.  But the challenges are many.

In 2022, many of their teachers were lured away by higher paying government schools, even though the conditions at those schools are very challenging.  In addition, acquiring and keeping resources to help the students has been difficult to obtain locally due to both the deficit and lack of availability.  In spite of this, the school has been producing students who do well above the averages academically, while being trained in servant leadership, with hearts to give back to the school and community to have abundant futures.

The success of their efforts have not gone unnoticed and the Abundant Futures non-profit organization has been formed with several board members in Zambia and the United States who have seen the work already done with the desire to see it continue to have a larger impact.

Through the favor of the Lord, the school has recently acquired 20 hectares (almost 50 acres) of land to begin an agricultural program to help both provide food for the students, as well as train them in agricultural skills.  Many believe agriculture is the key to helping Zambia grow out of its impoverished nation status.

Though the future is bright, the school is already at a deficit, and currently lacks the resources to fund these new initiatives.  Would you help Latterrains overcome this deficit and provide abundant futures for the children it serves?

About $90,000 are needed to fund – in rough priority order:

• Teachers salaries – are currently pro-rated – though they are dedicated to sacrificially serving at roughly 80% of what they could make in the public school system, the current operating income only allows them to be paid less than half of that modest goal.
• Classroom resources (calendars, teacher helps, books, etc.)
• Further teacher training
• Additional teachers to further improve the student-teacher ratio and more effectively reach the needs of individual students, especially those who are struggling
• Equipment such as computers, projectors, musical instruments