The next few posts are going to be Newsletters which go to those on our mailing list. I am sorry if you receive them a second time. I am putting them up here for people who come to the website for the first time.
Thank you.
Austen, with his excercise book outside the classroom at Friends of Street Children.
Thank you to all those who have donated. I try to write either by email or post, but sometimes I miss donations and don’t. Some donate anonymously. Your generosity is very much appreciated. You are helping to save lives, for street children do die, damage their health, or simply disappear and the work you are supporting gives them a way out. For those that take this path, the work of Friends of Street Children (FSC), which through Romilly you are supporting, dramatically improves childrens’ life chances. FSC gets them back to school and what remains of their families. What struck me on my visit to Kitwe was how heroically the staff coped with lack of water and electricity (due to the drought), how generous they were of themselves, with their time and energy and how happy the children in their care were. On behalf of the staff of FSC and the children, thank you making for this possible. It would not be without you.
If you have not done so and would like to, please make a small monthly donation at
Taxi to Kawama
I asked for a taxi to take me to Kawama. Kawama is a poor, provisional, noisy, rough and ready shanty searching for better times on the edge of Kitwe. It is home to the Friends of Street Children’s (FSC’s) boy’s shelter. FSC had changed their board of trustees and I was keen to see how they were getting on and to meet the staff, trustees and the children in their care and to find out from them what had led them to where they were and how FSC was helping them.
The girl at reception could not find FSC’s address on her mobile and Yango (the Zambian equivalent of Uber) could not find it either. I called Meya, FSC’s manager , who sent one of her most trusted taxi drivers, William. I got into his car and turned round to say good morning, and there at the back of the gap between the front seats, at shoulder level was a little face.
‘What does your wife do?’ I asked William.
‘She works. She’s a nurse…..so I bought this car to earn some money, to send the children to school, pay for their clothes….it’s good but now I want a bus’. We both found this funny.
‘How old are you,’ I asked the serious face at my shoulder.
‘He’s three’….and turning to the child, as we drove through a muddle of pedestrians, cars, dust, exhaust fumes and lorries, ‘ Say please…..say please…’, and with a great deal more emphasis, ‘Say please’.
William’s style of driving was what I would call easy-cool free style. Quite a lot of the time he was on the phone, looking at the screen, or tapping the keys and driving one handed. Often, when gesticulation was needed to make up for lack of vocabulary, he drove without either hand on the wheel.
‘Where are the seat belts?’
‘There aren’t any……Don’t worry I drive safely’. I noticed a large cobweb of shattered glass radiating from just below the mirror.
‘What happened there?’ It looked as if someone had hit it with a brick.
‘My boys were playing football’
‘Why did you take the seat belts out?’ Surely this car, old though it looked, could not pre-date seat belts.
‘I covered them with the seat covers.’ And yes, sure enough, I could see his own seat belt disappearing under his seat cover.
We drove past small stalls, and huge compounds surrounded by walls topped with razor wire and electric fencing, their gates inscribed with Chinese characters. The Chinese investment here is massive, and there is a second tier of Chinese businesses to service it and the Chinese workers here. The West was asleep. We bumped and swayed past women in beautifully coloured robes carrying loads on their heads, boys too with loads on their heads, pairs of men pushing carts piled with timber, scrap, or vegetables, past stalls selling brightly coloured drinks, vivid fruit, and clothes, men sitting on the side of the road doing nothing, and billboards, one with the catch line, ‘Like a baby without nappies’. I’m not sure what it was selling.
I had a huge welcome at Kawama. All the boys were out standing in a line to give me cards they had made with messages on the inside. Even the young ones seemed to be writing well. There was one very sweet little boy, surely very young.
‘How old are you?
‘Ten’
‘No you’re not’, someone said, ‘you’re four’. We went inside for them to sing me a very loud welcome song. I was shown around.
If you would like to donate please do so here: https://checkout.justgiving.com/c/3333173
I kept a diary when I was in Kitwe and over the next few weeks will post excerpts. If you would liked to be notified when I post these, please enter your email address and click on subscribe.
A Happy New Year to all Romilly’s Supporters and Donors
| On behalf of the children and the staff at Friends of Street Children, Kitwe, Zambia (FSC) we wish you a healthy, prosperous, and peaceful 2025. |
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| The FSC shelter rescues vulnerable children who have no home. |
| If you have donated to Romilly your donation will have gone to pay the staff salaries at FSC (Friends of Street Children) and through them the care of homeless children. We cannot thank you enough. At their last AGM, FSC replaced their board of trustees. We are delighted with this new infusion of energy. I am going out Kitwe, Zambia in February to see how they are getting on. I will return with photographs and video and will give a series of talks this spring explaining the work of FSC. If you would like to host my talk, with slides and video, please click here to send me an email. If you would like to make a donation, please click here https://checkout.justgiving.com/c/3333173. With best wishes for 2025, James Forshall |
This is Dominic Sahuku
Dominic is 16 years old and studying Grade 11 at Mindolo Secondary School. Since his mother suffers from poor mental health and has been unable to take care of him Dominic has been moved from one relative to another. From the house of his last host, he was walking over five miles a day just get to and from school. He often returned late and tired, which led to arguments with his aunt. He was denied food for many days. His mother’s relatives treated him so badly that he ran away to take his chances on the street. At night he slept in a abandoned building until he was taken in by Friends of Street Children (FSC), who lodge him, feed him, and pay for his secondary school fees, books and uniform.
Dominic has always loved school and believes that education is the key to his future. His ambition is to become an accountant, but before he can, he must pass the exams and find the fees to enter university.
To come from such an unstable family background, to go from homeless to model pupil shows great character. We hope that his determination and hard work will be rewarded.
If you would like to help Dominic please donate through our Just Giving page here.
The Power of Small
We’ve said it before: the staff at FSC (Friends of Street Children in Kitwe) are tremendous. They clean cook, feed, teach and care for children who have no home. Their aim is to give these children a better life, bringing them back to whatever exists of their family, getting them back into school, getting them out of the filthy, dangerous, abusive life on the streets. Thanks to Romilly’s kind, generous donors her charity has been able to send funds to cover the salaries of these dedicated people. It is a double positive. People who give small monthly amounts are paying for the living of really heroic local people and through them caring for very vulnerable children. At the moment this costs about £1300 month, which exceeds Romilly’s charities monthly income, but just 130 people donating £10 a month would cover the cost of staff salaries as well as allow us to pay for essentials like mosquito nets and repair FSC’s buildings.
Please make a small monthly donation here: https://checkout.justgiving.com/c/3333173
Boys at FSC’s Kawama shelter, Kitwe, Zambia.
They say, ” Please make a small monthly donation here”
If you would like James Forshall to give a short talk with slides on FSC and Romilly’s charities please email him at jamesforshall@gmail.com
Better this III….
Than this….
Street children with bottles containing solvent which they sniff. The chemicals damage their brains.
Small regular donations make a huge difference. Just one hundred monthly standing orders of £20/month would cover the staff’s salaries and some of the other expenses. You can download the Standing Order Gift aid form to make a regular donation. Click here to make a small monthly donation through Just Giving.
And better this II …
Mrs Vimbi Chingaleeshi, the cook at the boys shelter Kawama, prepares the nshima with Jack. They are cooking on scavenged bits of wood because the supply of charcoal has run out.
Than this…
Better this….
This is Mary Imri a member of staff at FSC (Friends of Street Children, Kitwe, Zambia), and to her left one of the ex-street children in her care. They have been harvesting vegetables from the garden of the Kibusha girls home run by FSC.
Than that…..
The photograph below shows a child sitting on a pavement in Kitwe. The bottle he holds contains glue which he sniffs. Sniffing glue dulls the mind, taking the edge off cold, hunger, pain and unhappiness. It can also damage the brain, hearing, heart, kidneys, liver and lungs. It can lead to coma, and sudden death.
Staff from FSC are a regular presence on the streets of Kitwe working to gain the trust of street children, to encourage them to return to whatever remains of their families, or to come to the FSC shelters. Street children are also brought to the FSC by the social services. FSC staff provide a lifeline for these very vulnerable children, who are prey to every kind of abuse. Thanks to the generosity of Romilly’s supporters her charity has been able to send £1100 to £1200 a month to cover the staff salaries at FSC.
Please make a small monthly donation at https://checkout.justgiving.com/c/3333173
The only salaries paid for by Romilly are those of the staff at FSC, without whom the lives of many children of Kitwe would be a lot poorer and a great deal more dangerous.
If you would like to receive information about Romilly’s charity, FSC and our fund raising activites to support the work they do please email Jame Forshall at jamesforshall@gmail.com
Laying the Foundations
The foundations of the new sanitation block being laid at the Kawaza shelter for street children.
The new sanitation block is necessary because visitors to the site currently can only use the WC’s in the dormitories, also many of the street children visiting the shelter have never used a WC before. The building will cost £850, which was kindly donated through a 2 Wheel Appeal fund-raiser organised by Miki Jablowska. Miki has been a tremendous supporter of Romilly and Friends of Street Children, running two marathons for them.
The young man with the pink shirt tail in the top picture is Edwin Chungu. He is one of the gardeners at the shelter and when not gardening helps to look after the children.
The pink building in the background is one of the two boys’ dormitories paid for by Romilly’s generous supporters. Both dormitories are in urgent need of maintenance. Please donate at
Please make a donation at https://checkout.justgiving.com/c/3333173
If you have any questions or would like to join Romilly’s supporters please write to jamesforshall@gmail.com