7 Impactful Years! Happy Birthday UP Zambia
UP Zambia celebrated 7 Impactful years this past quarter.
The organisation started in 2014 when a small team of people gathered together to make a contribution towards children in prison by bringing blankets to Kamwala Correctional Facility. The first visit to the correctional facility was made on 28th June 2014.
Founder and Executive Director Sara Larios recounts that “In a previous visit I had seen the sort of despair that many of the children were going through in terms of their isolation from the community the feelings of abandonment and I just wanted to get together and do one small thing. ”When the correctional officers invited the team to personally handover the blankets to the children who were in prison, it occurred to the team that the children were not any different from other children in society.
Sara remembers that when it came time for the team to leave one of the boys stood up to give a vote of thanks and “He appealed to us please don’t go way and forget about us. Remember us. When are you gonna be back?”
This was the beginning of Undikumbukire Project Zambia. Undikumbukire is a local term for ‘Remember Me’ where the name of UP Zambia is derived.
With your support, for 7 years UP Zambia has not stopped bringing some fresh food to children in prison on every single weekend. Some of the children in prison today have no family or friend to visit them, bring them some food and clothes to stay warm. UP Zambia has been, for the most part, their only family and friend!
UP Zambia has kept the promise to remember, going on to make an impact in the lives of thousands more while realising that children in prison also need legal services, social support and a friend to advocate for a quick resolution of their cases apart from just food and clothes.
HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY UP ZAMBIA!
