A 500 miles challenge through the heart of Africa, Cycle Tanganyika is changing the pace of fundraisers…

About us

Since the organisation’s formation in 2006, Children with Future in Zambia have been providing cumulative care for orphan and vulnerable children. Primarily, this has been allowing approximately 1,200 children to gain an education, something many never imagined possible before. A child that cannot read and write becomes an adult bared from a world of opportunities, in Zambia this is currently 70% of the population. Our dream was to change the prospects of Zambia and this began small. We started with one community school in Kitwe, we slowly spread to Chibuluma and now we have five community schools, ranging as far as Nakonde (a boarder town to Tanzania) and rural Lumwana, (home of the World’s second largest mine, on the Congo border). As important and crucial as education is, due to the impact of HIV and AIDS in Zambia, we strongly believe that these children should also be provided with social support. Our orphan and vulnerable children programme includes providing education (free registration to one of our community schools, uniforms, books, paid teachers) nutrition (a school feeding programme, care packages) and a counselling service (bereavement counselling and memory box workshops, to reintegrate orphans back into society and reduce stigma).

We are a dedicated team, with 98% of our staff volunteering their services. Molly Chipipa our Education Coordinator was once asked what keeps her dedicated despite the lack of a proper wage and she explained ““I was brought up by loving parents who provided for me everything that a child needs. I was cared for in every way, so it used to break my heart to see that some children didn’t have the privileges that I had. I strongly felt that these children needed to have supporters. I thought I would be the right person to show them love because I knew what they were missing- love and care.” This is the ethos we share at Children with Future in Zambia and as the number of orphan and vulnerable children increases in our country with the HIV and AIDS crisis this means we must work even harder to ensure that all get the love and care that they deserve.

Why fundraise?

As proud as we are of our achievements and the organisation’s growth so far, we also realise that we are a long way from providing the adequate care these children need and deserve. Most of our schools are rented old church buildings forcing many classes to take place in the same room. Our feeding programme is currently only once a week in one school and we are heavily reliant on ad hoc donations as big donor support becomes increasingly hard to secure. We need school equipment, more care packages for the elderly carers and social support for these vulnerable children. As a fundraising cause, every penny helps carve a new healthy and happy beginning for a child that didn’t have such opportunities at the start of their life.

In the end there was Tanganyika

Fed up of relying on International donors to decide whether our cause is good enough, or meets their yearly criteria, (the funding world is tough!) Children with Future in Zambia decided to take funding matters into our own hands. Here emerged the idea of a cycle fundraiser from head office in Kitwe to one of the most beautiful lakes in Africa, Lake Tanganyika. It will not only be the first of its kind in that past cycle fundraisers have all taken again and again, the easier (and in our eyes less interesting) route from Lusaka to Livingstone, but the participants are equally as important. The slogan for the ride is “lasting friendships, lasting impact”. This is also a first, as usually fundraisers seem to be western groups raising money for a cause, without including the local community who also want a chance to make a difference. Cycle Tanganyika will be Zambian fundraisers and International fundraisers riding side by side through the heart of Africa to raise money that is really going to make a difference. If you enjoy a challenge and want to see a rarely visited yet breathtakingly beautiful part of Africa get in contact with us today. Join Cycle Tanganyika, its now that we make the changes of tomorrow.

The Facts

Zambia is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 166 out of 177 on the United Nation’s Human Development Index.

The United Nation estimates that by the year 2010, one third of all children in Zambia will be orphans.

Approximately 0.5 million children in Zambia do not receive any form of education

It is estimated that 70 per cent of Zambians are illiterate

It takes very little to change a Zambian child’s life opportunities, US $40 can provide all the materials a child needs to go to school for one year.