Working with AIDS Widows in Zambia

May 2011

Carol Elliot traveled to the city of Lusaka in Zambia to volunteer with the Chikumbuso project.

The women range in age from their 20s through their 50s, all widows whose husbands have succumbed to AIDS. They've been left on their own to care for their own children and, in some cases, the children of relatives who have also died of AIDS. Most of the women are HIV-positive. But thanks to the Chikumbuso Women and Orphans Project, they have a means of financial support.

Carol Elliot, a MITRE business analyst, recently traveled to the city of Lusaka in Zambia to volunteer with the Chikumbuso project. She and her 21-year-old daughter, Sarah, spent 10 days assisting the women with the production of woven craft bags made from recycled plastic bags. The income from the bag sales enables the women to support themselves and their families. Elliot says she was struck by the resilience of the community of women the organization serves.

"Some of these women walk miles to get to the Chikumbuso community center every day," she says. "They design and make the bags themselves, and work together to produce them for craft shows and other events. They are paid outright for the bags and part of the proceeds also goes into saving accounts for them, set up by the organization." Part of the funds is also used to help run the Chikumbuso program.

"The women were so appreciative of everything we did," Elliot adds. "They're just very hardworking women who often have anywhere from six to 15 kids in their house. They're taking care of them on their own, and they still have to take care of themselves." The Chikumbuso organization is just six years old, but it now runs a community center that serves some 65 widows and a school for 300 students in grades one through six. The program is based in Ng'ombe Township, Zambia, a city with a population of 92,000, many of whom have been affected by the AIDS crisis. Here in the U.S., it is supported by people like Elliot, who sell the bags at craft fairs and send the proceeds back to the organization.

"In the last year, we've earned $20,000 for Chikumbuso," she says.

While Elliot was in Zambia, she also had a chance to meet the child whom she sponsors through a sponsorship program run by Chikumbuso. Elliot pays the yearly school fee of $250, for the girl, a 7th grader named Violet. "Meeting her was very touching," she says. "Violet took us to see her house, a small cinder block home with no running water or electricity."

She describes her trip to Zambia as an amazing experience. "It was wonderful to see first-hand the difference this program makes in the lives of these women," Elliot says.

—by Maria S. Lee

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