Zambia
Zambia is a landlocked country in south central Africa, bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Slightly larger than the state of Texas, Zambia sits on a plateau, ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level. It’s home to one of the largest waterfalls in the world, Victoria Falls. Located on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, it is nearly double the height of Niagara Falls. The majority of the population lives in the Copperbelt region. Zambia’s main export is copper. Despite recent economic growth, there is still widespread rural poverty and high unemployment levels.
Stories in Zambia
Gladys sits on the side of a loud, busy roadway selling watermelons.
With each new vehicle that whizzes by, she hopes for brake lights. A new customer is literally a lifeline. Her stomach hurts with hunger, and the watermelons she sits next to torment her. They are for selling, not eating. She’d rather be in school.
Read Gladys’s story here
Samira struggles to stay awake in class. Since the food crisis began, her daily food intake has been cut in half. She’s surviving on just one small meal a day.
Not only is Samira tired in class, but her overall school attendance is lower than it should be. Instead of learning, she’s regularly forced to miss school, either to look after her younger siblings, or to find work to support her family. Both of Samira’s parents passed away, so she lives with her grandmother and three siblings.
While the repercussions of food and water insecurity are felt by everyone, the effect can be particularly distressing for adolescent girls. One of the hidden impacts of a crisis like this concerns menstrual health. “When you are menstruating, it’s really hard to come to school when you haven’t bathed,” Samira explains.
There are also worries around long-term development for young people missing school. For Samira, who dreams of becoming a nurse, the lasting impact is concerning. “If I miss some lessons, it will be very hard for me when it comes to exams. I won’t perform well.”
Plan International Zambia is working with the government to provide interventions for struggling families. This includes food distribution to hardest-hit districts, school feeding programs and gender-responsive child protection measures.
Protect girls like Samira today
While the repercussions of food and water insecurity are felt by everyone, the effect can be particularly distressing for adolescent girls. One of the hidden impacts of a crisis like this concerns menstrual health. “When you are menstruating, it’s really hard to come to school when you haven’t bathed,” Samira explains.
There are also worries around long-term development for young people missing school. For Samira, who dreams of becoming a nurse, the lasting impact is concerning. “If I miss some lessons, it will be very hard for me when it comes to exams. I won’t perform well.”
Plan International Zambia is working with the government to provide interventions for struggling families. This includes food distribution to hardest-hit districts, school feeding programs and gender-responsive child protection measures.
Plan International has been working to improve children’s lives in Zambia since 1996.
Plan stats Zambia
Office locations
Plan Zambia’s country office is located in Lusaka, with program unit offices in Luapula and in Central and Eastern provinces.
Technical areas
Protection, education, skills and work, and disaster response and preparedness.
Number of sponsored children in FY20
As of June 2020, people like you sponsor 19,048 children in Zambia through Plan International.
Our projects in Zambia
When you sponsor a child through through Plan, you form an incredible friendship.
But that’s just the beginning. With Plan, you also have the unique opportunity to:
Send her birthday gifts and cards.
Give her special holiday presents called Little Treasures.
Subscribe her to Plan’s educational kids’ magazine, Sunny Days.
— Visit her (when travel restrictions are lifted), with individual travel assistance from us.
Each gift offering is safely hand-delivered by us, and given to your child with personalized cards from you. It’s likely that the child you sponsor will have never seen anything like these gifts, and they’re available year-round to make the bond between you and your sponsored child even stronger.
Meet a child to sponsor