Hello, my name is Agnes, and I offer my greetings from the Kabwata Orphanage and Transit Centre in Zambia where I grew up and lived for 18 years – practically all my entire life!

I have no other family but my “family” here at Kabwata and it is with my gratitude that I write and share with you about my experience staying in a home with different and other children.

It has been my pleasure to be in the small-home family. At first it wasn’t easy to adapt, but later on I got used to it and this has been a great experience because I have learnt a lot of things, such as interacting with people, good communication, learning other people’s cultures and more.

This has all really helped me to fit in with the community. It has also contributed to my physical, mental, spiritual and emotional growth.

Apart from this, I have also learnt to be a responsible young lady in terms of taking care of a home, doing house chores such as cleaning the environment, both inside and outside the home, and cooking for the family.

Our caregiver in charge in the home is Aunt Beatrice, who works at the Kabwata Orphanage who was more like a mother who is molding us for the future, in addition to all that we’ve learned at Kabwata.

Thank you, especially the supporters of Bread and Water for Africa® who are spearheading this household living for me and all the others here at Kabwata.

Update: Since sending her letter to Bread and Water for Africa®, Agnes, now 22, is a teacher at the Eugene Pre-School & Day Care Center, named for the founder of Bread and Water for Africa®, Col. Eugene L. Krizek, (USAF Ret.), where she is inspiring children to dream big, and regardless of their current situation in life if they work hard in school and remain determined, their dreams can come true.

Agnes is just one of many children and youth who have thrived at the Kabwata Orphanage and Transit Center since 1997 with the support of Bread and Water for Africa® which, thanks to our supporters, is providing a loving home for Zambia’s most vulnerable orphaned, abandoned and destitute children.

There, all their basic needs are met and they are given the opportunity for success in adulthood with an education that sadly many others do not.

“Each year, new children take steps to reach their best for the future,” noted Kabwata founder and director Angela Miyanda.

At Bread and Water for Africa® that is our highest hope and proudest accomplishment, especially when we are privileged to hear firsthand from someone as promising as Agnes with her life wide open and on the verge of a successful, happy and self-sufficient adulthood.