Beginnings

“Helping Others Help Themselves”

Beginnings

In October 2001, distressed by the growing numbers of orphans unable to attend school, Linda Lahme, a US Peace Corps volunteer, Anderson Zulu, Community Development Officer, and Moses Zulu, Environmental Health Technologist, formed Luapula Foundation. An $870 donation by friends in Thibodaux, Louisiana, USA enabled the fledgling organization to support the education of 23 children orphaned by AIDS.


	Linda Lahme and villagers construct a well for safe drinking water. Chibalashi, 2001.


	Anderson Zulu, far right, with conservation farmers in Chibalashi, 2001



Moses Zulu with sponsored student, 2003
Now, just six years later, Luapula Foundation has an annual budget of just over one million dollars, and is serving 3,084 children and their families. Besides financing education, the Foundation also has a program to teach youth about HIV prevention. Children's caregivers are taught chemical free farming methods to increase yields in order to provide sufficient food for their extended families. They also learn about child rights and HIV prevention. Luapula Foundation provides counseling and HIV testing to people living in deep rural areas where government programs are not available.


	[Home] [About Us] [Beginnings]