When Visionledd's International Director for HIV/AIDS, Richard Brown, first visited the community of Makululu, Zambia in July 2004 he was introduced to a wonderful woman named Midia Mulenga.  Midia talked with Richard and shared with him her heart for the children of those suffering from HIV/AIDS.  Midia had the deepest concern for these children and especially for their future.  She had seen from experience that when people in Makululu passed away from AIDS, it was the children who were left behind with nothing.  If there was to be any hope for them at all, she knew that the children needed to continue in their education, but without finances the children could not afford the school fees and uniforms required to attend school.  Midia's fear hit close to home as she too was HIV positive and she too would one day be leaving her children behind.

Midia shared with Richard that she got together many women infected with HIV and began to talk with them about beginning their own school which did not require fees, or uniforms.  A school that would enable each of their children to continue in their education after they were gone.  30 women joined together to create a new school board, acquired a building for their children and began a school with 300 children.  The building was dark, with a leaky thatched roof.  There were not desks or books or pencils or pens.  The children sat on broken pieces of brick to keep them off of the dirt floor and away from the ants....and yet they all attended each day, eager to learn.

Richard Brown went away with a hope to appeal to Visionledd donors to construct a new bright, safe school for these very special children.  About one year later, a church team from West Side Kings Church in Calgary was in Zambia ready to help build such a school.  It wasn't long before attendance in this school began to grow and soon, more than 450 children attended this one room school house.  Of course they needed to hold classes in shifts in order to enable everyone to attend.  Half of the children would get up very early to go to school while others would stay very late.

Visionledd then received the funds to build another classroom with a kitchen this time which is used to run a feeding program for the children.  Now more than 750 children attend Bwafano School all because Midia Mulenga had a dream and did something about it.

WOW has been able to assist these children through our WOW Children's Christmas Program for the past two years.  Each year the children celebrate the birth of Jesus with a huge party filled with games, songs, poems and dancing.  They each receive a brand new uniform, hand made by the women in the community, as well as books, pencils, rulers and eraser and much more.

Midia Mulenga has now passed away but praise God she went with the assurance that her prayer for a free community school has been answered.  Thank you to all of you for bringing hope to the children of Makululu!