WELCOME

A song of welcome at Kalilanama

Welcome to our website, which describes an inspiring community project in  a remote rural area in the District of Serenje, Central Zambia.

Jastin Sholoma was in 2008 working as a farm manager at a large, productive farm near Serenje. While taking long walks into the interior, he came across a remote, widely-scattered community of about 800 people, living in extreme hardship and poverty and spoke to them about their needs. Very concerned at their plight, he talked with his sister Grace, who was at the time a nurse in Lusaka prison, and together they decided these people must be helped. They both came to England to take courses in HIV - AIDS, nutrition and other relevant health care issues and returned to Zambia in 2010 to form a team with like-minded people and set up a charity.

The result was the planning and creation of a “resource village” as the centre for practical activities which would enable local villagers to work together to lift themselves out of poverty, build motivation and capability for self reliance and create a sustainable future for the community.

Great progress has been made, and many activities are underway, including a school, church, health post, visitors’ accommodation, cooperative agriculture and skills training.

The Zambian team formed a registered, Zambian charity called “Pilgrim - Salt in Community” to manage the project. Friends of the team from UK visited the project in the early stages and were inspired by the vision and commitment of everybody involved. They then formed a UK charitable trust registered with HMRC called “Growing Communities - Zambia” to support the project and to raise funds here in UK.

Kalilanama is the name of the resource village and farm, the name taken from the seasonal river which forms one of the boundaries of the farm and translates as “The animal who weeps”.

In 2010, Jastin showed friends in England the map of Zambia, and the Serenje area where the team was planning to start their project.