Namumu's Awesomeness

Let me tell you why the Namumu Orphanage Centre is so great and why I’m happy to be a part of it.

Most people are familiar with the basics by now. Namumu currently houses 73 children that are orphaned or considered vulnerable, providing them with three meals a day, a place to sleep, clothing, education and health care.

But it doesn’t stop there.

What most people don’t realize is that Namumu has an effect on this community far beyond helping the 73 children in residence.

At the Namumu Community School more than 200 children from the surrounding villages in grades 1-7 receive free education. It’s a good school that has been commended time and again by the Zambian government for its high testing rates.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Our clinic provides health care for hundreds of people from the surrounding villages, people who would otherwise be relying on other “traditional” local medicines that would, without a doubt, be less effective.

But it doesn’t stop there.

In a country plagued by unemployment, Namumu provides jobs to a number of Zambians in a number of areas. In the office there are five of us on the management staff. We employ an accountant. The Namumu Community School employs seven teachers. Our clinic has a nurse. We have two caretakers, one for the boys and one for the girls. We have two security guards. We have a driver. We have a carpenter and a welder, both with assistants. We have eight fishermen and we have two on the fishing day staff.

Without Namumu, many of these people would very likely struggle to find jobs. Because of Namumu they can work and help to support their families.

But it doesn’t stop there.

A number of middle-aged women are able to support their families by buying in bulk the kapenta fish caught by Namumu’s rigs and reselling it in the markets.

After I wrote about having to devise a lottery system for selling kapenta because the demand was so high some weeks back, a good friend of mine wrote me an email asking, “Why didn’t you just raise the prices?” It was a valid question. I’m sure many of you were thinking the same thing. To respond, we did raise the prices a bit, but still not by as much as we probably could have. Yes, Namumu’s profits could have been slightly higher. But our customers depend on selling our fish to survive, and drastically raising prices would have been detrimental to their business operations and their lives.

So, in essence, Namumu is supporting these women too.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Two churches hold services at the Namumu Chapel ever weekend, the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Saturdays and the Presbyterian Church on Sundays. Thanks to Namumu they have a nice facility in which they can worship.

But it doesn’t stop there.

A number of churches and other organizations from the US and abroad have formed relationships with Namumu over the years, including my own church, Crestwood Presbyterian in Richmond. I think everyone in these churches and organizations will agree that having this relationship with Namumu and getting to know these loving, caring people half way around the world has made quite an impact.


I haven’t seen much of the world. I know that there are many, many organizations worthy of support. Still, I think it’s clear that Namumu is as good as any.