Bwanji Kids Orphanage

Ng'ombe Compound is one of the poorest areas of Zambia's capital city Lusaka and home to the Bwanji Kids Orphanage. The word “Bwanji” comes from the local language Chi’Nyanja and is a greeting, similar to hello.

The Bwanji Kids orphanage was started over 10 years ago by Davies Banda, a local Zambian. He opened the orphanage to help the many children that live on the streets of Lusaka with nobody to look after them. When he first opened the orphanage he would spend a few weeks speaking to the children who lived on the streets before they would move in to the orphanage. When Raise a Smile first visited this project in 2008 the orphanage consisted of just 2 rooms and all the children slept on the hard concrete floor. Things have changed a lot since then and the orphanage now has both a girls and boys bedroom, a kitchen and an office. Each child has their own bed (including a mosquito net!) and all of the children attend school.

Raise a Smile Project Key Facts

Most of the children from the orphanage go to hope and faith school, which Raise a Smile donations also support. The school provides one meal per day for the children, which for many children at the school will be their only meal. This feeding programme is vitally important for the children’s mental and physical development and has a huge impact on their learning capacity. The head teacher of the school allows the children from the orphanage attend with reduced school fees. However, because of this she struggles to keep the feeding programme operating. We hope that in future Raise a Smile donations will be able to pay for the full school fees for the orphanage so the feeding programme can continue without problems.

Raise a Smile donations have ensured that numerous children from the orphanage have been able to attend school, have paid for medical treatment, they have helped to provide safe drinking water thanks to a new water filter system and helped to provide a comfortable living environment with a bed for each child. However, there is still a great deal of work that needs to be done. Our main priority for this project is paying the school fees for the 40 children at the orphanage. Each year of schooling at Hope and Faith school costs approximately €120 per child. You can help us ensure that all of the children at the Bwanji Kids Orphanage can continue attending school by signing up to become a Raise a Smile member or by making a donation now!