Samaritan Children’s Home

Location: Lusaka, Zambia

Timeline: On-going

Status: Currently operating

Topics: Widows, Orphans, HIV/AIDS, Poor

The Need

As the HIV/AIDS pandemic sweeps through Zambia, it leaves children’s lives destroyed and ravished in its wake. Their parents gone, there is no one left who cares for them - or so they think.  Their safety shattered, everything they know wiped away in an instant, many are shoved into the home of a relative. But the death rate is so high that any living relative may have the children of several other deceased family members.  Even those with regular income struggle to provide for so many children, but many can’t provide for their own children as it is. Soon the relative’s treatment of the children degenerates to neglect or abuse, and children seek solace in the streets, where the population is so teaming that even the privilege of eating from a garbage can is fiercely fought for.  There is no one to care for them if they become sick, and they can be taken to jail by local police, trying to maintain peace on the streets. This is the story of thousands upon thousands of children. 

John Jere with a group of boys living on the streets of Lusaka.

The Description

Reverend John Jere is Founder and Director of Samaritan Children’s Home (SCH). Pastor John is a Zambian national who is very sensitive to the leading of God while trusting Him to take care of their physical and financial needs. John is a local pastor with a big heart, who is passionate about caring for the widowed, the poor and the orphans. John is the pastor of Every Nation Church, as well as a missionary, traveling to the most disadvantaged parts of Zambia and other countries to preach the Word and provide for the poor.

John and Joyce care for many orphans, some within their home and others living with relatives who can’t or won’t provide for them.  They deliver food to the ones not living in their home, keep tabs on their schooling, and encourage and disciple them. Once a year as funds allow, the Jeres have been able to bring all the children to their home for a short-term visit, during which they have their Annual Birthday Celebration.  Most of the children don’t know their official birthdays, so they celebrate them all at once with food, small gifts, and games. The children are so encouraged and uplifted, knowing someone celebrates the fact that they were born.  

The children enjoy food and family at the Annual Birthday Celebration.

The History

Pastor John Jere, with his wife Joyce, are completely dedicated to providing shelter, education and loving care to a rising number of orphaned and outcast children.  Unable to have children of their own the Jeres began by opening their home to children who had lost both parents to HIV/AIDS. Soon their little home was overcrowded. They sold their house and bought a property about 15 kilometers south of Lusaka, the Zambian capital.

They had taken in as many as 95 children in their home when UNICEF policy made it illegal for the children to stay at the Jere’s home.  The policy mandated that if a child has any living relatives, he or she must stay with them. However, in many cases, living relatives could be someone so distant to the child that they have little concern for his well-being, or someone so overwhelmed by all their deceased relatives’ children that they can’t or refuse to provide for them. When most of the children went back to the homes of their relatives, John and Joyce continued to care for them, since in many cases they had come to the Jeres after running away due to neglect or abuse.  This means costly food deliveries, and time consuming travel to disciple and train them, and dependency on a working vehicle, which is a challenge in their circumstances. John and Joyce do still have a few of the children living with them in their home as well.

Goals

1. To evangelize and provide Christian love and care.
2. To raise funds for operation needs such as food deliveries, medical needs and the Annual Birthday Celebration.
3. To meet the current needs of HIV/AIDS children and to disciple them in the Word of God.
4. To declare and demonstrate the Gospel to extended families of orphans.

Needs

1. Exposure to those whom may have a heart for HIV/AIDS affected children.
2. Monthly expenses for the children’s food, clothing, medical expenses and education.
3. Funds to increase the children they can care for.
4. Personal support for Pastor John and Joyce.

Who’s Involved

1. ITMI to provide oversight and US exposure.
2. Charl van Wyk, South African missionary.
3. Every Nation Church and the Jere family.