LLT is a Zambian, non-profit organization established in August 2004 with activities being in Lusaka, Mansa and Chibombo District, Central Province of Zambia under the overall managerial stewardship of its head office in Lusaka. In as far as life is concerned; there would be no better alternative besides a family. Zambia, just like many other African Countries, has experienced many changes since i
ts independence, some of which are:
broken social safety nets,
over stretched extended family systems,
marriage instability,
overcrowding in homes,
insufficient support to school going children,
inadequate or no income to meet the costs for food,
death of bread winners due to HIV/AIDS
inadequate support towards start up business initiatives,
prolonged sicknesses by breadwinners,
lack of survival skills, etc. These changes have had a lot of influence on various age groups of people, young and old. The changes have resulted in many people losing their own real cultural and native identities. The loss of these very important African aspects has led to many adapting to artificial belonging and independence. Unfortunately, the high poverty levels and high HIV/AIDS prevalence has made it even worse such that most families have lost grip of their real identity and family values which kept their clans together over the years. The changes that have taken place in many Zambian societies to-date have had adversary effects, such that children and women have been found to be placed in much more worse off situations due to the impact of the above changes. The changes have further created a number of problems for parents, guardians, the church and the communities at large. Subsequently, the changes have further affected realization of full potential of the communities in terms of development, resulting in a big generation gap. It is this generation gap that needs to be addressed if better results will be something to talk about both now and in future. The whole essence of establishing Lupwa Lwabumi (Family for Life Trust) has been as a result of lessons learnt from various practices. It has been fully established by the initiators of the Trust that if better results have to be attained, there is need to look back beyond just dealing with results of the problem but deal with the root cause. As a Trust, there has been a realization that there is an urgent need to preserve the family and restore the child. However, preservation and restoration may not come about without seriously examining what has brought about the challenges of the generation gaps. The establishment of Lupwa Lwabumi has been as a result of working in the field of children affected by HIV/AIDS, Poverty, family disintegration, loss of rich cultural values and urbanization in Zambia for over ten years. It has become very clear that in order to address some of the issues around generation gaps and many other problems affecting vulnerable groups. during the last 7 years LLT has been around the following aspects in order to reach its aims and objectives:
- Family preservation and restoration
- Cultural, traditional values, norms and beliefs
- Child restoration and reintegration
- Child and family counselling
- Family and health education (HIV/AIDS)
- Youth and child education
- Understanding religion and its application in family setting
- Working with traditional leaders in the promotion of traditional ceremonies
- Research on family traditional and cultural beliefs to learn of what has changed, disseminate and up-date the new development.
- Child restorative justice
- Community and substance abuse.
