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A 2003 study found that in Zambia, 15.1% of all children 14 and younger were orphans. The study’s results also showed that there were almost 1,100,000 orphans under 18 years old, and that 593,000 of those children were working in some form of child labor.

An earlier study, in 1999, demonstrated that there were 75,000 street children in Zambia, and that about 10% of the citizens of Zambia who had AIDS were children. These street children, with no families and no homes, are often hungry, in poor health, and are victims of abuse and endure all of the horrors of living day and night on the street. Many of the children have also been exposed to HIV/AIDS and other STDs (sexually transmitted diseases).

Counseling and social support to the children have been offered by Zambia’s government, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, many individuals, and NGOs (non-governmental organizations), but there is little accountability. In response, several individuals, including the managing director of the Lusaka Hotel, have joined together to form an agency known as Chisubilo.

Chisubilo hopes to attract corporate support for the children. The head of the agency believes there can be accountability if there is one agency that acts as networking body, and anyone wanting to help can work through this network rather than a single organization.

The agency, Chisubilo, has put both a resource mobilization committee and a resource allocation committee into action. These committees are looking for corporate sponsors, and will be responsible for the use of resources, and for making sure resources are distributed evenly between city and rural children. People are hopeful that with support from around the world, this initiative can begin to alleviate some of the orphans’ biggest problems.

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