An African Christmas Story

Africa is a hard place. I’ve visited South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria and the mass poverty is unlike anything Americans have experienced. Add the butchery inflicted on one another by feuding tribes, plus the array of horrific leaders that murder and steal from their own people, and you have a sort of hell on earth. Now consider that AIDS has spread throughout the continent, and you have a real hell on earth.

But when there is a hell, you also will find angels. And this is the story of an angel from Africa, one born in the United States, returned home to Houma recently, not that she wanted to. But more on that later.

In 2000, Linda Lahme went to Zambia as a volunteer in the Peace Corps. There she lived in the bush in the province of Luapula. And there she discovered her true home.

Linda’s job was essentially to do all she could to educate the people about good water and good health, the biggest health issue being the spread of HIV and AIDS.

When her Peace Corps tenure expired, Linda knew her job wasn’t finished. Linda: “There were so many AIDS orphans, children who didn’t have AIDS or HIV, something had to be done. And since their schooling wasn’t paid for after grade seven, they could no longer attend school.”

So she stayed in Zambia and with the help of Anderson Zulu and Moses Zulu, the trio became co-founders of The Luapula Foundation, named after the province. “Something had to be done,” Linda explained recently. “The children were destitute and often grandmothers had huge families of orphans since the parents had died of AIDS.”

Linda, Moses and Anderson fund-raising efforts netted $870, which paid the tuition for 26 children from seven families. They also taught the family better farming methods, and even provided seeds to plant.

One major problem existed, however; there was little or no fertilizer to help the crops grow. That’s when the trio got the idea to buy goats. You see, the climate of Zambia includes a rainy season often followed by draught and farmlands wash clean of topsoil. Moses Zulu then began teaching the Zambians about the benefits of goats. Goats provide fertilizer for bean and cornfields. Goats provide milk and cheese. Goats reproduce and can provide not only economic stability for a family, but for an entire village.

Then Linda set about doing things she had never done before. She began writing grants to help feed more children n “the children existed on one meal a day,” she explained n and after disappointment after disappointment, she was awarded small grants from the Firelight Foundation, The American Jewish World Service, and the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

The result: The Luapula Foundation not only grew, it put more children back in school because the foundation had more money to pay for tuition. And it got more goats. What started out as a good idea, proved to be a great one because the goats provide a self-sustaining program that saves life, provides hope, and is reliable year after year.

Then Linda received the news. She had cancer, a bad cancer, one that required treatment she couldn’t receive in Africa. So she returned to her former home to die away from her true home.

I don’t know how long Linda has, but I know this: The goats already purchased by folks like you and me will give good people a chance at a better life. If you agree, then why not give a Christmas present to those Zambian residents you’ll never meet, but who will have you in their hearts forever.

Please consider adding the non-profit Luapula Foundation to your Christmas list. For $25 you will be buying a goat that will go directly to the children of Luapula. You may check out the website: www.luapulafoundation.org or send a check to St. John Episcopal Church, 718 Jackson Street, Thibodaux, LA 70301 (Please mark for “Luapula Foundation.”) or to Linda Lahme, Technical Advisor, 600 Southland Circle, Houma, LA 70364.

It’ll make her Christmas and the Christmas of those folks so far away in the land she loves.

Editor’s Note: It’s been said that we all make mistakes, but when an editor does it, it makes the newspaper. Such was the case with the jump of last week’s Lloyd Chiasson column. The full column is now posted online at www.tri-parishtimes.com.

We apologize for the error.