What We Do

SHN has grown in 6 years to serve 250 children per year, plus the average 8 family members per child, for an estimated 2000 people affected by our teaching and incentive food program.

We have three Centers- two Community Care Centers and one Resource Center where children are taught academic skills, communication skills, therapies and adaptive skills. Each CCC is within a half-hour walk from the child’s home, so the parents become their own supportive community, helping each other, and encouraging each other.

We teach other organizations how to work with children with intellectual disabilities, and have worked with local churches so they’ll welcome children and adults with ID. We train local teachers and currently have 25 Zambian staff and four staff from the USA. We teach parents about their child’s disability, with realistic steps they can take to improve their child’s learning and adaptive skills daily in their own home, with the limitations of income, sporadic or no electricity, needing to draw water, and the very limited education of the parent.

Our hope is to have one CCC in each compound in Lusaka. Even this would just be barely scratching the surface of the need. Many compounds are so large that 3-4 CCCs would be a more appropriate number to begin to meet needs. We provide walkers, adaptive seating, gait trainers, food thickeners, positioning aids, and as much training as parents are interested in.