Lubuto Library Partners' Board of Directors invites you to an online event on September 19th to celebrate our 15th Anniversary year of bringing enlightenment and opportunity to the most vulnerable children of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Our anniversary year fundraising has been boosted by a $25,000 challenge grant offered by a generous donor. Stay tuned for details of our event and the opportunity to double your gift through this matching grant opportunity.
REMEMBERING RODGERS MWEWA, LUBUTO'S ORIGINS
We joined people throughout Zambia and beyond these past weeks in mourning the passing of Rodgers Mwewa, a member of Zambia's Parliament and the guiding light behind the Fountain of Hope Drop-In Centre. Rodgers succumbed to Covid-19 on 18 July 2020, and the very sad news brought reflection on how Lubuto was inspired by intense involvement with the Fountain of Hope at the turn of the millennium.
Not only was Rodgers the leader of an amazing group of young Zambians who provided a lifeline to hundreds of street children every day, as volunteers, but he was also at the center of the arts and cultural community, both then and throughout his career, promoting arts throughout Zambia as Chair of the Parliamentary Sub-committee on Arts and Culture. The youth who found a home at Fountain of Hope went far beyond subsistence and safety to finding ways to express themselves, build self-confidence and, in many cases, go on to careers in drama, music and other arts.
Fountain of Hope was a unique and extraordinary place in a time when Zambia had the highest rate of orphaning due to HIV/AIDS of any country in the world, the reason why so many young people found themselves outside of adult care and on the streets. Former Voice of America journalist Kellys Kaunda's reflections on Rodgers captures the significance of his work in bringing attention to the plight of street children to the wider world, such as during the 1999 visit of US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Sen. Russ Feingold and Susan Rice depicted above.
Lubuto would not exist if it weren't for those years at Fountain of Hope. The vision and understanding of the need started there, perhaps, as Kellys writes, along with PEPFAR. The first Lubuto Library opened there in 2007, with drama, music, dance, visual arts, storytelling and deep roots in Zambian arts and culturefrom its inception. Rodgers is gone, but what was inspired by his direct action to help street children, to recognize their humanity when the rest of society rejects or ignores them, lives on. That vision has guided and will continue to guide Lubuto as we chart the course forward in the wake of a new health pandemic.
Volunteer of the Month: Pamela Tripp Melby
Though our long-time supporter Pamela Tripp Melby is the newest member of our Board of Directors she hit the ground running to spearhead fundraising and an event to celebrate Lubuto's 15th anniversary along with director Sally Sinn. The original plan was, of course, to have an in-person event in Washington, DC, but the novel coronavirus changed all that, and necessitated an immediate pivot to virtual event planning. Whether that was outside of the comfort zone of the former head of the National Library of Education and Chief of the IMF's Information Services Division we don't know, as she joined Sally in pushing onward with dedication and great enthusiasm for Lubuto's work and mission - but maybe her Peace Corps volunteer background set her in this direction. The event is still ahead of us (on September 19, 2020) but right now we want to step back and recognize Pamela as Lubuto's Volunteer of the Month.
