Inspiration Project: Giving Back in Zambia

L&E associate Hillary Massey was one of the six participants selected for our first annual Inspiration Project, sponsored by Seyfarth Life. 

Hillary has a long connection to Zambia, starting more than 20 years ago, when she served as a water and sanitation volunteer. She built many close ties to the area while she was there. When Hillary learned of the Inspiration Project scholarship, she immediately thought of helping the orphanage run by Mirriam Makula, the daughter of the family that hosted her during her stay in Zambia. Below is Hillary's account and photos of her Inspiration Project.

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Twenty-one years ago, a Peace Corps truck dropped me off at a mud hut with no electricity or running water, and Nkolemfumu, Zambia became my home for the next two years. I served in the Peace Corps, Zambia as a Water and Sanitation Volunteer from 1998-2000. 

Here I am at 21 years old in front of my house with some of my youngest friends. I taught them basketball and they taught me so much more.

My job was basic disease prevention, including digging wells and latrines. Above is the well at our local school. Fortunately, I had a bicycle to carry my full jug back to my house, but other women in the village carried the jugs on their heads. 

During my time in Zambia, the Makula family took me in and we shared stories around the fire most nights. Among their 12 children, they had a daughter, Mirriam, who was 14 when I arrived. I thought of her as my younger sister and we shared local traditions, many including music and dance. 

Seyfarth’s Donation

Mirriam Makula is now a teacher at an orphanage in Kasama, Zambia named Rural Focus Zambia. The orphanage provides housing, schooling and food to children whose parents have died, typically of AIDS or water- or insect-borne diseases.

After working with Mirriam to figure out how best to use the scholarship money, my 12-year-old son, Luke, 9-year-old daughter, Shelby, my mother, Vicki, and I purchased and shipped three boxes of supplies. We bought all sorts of writing and coloring supplies, blankets, clothes, and backpacks. The photos below show us purchasing the materials.

Below: Here goes one of the boxes! It took more than two months for them to arrive.

But arrive they finally did! Here they are with my host sister, Mirriam Makula, and the orphanage director.

Below are some of the supplies before distribution to the children.

Below are the children wearing some of the clothes and holding the backpacks, giving us a thumbs up.

They are putting the writing and coloring supplies to good use already.

It’s hard to express how much this means to children who have so little. Mirriam has said they feel the world has not forgotten them. Thank you, Seyfarth Life, for making this possible!