Moate woman helping to fundraise for orphans in Zambia

A Moate woman has started a GoFundMe campaign to help raise money to carry out vital repair works on a safe house for orphan girls in Zambia.

Emma Gilchreest Mvula, who lives in Moate and is native of Loughrea, Co. Galway, went to Zambia in 2008 to work for a charity there. The Zambian NGO/charity is called FAWEZA (Forum for African Women Educationalists of Zambia). Their work includes supporting girls access, retention and completion of secondary school and in many areas, they work to identify and address the barriers that are stopping girls from completing school.

Emma and her husband Zambian native Nico have lived in Moate together for the last ten years and have two children, Leo and Remy.

Nico works as an SNA in Kilcleagh National School in Castledaly and Emma works in inclusion in Laois Offaly Education and Training Board, LOETB.

While Emma was working in Zambia, she came upon a school in Nanga, in the Southern Province, which is located in a large sugar plantation. The orphan girls at the school were walking very long distances from the neighbouring towns to the school and were suffering from exhaustion. In addition to this they were also vulnerable to being raped and attacked while walking through the plantation and as a result were dropping out of school.

Emma said: “It was very upsetting to me that the orphan girls were putting their lives at risk in order to access school.”

As a solution, with permission from the school, Emma began fundraising at home to build a hostel, or safe house, on the school land. The project received the support of the local community who agreed to contribute 25% of the cost of the building (much of it through the provision of free labour) with 75% from Emma's fundraisiing.

Living at the hostel has enabled the girls to stay in school. It has changed their lives, giving them better access to employment and reducing their risk of living a life of extreme poverty.

The hostel was built through FAWEZA originally for 44 girls, but now houses 150.

Since 2010, Emma has visited the hostel twice, in 2016 and in 2018, and she says she is struck by how much the safe access to school is changing the girls’ lives. During her last visit, while Emma saw many improvements to the house, including a well to provide the girls with access to water, the house has become overcrowded and in need of some repair.

As a result, Emma hopes to raise funds to do some much-needed repair work to the current structure of the building and help construct the second block of bedrooms, toilets, and washing facilities. Emma's goal is to raise €5,000 in donations to the GoFundMe page she has set up. FAWEZA will manage all donations, and she will oversee the second phase of the project with them.

On returning from Zambia, Emma worked as the Managing Director of Offaly Traveller Movement for ten years. During this time, she restructured the organisation into a thriving human rights NGO working with Travellers in Offaly and across the midlands on their access to appropriate healthcare, education and employment. Emma managed up to 30 employees and volunteers and worked with funders from many government departments. She has served as a Director on the board of Offaly Domestic Violence Support Service (ODVSS) and as a Director on the board of Tullamore based charity Power4Good.

Emma now works for the Laois Offaly ETB as part of their inclusion team; managing community training across the two counties. This involves working with the most marginalised communities and providing training that suits their needs and interests and then creating pathways for them to employment or further education and training.