Home > The Liyoyelo Project
The Liyoyelo Project offers a home to 15 children and 4 elderly ladies who have no-one left to care for them. To avoid the cultural and social isolation that is often a part of living in an 'institution', this project was designed to integrate completely into the village of Limulunga. This starts with our buildings, built with local labour and from locally available materials, in the traditional style of a family home, with outside cooking facilities (the cooking hut or situngu) and outside ablution facilities.
Our children (currently all girls) also all attend local schools, visit friends and have friends over to play, and help with household chores as they would if they still lived at home. The role of the parent is taken by our housemothers, recruited from Limulunga, who live with the children and ensure their wellbeing – the way their parents would. Our girls also have honorary grannies in the form of our resident old ladies, who pass on stories, knowledge and experience.
The 'grannies' of our project have their own house, but take their meals with the children, who help cook them. Our Matron, herself looking after 7 orphaned grandchildren and one great-grandchild, has overall responsibility for the wellbeing of our residents, but to the girls she's simply known as Kuku, the Lozi word for grandmother.
Liyoyelo Community Trust/Liyoyelo Project, Plot 2, Waterplant Road, Limulunga, Zambia
Tel: 00260 979 439 700 Email: liyoyelo@gmail.com