“Here I am now – surviving”

“Here I am now – surviving”

Written by Boel Marcks von Würtemberg

Jay Jackson Paul Kaunda does not like his surname. While a family name represents love and unity for most people, for Jackson it is merely a reminder of past wrongs committed towards him by his own family. But forgiveness is far from beyond him: Jackson dreams of starting an organisation that encourages families to forgive and forget. Unlimited Love International is the project Jackson has created in order to help others who are in a situation as bad as his own once was.

Jackson was born in Chingola in northern Zambia. His father was a copper miner, and he passed away in a mine accident when Jackson was five years old. After his death Jackson and his mother were left with nothing.

“My father’s relatives took everything – the money, the house – everything,” says Jackson.

They moved to his mother’s sister in Ndola, but life was not much better there. Jackson’s aunt, who worked as a stone crusher, could not afford to feed the whole family. Jackson could not go to school, but had to beg for money in the streets. He managed to make enough money for his mother to start a small business selling vegetables on the market. By that time, Jackson tried to go back to his father’s relatives in Chingola.

“My mother wanted me to go to school so she said go to your uncle and maybe he can put you in school,” says Jackson.

But his uncle did nothing, and Jackson was left to the streets of Chingola at age seven. This is where he started his life on the streets. Years passed and Jackson stayed on the streets – first in Chingola, eventually in Kabwe, and finally in Lusaka. It was a rough life for a little boy.

“I used to fight a lot then, because nobody cared for me. I just thought I will never be somebody, I will never get anywhere,” says Jackson.

In Lusaka he made friends, especially one man who took a special interest in Jackson. He gave Jackson money and a place to stay. Eventually, Jackson understood that the man and his friends were robbers. They took Jackson with them to rob a house in Kabulonga.

“He told me ‘Jackson, be a man!’ but I was a boy,” says Jackson.

That’s when he decided that this life was not for him. Ever since he was left alone, his aim in life had been to go back to Chingola to kill his uncle, but when his new friends offered to do it for him, he decided that revenge was not what he wanted. So he ran away, back to the streets of Lusaka. This is when he met the people from Fountain of Hope. The social workers came to the streets and asked the children if they wanted to go to school. For Jackson, this was when he started dreaming about getting an education.

“So I decided to go with them. My friends said ‘No, no, these guys are Satanists’ but I wanted to go to school,” says Jackson.

But it was not easy to leave the streets. Jackson, now in his early teens, had become addicted to sniffing petrol, so he kept running away from the school and back to the streets. The social workers used to come after him, but one day they didn’t come, and that’s when he made up his mind. He became determined to stay in school and stopped running away. Since then he has lived at Fountain of Hope, and next year he will have completed his education. This, however, is mainly due to fortunate circumstances. Normally, street children are only allowed to stay for a few months. After that they are meant to get integrated back into society, which usually means going back to the streets.

“I knew what I wanted so I kept going back when they threw me out,” says Jackson.

Last year, he was very close to ending up on the streets again. He had gone to Ndola to visit his family, only to find out that his mother had died from aids. He did meet his aunt and his little sister, who is now ten years old. His aunt wanted him to move back there, but Jackson was determined to get an education, so he went back to Lusaka. At the prospect of being thrown out from Fountain, he was desperate. One Friday afternoon, Jackson went to the director of the school and pleaded to let him stay. The answer was still no. That would have been the end of Jackson’s education, but the director died in a car accident that very same weekend.

“When I found out I cried and blamed myself, thinking ‘did I cause this?’. But then I thought that maybe God did it for me,” says Jackson.

When he came back to school the Monday after the accident the staff let him stay, thinking that he had come to an agreement with the late director. But they still come after him at times, telling him he’s not supposed to be there. By next year when he finishes school, he will definitely have to leave. Jackson does not know where he will go when that day comes. But he does know what he wants.

Jackson has a project called Unlimited Love International. He wants to start an organisation that will help children off the streets. Many of Jackson’s friends lived on the streets because they had been thrown out of their homes by their families. The idea of Unlimited Love International is to act as a mediator in such cases, and bring the families back together. He also wants to open up an orphanage for children who don’t have families to be reunited with, particularly aids orphans. He plans to do this in his home town Chingola. When he has enough money, Jackson wants to buy a house for him and his sister. He dreams about being able to put her through school and university. And he is determined to get what he wants one day.

“Here I am now – surviving. But I have a dream, and I know that it will happen.”