About – Footprints

Footprints reaches out to children who find themselves on the streets in Zambia. We support them with the objective of moving them off the street into partner organisations or back to their own family to give them a brighter future.

We Believe

Every child has the right to health
Every child has the right to shelter
Every child has the right to education
Every child has the right to play
Every child has the right to respect

Our Focus

There is a huge amount of pressure on all of the organisations working with vulnerable children in Lusaka. Running centres and adequately supporting children already rescued from the streets is time and resource intensive and as a result many organisations with these commitments find their ability to work directly with children still on the streets is limited.

The unique focus of Footprints is based on the vision of Founding Director Vasco: visits to the streets should allow us to spend quality time with the children, talking to them, getting to know them and gaining their trust. We do this as often as possible, spending as long as we are able in each place and working with the children where they are. This work involves activities for the children: football, dancing, cooking food and playing games. This is a hugely successful formula as it allows the children to feel valued, have fun, and most importantly bond with us and feel that they can trust us enough to confide and engage with our volunteers.

Inspired by faith, rooted in compassion

305496731 Our work is inspired by the Footprints story by Mary Stevenson. In the story, a person dreams about walking on a sandy beach alongside Jesus. When they turn together and look back over the person’s life, it becomes noticeable that during the difficult and unhappy times there is only one set of footprints in the sand. The person questions why Jesus had disappeared during times of trouble – but Jesus replies that it is during these times that He carries us.

As a Christian charity, Footprints Foundation for Children in Zambia provides support to the vulnerable children of Zambia during the difficult times in their lives, just as Jesus carried the person in this story. We also believe that children need somebody to walk next to them, offering them ongoing support so that they can continue their journey after the troubled times have passed. We demonstrate our faith by showing love to vulnerable children and supporting them, we don’t discriminate based on faith or any other characteristics of those support – access to our services is in no way predicate on sharing our beliefs.