Family Structure Alidah Phiri (48years) is married to Derrick Kayila (57years) and live in Independence township. They are blessed with 6 children namely; 1. Derick Kayila Male aged 27 2. Violet Kayila Female aged 25 3. Elesi kayila female aged 18 4. Elinate Kayila female aged 17 5.Chola Kayila male aged 8 6. Maria Kayila female 10years 7. Violets’s daughter, Charity age 3 also lives with them. The couple also looks after 4 nephews and a niece namely:

1. Emmanuel Gondwe male aged 15
2. Mabvuto Gondwe mlae aged 18
3. Idah Gondwe female aged 11
4. Kennedy Kayila male aged 19
The above live with the Kayilas are double orphans with nowhere else to live. They’ve live here for about 3 years.
5. Gift Mweetwa male aged 21. Gift is not related to this family but found a home with a Kayilas after running away from his abusive father’s home. Life became difficult after his mother died and has lived with them since he was 16 years old.

A total of 14 family members live in this household and have lived here for 6 years. A typical day for the Kayilas is usually a slow one. The older children are school drop-outs trying to make ends meet. With a father who is bedridden with Tuberclosis, they know that they have to go out and look for odd jobs with their mother. They leave home in the morning and usually return in the late afternoon, many times with nothing. While they are away, Idah, Mabvuto,Maria and Elinate go to school. The rest of the younger children stay home, usually playing with other children in the community. Elesi who dropped out of school in grade 5 stays at home and cooks for the father and other members of the family when food is available. The family comes back together in the evening and share their only meal in the day.

Family Income
The Kayila family has no sustainable source of income. They mainly depend on what they get from doing odd jobs. They usually help with digging foundations, mixing mortar and digging pit latrines for families that are constructing houses within their township. During times when construction activities reduce, the family’s income is also negatively affected. This means that the family has to forgo other priorities like education. Most of the other children in this household have had to drop out of school due to such circumstances. Currently, only 4 children go to school. When the family gets to such a point, a meal is priority for them. A typical meal being nshima with a vegetable for either lunch or super and some porridge for the very young members of the family for breakfast. The church once in a while provides them with a little food, but for this size of family, it lasts only a few days. Though Alaidah knows a few people in the community, its one man for himself and God for us all, as commonly said. Most of the people she lived with in Ngombe are no longer there. Other people work and mind their own business. Thank God they don’t have to pay any rentals as they own the land they live on and Bwafwano, a community based organization provides health services freely for all their health needs. It is therefore difficult to state the family’s income as it is all spent as it comes in. there is no possibility of making any savings for this family. Violet, their daughter, works as a maid but this is on a part-time basis. Alaidah’s husband is a builder by profession and used to do some building jobs to earn a living. However , he cannot do this anymore due to his TB condition. His wife (Alidah) used to sell fritters to support the family but this was the only means of survival for the whole family so the business could not survive. She entirely depends on odd jobs currently.

Independence Township was not so long ago bare piece of land. One could never imagine that it would be a home for many today. It has now become a beautiful place. It was initially allocated to families that were displaced from N’gombe compound where their houses were demolished. According to the local government, these families had illegally settled on land that belonged to the Catholic church. The Kayila family happened to be among these people. In 2002 after their houses were demolished, the Zambian government relocated them to a place called Mandevu where they lived in tents. “My family shared one tent with 2 other families”, Alaidah narrates. She says words cannot describe how difficult and miserable life was. This was so unusual for them but they had to live with it. They lived in this condition for one year after which families started being moved to the now independence township where land was being allocated to them. The Kayila family was the last of about 300 families that squatted at that temporal site to finally receive their land allocation. Their allocation finally came through in December 2003. The family had started living in fear as the nights in the camp grew cold and dark. The voices of children playing and mothers chatting and cooking were no more. They knew it was time for them to move to where everyone else was. Unfortunately, Derick, Alaidah’s husband was critically ill at the time. Moving to the new home therefore meant that Alaidah would have to find the means to put up some form of shelter for the family. In January 2004, the family moved to their new home, a bare piece of land with a small old tent standing on it. This was during the rainy season and the ground was very wet. With no other option, they spent their nights standing in that tent. Derrick was still very ill then. He at that point decided to put their land offer letter in his wife’s name because he wanted his wife and children to be protected from property grabbing in the case that he died. A few months later, their 3 children Derrick, Maria and Elinate also suffered from TB. With a poor ventilated house, the family feared that everyone else could catch it. Unfortunatdely, Alaidah also did. Derrick and wife were forced to consider taking the family for HIV/AIDS test in 2009, however the results came out negative for all the members.

All of them received treated which they responded to very well but it has since recurred in Alaidah’s husband. The Kayilas have since continued to patch up the structure with whatever piece of tent or plastic they come across. To date, their shelter has 6 rooms. Though it may sound like a spacious house, the structure is a threat to life. It could easily catch a fire so the family cooks from outside. For the family, it is not a secure home.

The ‘walls’ have holes in them, the house has no windows or air vents thereby making the ventilation very poor, the leaking ‘roof’ makes the floor of the house wet during the rainy season. Colds and flu are the order of the day. There are no proper doors to provide them with the desired sense of security. They have had one break in experienced, but fortunately, no one was injured in the process.Alaidah still worries about the safety of the children. Temperatures are also extreme in the hot and cold seasons making it very uncomfortable for the family members. Without sustainable income, the family has no means to improve their housing condition

. This is very difficult for the children especially that they once lived in a better home than a tent back in Ngombe. As if this is not enough, the household has no running water. It gets its water from a water kiosk where it costs k100.00 for each 20l container. They usually spend more water on days when they do their laundry. For a typical day, they only use it for cooking and washing dishes. The household does not have a pit latrine. They had one which was protected by plastics but this collapsed during the last rainy season. They currently have to use the neighbor’s. “it is so degrading and embarrassing”, says Derrick.

Most of the displaced victims failed to build proper home for themselves and opted to sell their land to middle income earners most of whom have put up decent homes like the one next to this family. Though one would never imagine it, the family suffers humiliation. The children at school are stigmatized by their shelter situation. Way back when they used to perform well at school, the rest of the children would mock them and laugh at the appearance of their house. Their performance has since gone down because they do not want to be reminded about their shelter. The fact that they have to live with its picture (both inside where other people don’t see as well outside) is more than enough for them.

The Kayila family is the only one living in a tent within their vicinity. “Providing us a decent house and a toilet will lift the shame and embarrassment we face everyday. We look forward to having our dignity restored and to have a decent place to call home”, Alaidah concluded.