Our story
It started with a security guard who refused to look away.
Zambia is one of Africa's youngest nations — over half the population is under 18. Yet for tens of thousands of children, childhood means surviving on the streets, not growing up in a classroom. UNICEF estimates that 40.9% of Zambian children face three or more deprivations at once: no reliable food, no healthcare, no education, no safe housing.
In the autumn of 2025, three Norwegian interns at Kukula Capital — Henning, Olaf and Marcus — passed through the same compound gate every evening. The guard's name was Mambwe.
Mambwe grew up in Zambia's Copperbelt after his father lost an arm in a mining accident. He paid his own way through school, studied four years of Bible school, and — after moving to Lusaka — found himself unable to ignore the children living on the street outside his door. He was already spending most of his salary on food and clothing for them, teaching informal lessons in a room attached to a local church.
“Before the school, these children had nowhere to go. Now they have a meal, a classroom, and someone who shows up for them every day.”
Back in Norway, we launched a campaign on Spleis. It exceeded its target, raising NOK 32,000 — funds that helped formalise what Mambwe had already built. The school now has a name, a teaching structure, and 40 children who arrive every day to be fed, taught, and seen.
