Every day is busy at Ancient Path in Kaliyeka Township, but Wednesdays and Saturdays are especially busy. Soon after the school day finishes, children flood in to participate in Agonjetsi, our feeding and training program for over two hundred kids ages four to fourteen. As volunteers prepare scores of peanut butter sandwiches, baskets of biscuits, and huge basins of Sobo for the kids to drink, teachers and aides guide the children by age group into various classrooms and outdoor pavilions. The children bring well-used copybooks and spend the next hour getting much-needed help with reading, math, or science. After class is done, there is always time for fun activities before they are marched single-file across the road to watch their hands and enjoy a meal together.
On Saturday, the team begins at dawn, gathering firewood, chopping cabbages, and peeling potatoes to prepare a hot meal of nsima, beef, and vegetables. The Agonjetsi kids return for their day of Bible stories and activities, songs, and games. When the food is ready, the kids cross the road, one class at a time. They line up to wash their hands, then sit and wait patiently as the women distribute steaming plates of food. Two hundred-plus children and twenty adults get fed – no one goes home hungry.
This program has been going on in Kaliyeka Township for fifteen years. Even during the pandemic, the team figured out how to keep feeding and teaching children safely in smaller groups and different locations. When we started, this program was called Chifundo Kids; Chifundo means mercy. This past fall, the leaders and older kids in this program gave themselves a new name that better reflects how they see themselves now. Agonjetsi means conquerors.
