Rescue
Boys living on the streets or at immediate risk are welcomed into a safe place, with emergency placement and protection from harm.
Rescue · Restore · Reunite
St. Lawrence Home of Hope
Where children can be children again.
In Lusaka, Zambia, we care for and protect boys who have been living on the street or separated from their families — walking with each one from safety, through healing and school, towards a lasting return to family life.
Who we are
A safe place, and a way back to family
St. Lawrence Home of Hope provides a safe place to stay, regular meals, health care and education for vulnerable and street-involved boys in Lusaka. Alongside daily care, our social work team offers rehabilitation and counselling, traces each boy's family and prepares carefully for reunification. Our role is not to replace the family but to help restore the relationships and conditions that let a boy return home safely. The Home is run by the Society of the Missionaries of Africa.
Three steps, one journey
Restore
Daily meals, health care, counselling and schooling help each boy rebuild confidence, routine and a sense of childhood.
Reunite
Reintegration is carefully prepared, never rushed. After tracing a boy's family we make a series of visits and gradually rebuild contact — including supervised visits and, where appropriate, a short stay at home that is then evaluated together. Once reunification succeeds, the boy and his family move forward together, independently.
Why doesn’t he just go home?
For a child who has been living on the streets, coming to Home of Hope is only the beginning.
Finding his family does not always mean that he can return home immediately. There may be abuse, neglect, poverty, family conflict or other circumstances that first need to be understood and addressed. Rebuilding trust and preparing both the child and his family for reunion takes time.
This short film follows that journey and explains why successful reintegration can take months — and sometimes much longer.
Watch the story
Rescue is only the first step
At Home of Hope, our goal is not simply to take children off the streets. Whenever it is safe and possible, we work towards something much more important: helping a child return to his family and remain there.
Our social workers trace families, visit their homes, understand what led the child to the streets and work with both the child and his relatives to address those difficulties. Meanwhile, the child needs time to feel safe again, return to school, rebuild routines and prepare for life at home.
We do not measure success by how quickly a child leaves Home of Hope. We measure it by whether he is ready to go home — and whether home is ready for him.
Our programme today
Care, measured honestly
These are current and annual programme figures for 2025 — not lifetime totals. They describe how many boys we are caring for right now and how many we walked with over the course of one year.
See our full 2025 figures- boys in our care at any one time
- ~100boys in our care at any one time
- children served during 2025
- 206children served during 2025
- new admissions in 2025
- 105new admissions in 2025
- boys reintegrated with family in 2025
- 65boys reintegrated with family in 2025
Education that keeps going
Boys are supported back into learning at a level that fits them — catch-up classes, primary and secondary school, and skills training. Selected older boys are supported in boarding school or college where that is the right path.
Family tracing and reintegration
Most boys have family somewhere. Our social workers trace relatives, assess whether returning home is safe, mediate where there has been conflict, and prepare both the boy and the household step by step so that the return holds.
How the Home is funded
We have no fixed source of funding
St. Lawrence Home of Hope has no guaranteed income. Every meal served, every school fee paid and every journey home depends on the generosity of donors, parishes, partner organisations and friends of the Home — in Zambia and abroad.
Media
See life at Home of Hope
Watch the boys and young people share their experiences, and explore short films shaped by our work with children living on the streets.
Every boy deserves a childhood he can look back on
Your support keeps the kitchen open, the classrooms full and the road home possible.
Support Our Work