Child protection first
We work to a written child protection policy. Staff and volunteers are screened and trained, boys are told how to raise a concern, and every concern is recorded and acted on.
About us
A home in Lusaka, and a way back to family
St. Lawrence Home of Hope Foundation is a child-care, protection, rehabilitation and reintegration centre for boys in Lusaka, Zambia. We offer safety and stability to boys who have been living on the street or separated from their families, and we work towards the day each one can return to family life. Where safe reintegration with family is not possible, a boy is welcome to stay with us until he is ready to step into independent adult life with confidence.
Our story
From 1998 to today
1998
A shared beginning
Home of Hope was established in 1998 through the initiative of Cardinal Medardo J. Mazombwe and the joint efforts of the Catholic Women’s League and Fr. Edgar Pillet, M.Afr., then Parish Priest. In 2019, following the withdrawal of the Catholic Women’s League, the Missionaries of Africa assumed full responsibility for the Home.
2019
Under the Society of the Missionaries of Africa
Since 2019 the Home has been run by the Society of the Missionaries of Africa, who carry on its work of care, protection and reintegration.
Our mission
Where children can be children again
Our mission is to receive boys who are at risk or without a safe home, to protect them, to help them heal, to put them back in school, and — wherever it is safe and in their best interest — to prepare both the boy and his family carefully so that they can be reunited and continue their life together independently. We speak of the boys in our care as children with names, histories and abilities, not as cases or statistics.
What guides our work
Rehabilitation, not institutionalisation
Time at the Home is meant to be a stage, not a destination. Counselling, routine, play and health care help each boy recover from what he has lived through.
Education as a foundation
Every boy is supported back into learning — catch-up classes, formal school, or skills training — because education is what makes a different future possible.
Family, wherever it is safe
Family tracing, mediation, visits and careful assessment come before any reunification. Our aim is to restore the relationships and conditions that allow a boy to return safely, so that once he is home his family can move forward without depending on us. A boy returns home only when it is in his best interest.