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........................................Meet Our African Team....
Bwalya Chilumba - Our American team has known Bwalya since 2006. Bwalya is our big picture guy. He is the business guru and helps with our finances, financial planning, strategies etc... Bwalya also has no problem getting right in the middle of teaching curriculum, loving on kids, and doing the day to day tasks needed.
Bwalya comes from the northern part of Zambia where his mother worked as a medical assistant in the copper mines while his father was a mechanical engineer and contractor in the mining industry.
Bwalya is one of 7 children and lost his oldest sister to AIDS at the age of 40. His claim is that he still holds the position of being the fifth child born on the fifth day of the fifth month of the year! Bwalya was married in December of 2009 to Olipa, his amazing wife.
Interesting Fact About Bwalya: "I love Disney movies."
Funniest thing about working with Americans: "Americans are great people and good to work with because they are real fun BUT they are always breaking the rules!! This makes it even more interesting because when they break the rules then they become too careful and leave out the important parts of a task sometimes. Americans are amazing people and GOD bless Americans!"
Dream for Arise Africa: "My dream is to see Arise Africa take up its God given strategic role in the lives of Africans and be able to foster real tangible and dynamic change that will always ring in the minds of those whose paths will meet with that of the organization."
Benson Mwenya -
We have known Benson since 2008 and he is our ground man. Benson checks on all our programs and does research for future endeavors. He spends most of his time in the field with the children, schools, and other adults we work directly with. Benson helps write project reports and is constantly giving us feedback and updates.
Benson grew up in Lusaka, Zambia. He comes from a family of five, three boys and two girls and he is the second born. Benson's mom is a nurse, and his father is a retired Air-force officer. Benson is currently in college to get a degree in social work through our African Staff Scholarship Program.
Interesting Fact About Benson: "I am scared of dogs and love to eat our native food Enshima. If I had to pick between American pizza or enshima I would for sure choose enshima. I also love to be around people and love to serve the people in our culture that are forgotten."(this might have been said for Benson by an American :)
Funniest thing about working with Americans: "Strange but true, I don't see anything strange about working with Americans, if anything I find it exciting. I enjoy working with them, they are warm and cheerful people. I think that's what happens when two people from different cultures come together. Perhaps, the only funny thing could be the way we look at certain things. They tend to find things in our communities fascinating which we may not be very proud of. For example they like those remote structures, and life in the remote Villages. And they also don't pay much attention to certain things from their nation which we may find fascinating. I also think it is interesting that Americans sometimes name their pets names used for people. We call our pets "tiger" or something that you wouldn't use for a human name!"
Dream for Arise Africa: "To see the lives of the hopeless restored and fulfilled in accordance with John 10:10. To see the lives of people impacted and changed by the love of God through the ministry work of Arise Africa. To see people living a purpose conscious life, meaningful and fulfilling because true happiness is only found in God... many people are frustrated and hopeless and we hope through Arise Africa to help them see differently."
Brenda Ngosa - Brenda helps run our child sponsorship program and certainly plays the motherly role to all of us. Brenda is extremely caring and loving. We are convinced she is the Zambian mother Theresa and we are all waiting to see her sin in ANY way at some point! (some of us have bets going) She looks out for everything we do and is that sweet helpful person willing to do anything. Brenda is in charge of 20 kids who receive help each month through their American sponsors. She helps pay their school fees, feed and clothe them, disciple them, and visits their homes on a regular basis. She is in their school everyday with them. Brenda writes monthly reports for each child and sends photos and letters from the kids as well. Brenda puts up with all of our crazy personalities and truly takes care of MANY more (including our entire team) people that the 20 kids she is in charge of. She has a heart of gold!
Brenda was born on the 4th of July, and comes from central province of Zambia. Her mom and dad divorced when she was 2 years old. She lived with her dad in the Copperbelt region of Zambia, and he worked as a journalist and was later promoted as editor in chief for multi media Zambia. Brenda’s dad died in 1992, and after her father's death she came to Lusaka and lived with her mom. She felt like it was living with a stranger because she had never known her. Her mom was married and had 7 children who were not close to her because she was considered an outsider. Brenda’s mom worked as a foster parent to make money. Brenda has completed classes in theological studies and counseling.
Brenda was raped as a teenager and has an amazing son, Jefferson. Brenda is very open about her life and talks about God’s love for her and because of this has helped many victims of sexual abuse. Jefferson is currently in high school and is considered a family member of Arise Africa.
Funniest Thing about working with Americans: “I love to work with Americans because they are real and they have a heart of a child! They are hard working and most of all they like to have great fun. It makes me feel free and laugh when am with you guys!”
Interesting fact about Brenda: “I love to watch comedies and I love dolls.”
Dream for Arise Africa: “My dream is to see Arise Africa being truly used as a channel by God to help the children and adults of Zambia and Africa at large. I want to see Arise Africa expand to other nations in Africa and be a place of refugee for the hopeless child. God bless Arise Africa!”
Isaac Sikazawe - Isaac is our ultimate kid guru. He is AMAZING with them! He runs our kids Vacation Bible Schools and works closely with our Discipleship leaders on teaching children about Christ. He can relate to orphan kids directly and knows how they feel since he grew up in the same circumstances. Isaac has an amazing voice and is very talented in acting. He does many dramas and plays for our kids and teaches them important lessons through them. Isaac single handedly started and runs a kids Bible camp in a remote village where he preaches and leads kids to know Christ. He works with about 1,000 kids from the village and before he arrived they had never seen a Bible. Isaac’s energy is contagious and his passion for children is only God given. He will make you laugh instantly, and is never afraid to try something new.
Isaac grew up with 4 sisters and is the second born. He was born in Lusaka and his mother was a teacher and his father was a soldier for the Zambian government. Isaac lived in a compound of Lusaka called Kalingalinga. As Isaac quotes, “This place is like Hollywood because most of the guys are in acting or sing and dance.” Isaac and his family had a comfortable life until his father left them when he was 10 and his mom lost her job. Isaac suddenly had to find some type of work to help support his family. In the seventh grade, Isaac started singing with various groups. He couldn’t afford his school fees so he joined a singing and acting competition within his school hoping to win for the prize money. He won and was chosen as the best actor in the school and they volunteered to pay for his fees. Isaac gives credit to God for bringing him through life when he was growing up because many times he didn’t have food for days or have adequate clothes and no shoes. He felt abandoned from his father and not loved.
Interesting Fact About Isaac: "I love baking, cartoons, and I love black American Movies (especially Tyler Perry)."
Funniest thing about working with Americans: “What I like about Americans is they are friendly, straight and they like things to be done fast and in a good and perfect manner! How do I say this, well as a Zambian I am used to eating Nshima (local food) because I eat it slow and it stays in my stomach for hours but an American PBJ sandwich has taught me to eat and get things done faster!”
Dream for Arise Africa: “My dream for Arise Africa is to see it making a difference reaching out to the poor people in the rural parts of Zambia/Africa. I want Arise Africa to be the mouth for people that can’t talk, legs for people that can’t walk and eyes for people that can’t see and just show them the way. I am sure our God in Heaven will be very happy and HE is very happy with what we are doing right now!”
.............................................Meet Our American Team.
Alissa Hollimon - Alissa lives in America (Dallas) and runs her photography business, Hollimon Photo. Through taking photos for many aid organizations throughout Africa, Alissa felt a need to give back more than just images. With the overwhelming generosity and help from others Alissa and a team founded Arise Africa. Alissa has spent most of her time in Zambia and has known and worked with our Zambian team for years. Alissa helps run everything stateside, from organizing teams, projects, funds, etc...
Interesting Fact About Alissa: "I am on an airplane at least once a week with my job and I love it."
Funniest Thing about working with Zambians: "They are quieter than me, I guess the rumor that Americans are loud, is very true!! They have learned to speak up with me though!"
Dream For Arise Africa: "Gosh I have so many dreams I don't know where to start. I think my biggest dream is that we always play the role of helping people be able to live to their potential that God created them for. This means providing ways for them to be self sustaining, serving, and always striving for a better relationship with the Lord. I dream alot about watching orphan kids graduate from Zambian college or seeing them succeed in life. I also dream about our staff working in the roles and positions and having the lives they have always prayed for. I dream about communities and people learning God's truth through pure love and relationships we can build. And I dream about one day Arise Africa being my full time job!"
Alissa's Contact Info:
alissa@ariseafrica.org
210 602 1698
John Rosacker- John Rosacker lives in Austin, Texas and first visited Zambia in 2007. He immediately fell in love with Africa and has returned many times since then, including a short stint living in Cape Town, South Africa for five months. John works directly with Bwalya on overall budgets and works hard on the stuff Alissa finds not very fun and confusing but extremely crucial! Any question or concern having to do with budget, funding, or investing goes to him.
John works heavilly in business investments that Arise Africa has started in efforts to one day become a self sustaining non profit. We own and run public busses that ru routes and generate income for the ministry when we are not there. When our teams are in country we use them at a discounted rate.
Interesting Fact About John: "I attended Officer Candidate School for the Marine Corps during two of my college summers. I was about two weeks away from finishing training when my foot broke and they sent me home."
Funniest Thing About Working With Zambians: "They ALWAYS laugh when you try to learn their tribal language, Nyanja, but they LOVE to teach it to you."
Dream For Arise Africa: "My dream is that Arise Africa will help put more Zambians in a position to make better lives for themselves, and make a lasting impact in the lives of those around them. My dream for Arise Africa is that it will no longer be needed in Zambia, because Zambians will be empowered through education and opportunity to do it all for themselves." | 
Bwalya getting everyone's attention while standing on top of a roof of a school! 
Benson probably laughing at something
one of our Americans has done. 
Alissa in a remote village with some kiddos who are interested in her cameras. 
