Listen to 'Beacon of Light' composed for the then SOCH orphanage in 2018, and sung by the 12 year old Australian composer...
Beacon of Light by James Gilbert September 2018
SASBJ (Beacon of Light - Single)
Our care for children continues even when they leave SOCH
Since the opening of the SOCH Charity Private School in 2024, some primary school children with disabilities have been accommodated during the school term in our SOCH school hostel. In school holidays, these children will return to their parents and guardians. By boarding at SOCH, these children are now able to attend school since it is directly on site for them. Previously, before SOCH, their attendance at their nearest schools was problematic due to their disabilities. Also, they are now able to access appropriate therapies at SOCH or at the town hospital.
Older children who have left SOCH continue to be supported in their secondary education at boarding schools and local high schools through our provision of their fees and school uniforms. Other older children who have dropped out of school are offered the opportunity to learn carpentry skills onsite at SOCH.
For those who complete secondary school year successfully, we try to obtain sponsorship for them in universities and colleges since we don't have the fund capacity to support tertiary study. Here below are a few examples of how SOCH has continued to assist disadvantaged children:
One of the girls in this old photo of SOCH orphanage children was (B),
In October 2022, (B) graduated as an Environmental Health Officer. She was the first female to graduate under SOCH care after the first male (G) graduated in 2021 as an IT teacher.
This poor little fellow in rags on the left is (I). He was unable to be cared for by his mother who entrusted him to us.
On the right is a later photo of (I) in his school uniform. He has now completed his secondary school studies.
On the left is (L) after she first arrived at SOCH orphanage as a young child - happily displaying her dinner!
On the right is (L) dressed in her school tracksuit. She achieved excellent exam results which enabled her to enter a Zambian boarding school to complete her education.
The young boy on the left is (M) who joined the SOCH orphanage in 2005, and consistently excelled at school.
(M) completed Grade 12 with distinctions in all his subjects. He gained a scholarship to study Computer Science at a Chinese University. and graduated
in June 2024. Here is a photo of (M) taken in 2024 after his graduation. The bulk of his other costs (flights etc.) were met through the generosity of a ZOA family whose son had travelled on a school trip to SOCH and met the young (M).
(M) has been now been offered a full Chinese scholarship to complete a Masters degree.
This young man (I) returned to Serenje at the start of 2018 after spending a year in Australia where the Children First Foundation enabled him to have a life-changing medical operation for his leg, injured severely in an accident with fire when he was a child.
(I) when he was in Grade 9, achieved the highest examination results in the local Serenje District, and was therefore able to gain entry to a Zambian state boarding school where promising students have the best opportunities outside of the private high fee-paying schools.
(I) has now completed his secondary schooling (end of 2024) and is excited to learn that a group of caring Australians have stepped forward to sponsor his tertiary studies in 2025 (a Diploma in ICT and Mathematics) at Malcolm Moffat College of education in Serenje.
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IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP SPONSOR ANY OF OUR DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN, PLEASE EMAIL US AT help.us.at.soch@gmail.com