My name is Mulenga Stanley. I was born on 17th December, 1978 in Kitwe Central Hospital. I’m the first born in a family of five brothers and I come from a decent born again Christian family where both parents are Bemba by tribe. I’m an indigenous Zambian and my parents come from the Northern part of Zambia.
Six moths after I was born, I started coughing, so my parents took me back to Kitwe central hospital where I was hospitalized with whooping cough for one week and was put on injections so that they could treat the disease. One week later after I started feeling better, and the doctor discharged me.
One year later, the same problem resurfaced and I was taken to the same hospital and got readmitted now in a critical condition at a point of death, according to what my father narrates to me. Here the doctor diagnosed me with tuberculosis. He told my parents that the whooping cough that I had developed into tuberculosis and that’s what worsened my healthy condition. Just there, my mom fell down to the floor in dismay. My father tells me that I could hardly stop coughing until they switched on the electric heater in my room and covered me with blankets and bed sheets to keep me warm. They kept doing this all the time to avoid excessive coughing and resulting pneumonia.
The doctor prescribed 30 injections, and each day I would receive two on my buttocks until I finished. I recovered and started feeling much better. They discharged me and sent my parents back home. However, I could hardly sit because my buttocks were paining because of the injections.
I stated falling sick from time to time. Each time I fell sick, I would be admitted to Kitwe Central Hospital. I was in and out of the hospital till I grew up to the age of seven years. As a result, almost all the nurses and doctors in the ward got to know me. Kitwe Central Hospital became my home and I almost grew up in there.
One day, a Catholic nurse who formed a small pre-school in the ward for the recovered children who could not have access into pre-school identified me and enrolled me. I still remember, I learned how to greet in English, saying "Good morning, good afternoon, good evening," right in the ward in Kitwe Central Hospital.
God met me in the hospital and started ministering to me right from there. I spent most of my childhood in Kitwe Central Hospital. When I think about this, I always weep. “My God preserved my life to this day.” “If it were not for Him, I would have died by now.”
When I was seven years old, my grandmother (mother to my late mom) came from the village and took me to Chinsali in the Northern part of Zambia where I started my grade one. The same problem kept coming. In the cold seasons from May, June and July in the second term, I could not go to school and attend my lessons because of coughing. They tried to use African medicines to see whether the sickness could be cured but it could not help. I completed my primary school education with a lot of stoppages along the way.
Fortunately, when I qualified to go to grade eight at Kenneth Kaunda High school in 1994, my coughing seemed to stop I completed my junior secondary school level and qualified to grade ten with flying colors without any problem at all. This was so surprising to almost everyone in the village because they thought I would not make it to grade ten as a result of the pathetic state of my health.
In July second term of my final year in 1998 at Kenneth Kaunda High school, I developed a cold and I started coughing because it was very cold during this period. Gradually, my condition intensified. I began to have some night sweats and some chest pains and I could not attend classes, I would always remain in bed in my dormitory all day long without moving and it was serious. I was very very sick and life became so tough for me at school and my future seemed to be bleak and utterly disturbed. I used to be alone in the dormitory square. Everyone started running away from me including my best and closest friends, fearing that I might infect them with TB if they come in close contact with me so there was no one to care for me. TB was almost uncommon and unheard of during this period, so whoever was suspected or found to have caught it was labeled to be a serous contaminant. They also made a public announcement in the Dining Hall that there was an out break of TB at school and one of the grade twelve pupils in Ituna house (dormitory) by the name of Stanley Mulenga has been infected with it so be aware of this. This was the most humiliating and disgusting situation I have ever had in my life! I felt as if the world has ended for me and I almost quit school.
One year later, the same problem resurfaced and I was taken to the same hospital and got readmitted now in a critical condition at a point of death, according to what my father narrates to me. Here the doctor diagnosed me with tuberculosis. He told my parents that the whooping cough that I had developed into tuberculosis and that’s what worsened my healthy condition. Just there, my mom fell down to the floor in dismay. My father tells me that I could hardly stop coughing until they switched on the electric heater in my room and covered me with blankets and bed sheets to keep me warm. They kept doing this all the time to avoid excessive coughing and resulting pneumonia.
The doctor prescribed 30 injections, and each day I would receive two on my buttocks until I finished. I recovered and started feeling much better. They discharged me and sent my parents back home. However, I could hardly sit because my buttocks were paining because of the injections.
I stated falling sick from time to time. Each time I fell sick, I would be admitted to Kitwe Central Hospital. I was in and out of the hospital till I grew up to the age of seven years. As a result, almost all the nurses and doctors in the ward got to know me. Kitwe Central Hospital became my home and I almost grew up in there.
One day, a Catholic nurse who formed a small pre-school in the ward for the recovered children who could not have access into pre-school identified me and enrolled me. I still remember, I learned how to greet in English, saying "Good morning, good afternoon, good evening," right in the ward in Kitwe Central Hospital.
God met me in the hospital and started ministering to me right from there. I spent most of my childhood in Kitwe Central Hospital. When I think about this, I always weep. “My God preserved my life to this day.” “If it were not for Him, I would have died by now.”
When I was seven years old, my grandmother (mother to my late mom) came from the village and took me to Chinsali in the Northern part of Zambia where I started my grade one. The same problem kept coming. In the cold seasons from May, June and July in the second term, I could not go to school and attend my lessons because of coughing. They tried to use African medicines to see whether the sickness could be cured but it could not help. I completed my primary school education with a lot of stoppages along the way.
Fortunately, when I qualified to go to grade eight at Kenneth Kaunda High school in 1994, my coughing seemed to stop I completed my junior secondary school level and qualified to grade ten with flying colors without any problem at all. This was so surprising to almost everyone in the village because they thought I would not make it to grade ten as a result of the pathetic state of my health.
In July second term of my final year in 1998 at Kenneth Kaunda High school, I developed a cold and I started coughing because it was very cold during this period. Gradually, my condition intensified. I began to have some night sweats and some chest pains and I could not attend classes, I would always remain in bed in my dormitory all day long without moving and it was serious. I was very very sick and life became so tough for me at school and my future seemed to be bleak and utterly disturbed. I used to be alone in the dormitory square. Everyone started running away from me including my best and closest friends, fearing that I might infect them with TB if they come in close contact with me so there was no one to care for me. TB was almost uncommon and unheard of during this period, so whoever was suspected or found to have caught it was labeled to be a serous contaminant. They also made a public announcement in the Dining Hall that there was an out break of TB at school and one of the grade twelve pupils in Ituna house (dormitory) by the name of Stanley Mulenga has been infected with it so be aware of this. This was the most humiliating and disgusting situation I have ever had in my life! I felt as if the world has ended for me and I almost quit school.
I started complaining to God and weeping so bitterly the whole night. No one bothered to visit me or entered into my dormitory. I felt as if I was a despised, quarantined leper!
One day, the school sent an ambulance and took me to the nearby Lubwa General hospital where I was admitted. I explained to the doctor about my condition and how my sickness started. The doctor told me that TB was still active in my lungs and that I was infectious and liable to spread the disease to anyone if it is not properly handled, so he prescribed sixty injections that I started receiving till I completed the course. He further told me that my disease was not properly handled when I was young that was the reason it kept coming. There was no stronger medication at the time to be able to effectively treat TB. From that time till now, I have never had TB again.
I sat for my grade twelve final exams and I graduated with a Division Two. I got a Merit in English and a Credit in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geography. I was not very impressed with these results. I had been determined to get a Division One and go to the University and get a Degree probably in medicine and become a doctor, for I really liked this job, but I could not because of my sickness when I was about to seat for my final exams in grade twelve.
I did my distance learning at Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation and got a Diploma in Psychosocial Counseling. My personal goal now is to work so hard and develop Christian Aid Ministries so that I can go back to school and obtain a degree in Social Work or medicine so that I can come and function even more effectively in my ministry.
My aim is to continue to attend and care for the sick in the community. This is what makes the purpose for my life, to care for people suffering from various sicknesses that are in a similar situation in which I used to be. I feel moved and broken hearted when I see someone sick, I do not feel good at all. My heart always aims to do everything to help that sick person so that they may come out of that situation. I feel as if it is me going through that situation and my heart does not rest. I always get reminded of my bleak past condition.
One day, the school sent an ambulance and took me to the nearby Lubwa General hospital where I was admitted. I explained to the doctor about my condition and how my sickness started. The doctor told me that TB was still active in my lungs and that I was infectious and liable to spread the disease to anyone if it is not properly handled, so he prescribed sixty injections that I started receiving till I completed the course. He further told me that my disease was not properly handled when I was young that was the reason it kept coming. There was no stronger medication at the time to be able to effectively treat TB. From that time till now, I have never had TB again.
I sat for my grade twelve final exams and I graduated with a Division Two. I got a Merit in English and a Credit in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geography. I was not very impressed with these results. I had been determined to get a Division One and go to the University and get a Degree probably in medicine and become a doctor, for I really liked this job, but I could not because of my sickness when I was about to seat for my final exams in grade twelve.
I did my distance learning at Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation and got a Diploma in Psychosocial Counseling. My personal goal now is to work so hard and develop Christian Aid Ministries so that I can go back to school and obtain a degree in Social Work or medicine so that I can come and function even more effectively in my ministry.
My aim is to continue to attend and care for the sick in the community. This is what makes the purpose for my life, to care for people suffering from various sicknesses that are in a similar situation in which I used to be. I feel moved and broken hearted when I see someone sick, I do not feel good at all. My heart always aims to do everything to help that sick person so that they may come out of that situation. I feel as if it is me going through that situation and my heart does not rest. I always get reminded of my bleak past condition.
FAMILY
I’m now married to and my wife Bernadette, and we have a happy family together. I love Bernadette and she loves me, and we are a happy couple together. We love people and we like helping them. I love Bernadette for her strong-willed personality and will power. I do not regret having married someone who is not only a wife but a companion in joy and in sorrow. Bernadette is a true partner and an all-weather-friend full of encouragement.
With our five good years in marriage, we have made tremendous strides in achieving our goals and objectives not only in our family but also in ministry. Our motivation and insight and great devotion to God has helped us so greatly in the good upbringing of our four-year-old daughter, Christine. Christine is in pre-school and we are grateful to God that her performance is always outstanding and impressive to us as parents. She is always rewarded for her excellent performance in school and we are very proud of her. She is also an active member of Sunday school at our church and she likes singing. We plan to bring up and inculcate our daughter with good Christian norms so that when she grows up, she gets rooted in Faith and continues serving God. We intend to give her quality education so that she can as well come and serve efficiently and more effectively in Christian Aid Ministries
I’m a social worker with a diploma in psychosocial counseling while Bernadette is a business lady with a strong business background. We both complement each other so well. Our different strengths and fields have contributed so significantly to the growth of our ministry
I’m a hospitable person and I enjoy making friends. I also like watching entertaining and educative African movies while my wife Bernadette likes listening to music. My wife is a good singer too.
Apart from ministry work, my wife Bernadette and I have other responsibilities. We look after my old father Stanley senior (Stanley’s father) who is 71 years of old. Stanley (senior) has a very good sense of humor and likes my wife and his grand daughter, Christine and we both like him for that. Stanley sometimes follows us into the community as we provide our charitable services to the patients in the community.
After my mom died in 2005, in Kasama in the Northern Province of Zambia my father (Stanley senior) was left without anyone to look after him. He stayed there for one year and decided to come to Kitwe after he started suffering from a TB related infection. He developed nausea and his limbs eventually started to swell. His health continued to deteriorate so dramatically and we thought it was malnutrition that he was suffering from since there was no food and that there was no one to care about him where he was in the village. His condition continued to worry us, so we decided to take him to Buchi clinic where they gave him some paracetamol and septrin tablets. However, these tablets could not help him. I looked at his hands and inside of his eyes so critically and started suspecting that it could be TB that he was suffering from. But when we took his sputum (phlegm) to the lab for TB testing, the results showed negative.
Nevertheless, I still pressed on until we took him to Kitwe Central Hospital for x-ray. We took the x-ray form to the chest clinic where he was detected with TB and immediately commenced on TB drugs. We ensured that we gave him right amounts of food every day and every morning before his TB drugs. We also made sure he adhered to his treatment and took his drugs consistently for a period of eight solid months until February, 2008 when he completed his treatment course. The old man was very very sick. Immediately after he completed his TB treatment, he started to feel better. Now he is completely cured and he has put on weight. Someone who saw him when he was sick in 2008 may not be able to recognize him. We often visit the patients in the community with him and he is a good source of encouragement to them.
At my home we also have my immediate young brother by the name of Cliff who we are also looking after. Cliff came from Lusaka seriously sick to the point of death. In July 2009 seven months ago, we took him for both TB and HIV tests. Both results showed that he was TB and HIV positive. Cliff is now on both drugs; TB and ARVs (Antiretroviral drugs) that he is taking. They have helped him so much and his health has started to improve. We are so grateful to God for Cliff’s survival. We really thank God for the responsibility that he has given us of providing care and support to our sick. We care for our family members as well as those who are in need in the community!
At my home we also have my immediate young brother by the name of Cliff who we are also looking after. Cliff came from Lusaka seriously sick to the point of death. In July 2009 seven months ago, we took him for both TB and HIV tests. Both results showed that he was TB and HIV positive. Cliff is now on both drugs; TB and ARVs (Antiretroviral drugs) that he is taking. They have helped him so much and his health has started to improve. We are so grateful to God for Cliff’s survival. We really thank God for the responsibility that he has given us of providing care and support to our sick. We care for our family members as well as those who are in need in the community!
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