Vasco's Story

Vasco at the Misisi Compound

Vasco leads classes when they visit the library, manages all the kids, leads programs, recruits kids from the street...generally does everything and keeps the library running smoothly. He introduced me to everyone and everything here, and he also seems to know almost everyone in Lusaka somehow. He's 28-years-old and spent years living on the streets himself. I asked him a few questions to find out how he wound up working here at Lubuto:


Where were you born and where did you grow up?

I was born in Choma [in Zambia] in a village. There are thatched homes with no electricity, so you have to cook with firewood. There's no running water, so you have to fetch water from the stream and carry it back to your village by hand or on top of your head. There are a lot of snakes you have to watch out for. I lived with my father and stepmother there. They were farmers, and they farmed maize, pumpkin leaves, rape, pineapples, mangoes, guavas, sugarcane, bananas, green peppers, carrots, and so on, and I helped. The chief [of the village] who was there then is still there. He wears animal skins and uses a zebra tale to swat flies. People in the village practice witchcraft. Lots of people have a negative attitude towards witchcraft, so I don't want to say too much about it. I don't practice it. I'm a Christian...but I'm a Buddhist inside! [laughs]

How did you end up on the street?

My father died when I was about 12 or 14 or so, and things became very hard. We had a lot of things [before he died]: three tractors and animals, and people took them, so we were left with nothing. I started staying with some people who abused me, so I hopped on a train. I didn't pay. You do it by hiding in the toilet and keeping the door closed with your feet, so people try to use it and think it's out of order. I went to Livingstone [in Zambia at Victoria Falls] and then Kitwe in the copperbelt [the biggest mining industry in Zambia] then Ndola [Zambia] and then Lusaka. Seven years all together. Life on the street was really hard, and I ended up doing things I wasn't supposed to do.

How did you get off the street?

I almost committed suicide and was taken to the hospital. From the hospital they brought me here to the shelter. I lost hope in life and thought nobody cared for me or loved me. But I started going to school here and became the very first street kid to complete school in Lusaka. Life was really interesting at the shelter because I learned how to trust people again, respect people and their things and how to love again. I had lost all of that. I decided to dedicate my whole life to helping the street children because I've been there, and I believe that if I can change, other kids can change, too. The management asked me what I wanted to when I finished school, and that's what I told them. That was in 2004, but I was supposed to complete school in 1999. It was hard because my friends were completing their grade 12 exam while I was completing grade 7.

How about the Lubuto Library?

I liked reading a lot, so I decided to get really involved in the library.