ZAMBIA

Alliance for Children Everywhere (ACE) has been serving vulnerable children and families in Zambia since 1998. What began as a response to the needs of children in Zambia has grown into a movement focused on keeping families together. Over the years, ACE has transitioned from crisis nurseries to a family-based care model, in line with Zambia’s national care reform and global best practices. Today, ACE works across Zambia's high-risk communities to prevent family separation, reunify children with their biological families, or when reunification is not possible, find permanent, loving homes through kinship care or other family-based alternatives. ACE Zambia also empowers families through parenting classes and economic strengthening initiatives by helping caregivers build resilience and children grow up in safe, loving, and stable homes.

 

THE EMBRACE ZAMBIA PROJECT

Since 2014, we have served as exclusive partners with the Government to prepare over 450 local families for fostering and adoption.

As the exclusive partners of the Government, Embrace Zambia recruits, trains, approves, and certifies families for emergency, short-term, and permanent placements in-country.

Our work is volunteer-led and relies on local advocacy from a multi-denominational network of pastors, adoptive parents, and leaders. Across the country our advocates encourage Christians to embrace orphaned and abandoned children into their families just as God embraced us as adopted children:

God destined us for adoption as God’s children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of God’s will, to the praise of God’s glorious grace that God freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

- Ephesians 1:5

Embrace Zambia is rooted in Christian faith, affirming that God has established the church with a powerful voice, authority, presence, mandate, permanency, and people to bring orphaned and abandoned children into loving, safe, and permanent families.

Awareness

We partner with local pastors and other advocates to raise awareness about the great need for foster and adoptive families within Zambia. We inspire the church to understand fostering and adoption as a faithful response to the needs of orphaned and abandoned children.

EMBRACE ZAMBIA SERVICES

Training

We prepare prospective foster and adoptive parents through training sessions as required by the Government. ACE Zambia staff and guest speakers address the spiritual, legal, emotional, and cultural dimensions of family-based care in Zambia.

Assessment

Our social workers evaluate families’ preparedness to provide a secure, stable, and permanent home for foster or adoptive children. Our thorough home assessments consider the capacities and context of all household members.

Certification

We maintain a registry of families who are fully vetted to be matched with a child for emergency, short-term, and permanent fostering and adoption. The Government matches families from this registry with a child in order to begin the bonding process.

LOCAL CONTEXT & CHALLENGES FACING FAMILIES IN ZAMBIA

Many families in Zambia face intersecting, systemic challenges that make it difficult to care for their children and build stable, resilient households. Below are some of the ongoing challenges that Zambian families face.

Poverty and Economic Instability

Zambia continues to face high poverty rates, especially among families with children. According to the World Bank, over 54% of the population lives below the national poverty line (2022). 

  • UNICEF reports that 60% of Zambian children live in monetary poverty, and 40% live in multidimensional poverty, lacking access to essentials like clean water, education, or shelter.

  • Many caregivers, especially single mothers, rely on informal jobs such as market vending or domestic work, earning less than $2 per day, barely enough to feed their families, let alone cover school or health costs.

Limited Access to Education and Healthcare

While access to early education has improved, many children, especially girls, are still unable to complete their schooling due to costs, household responsibilities, or early marriage.

  • Nearly 3 in 10 children aged 7–14 are not in school, and only 40% complete upper secondary education (UNICEF, 2023).

  • In terms of healthcare, Zambia has only 1.2 physicians per 10,000 people, and rural areas remain critically underserved.

  • 35% of children under five suffer from stunting due to chronic malnutrition, a sign of long-term food insecurity and inadequate healthcare (UNICEF, 2023).

Family Separation and Institutional Care

Economic hardship, caregiver illness, and loss of parents (often due to HIV/AIDS) are major contributors to child separation in Zambia. In the absence of support services, families may feel forced to place children in institutional care, believing it offers a better future.

  • Research consistently shows that children develop best in safe, loving family environments. Institutional care can lead to developmental delays, poor mental health, and attachment difficulties.

  • 70% of children in care had living relatives willing to provide a home, if only they had the resources and support to do so.

Gender-Based Violence and its Impact on Families

Gender-based violence (GBV) remains a significant barrier to family well-being. Survivors of GBV often lack access to justice, economic support, or recovery services leaving families destabilized and children at greater risk.

  • According to the 2022 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS), 45% of women aged 15–49 have experienced physical or sexual violence from a partner.

  • Children living in homes affected by GBV are more likely to experience abuse, neglect, and trauma, often resulting in long-term emotional and behavioral issues.