A Letter, A New Beginning: How the Kaseko Family Found Healing
Agatha Mali, Communications Officer, Zambia
Before World Vision introduced the Celebrating Families intervention in Mwamba Area Development Programme, life in the Kaseko household looked different from what neighbours see today.
Celebrating Families is a faith-based World Vision model built around workshops that help parents and caregivers form loving, positive relationships with their children. Facilitators, often church and community leaders, guide families through sessions centred on love, forgiveness, and reconciliation, giving parents practical tools to replace harsh discipline with open communication. World Vision has rolled the model out across hundreds of Area Development Programmes worldwide, with the goal of giving children a safe, nurturing home where they grow spiritually, socially, and emotionally.
Patrick and Harriet Kaseko once had little time for their children. When the children tried to open up and share their struggles, their parents brushed them aside.
Over time, the silence took a toll. The children grew up with no one to talk to at home, and many felt more at ease away from the house than within its walls.
Makumba Kaseko, 24, remembers the difficulty of confiding in her mother during hard times, since her mother rarely made time for her. As a result, Makumba turned to her closest friend instead.
"There were times I ended up getting wrong advice from my friend, and when my mother found out what was happening, she would scold or beat me. Life was not easy, and this happened to my brothers too. We all lived in fear of our own parents," Makumba says.
Everything changed after her parents attended the Celebrating Families workshop.
"My brothers and I saw a big change in our parents. The first thing they did was sit us down and apologise for the wrongs they had done against us. We were shocked - we had never experienced anything like this before," Makumba explains. "After this, they wrote us a letter of apology. At the time, we did not know what to do."
The children met outside the house and agreed to accept their parents' apology. The day marked the start of a new family.
Makumba has kept her parents' letters and plans to look back on them when she becomes a parent herself.
Patrick Kaseko says the training changed how he sees his family. "My children are a gift from God, and I now understand how much they matter in my life," he says.
"I used to get angry quickly and use harsh words whenever my children made simple mistakes. After attending the Celebrating Families workshop, I learned to sit them down and speak to them properly," he adds. "Now I let them come to me freely with their struggles, so I am able to guide them toward the right decisions."
Kaseko credits World Vision for restoring peace to his home. "Without this program, my family would not be this happy today," he says.