Kamwisani was founded by a group of young people within the Traditional Anglican Church in Zambia (TACZ) who held a different understanding of what the church is called to do.

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For a long time, the prevailing view, inside and outside the church, was that its mission stopped at spiritual matters: worship, prayer and pastoral care. Issues like climate justice, poverty, accountability and speaking up against injustice were often seen as belonging elsewhere, outside the church's preserve. These young people believed otherwise. To them, faith was not separate from the realities people face every day. Justice, both social and climate, was not a distraction from the church's calling but part of it.

 

That narrower view had real costs. Young people wrestling with these issues in their own lives and communities had nowhere within the church to bring them, no space where their struggles were treated as part of the church's concern. And the church itself lost out. A generation of young people with talent, energy, ideas and a desire to serve were left underused, unable to contribute fully to a church that did not always see their gifts as relevant to its mission.

 

So this group of founders set out to change that from within. They envisioned a space where young people could connect their faith with the challenges around them, develop the confidence and capacity to act, and contribute meaningfully to the life of their communities and the church.

 

They identified three ways to begin doing it:

Leadership and voice — building young people's capacity to understand the issues affecting their communities, speak up about them and lead solutions, rather than waiting to be spoken for.

Climate and poverty — taking practical action against two of the forces placing growing pressure on communities, recognising that climate change and poverty are deeply connected and cannot be addressed in isolation.

Systems — building structures, relationships and practices, particularly within the church, that can sustain youth participation, leadership and action beyond any single project or generation of founders.

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At the heart of Kamwisani is a simple conviction: young people should not have to leave the church to find a place to engage with the realities of their world. Their questions, struggles, ideas and hopes belong there too.

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Kamwisani therefore seeks to help make the church a place where young people can find Matthew 11:28, not only for what looks like "church" issues, but for everything they carry, everything they face and everything they are called to change.