Fishing For Life: A Most Unusual Story in Zambia

Article Date: April 2007

In the summer of 2004, I was enjoying a cold beer at Lefty's Bar and Grill, a classic locals hangout in Ketchum, Idaho, with a couple of fellow fly-fishing guides from Silver Creek Outfitters. I had recently returned from guiding a fishing trip in Africa, where I divide my time during the winter months between working as an instructor at a small college in Zambia, and as boat butler for fly-fishing safaris in sub-Saharan countries. We were discussing fly patterns for tigerfish on the lower Zambezi River, as well as my work with a group of orphans in a profoundly impoverished area near the Congolese border in Zambia, called Chipulukusu or worthless.

One of my students was doing his best to feed and educate 300 abandoned kids who were crammed into a building only slightly larger than a two-car garage for daily classes with only one teacher among them. It didn't take long before I began to help with the financial responsibilities. It came as quite a shock for my guiding buddies to learn that what we earn for a full day of trout guiding can pay for the food and schooling for all 300 children for a month.

If so little can go so far, why not see what we can do if a number of guides and employees give a day's wages toward the effort? my friends asked. And on that day Fishing for Life was born - a group made up mostly of anglers, raising money to care for lost kids in Africa.

What started out in a fly shop soon became a community effort. Churches, Rotary clubs, the local high school and many big-hearted folks assured that Fishing for Life raised enough money to build a large school, provide healthy food, hire and train five tea........(continued)

CONTACT DETAILS FOR COMPANIES/INDIVIDUALS MENTIONED IN ARTICLE (if any)

Linene Lodge. E-mail: info@linene.co.za, Web: www.linene-island.com

The Fishing For Life. Web: www.fishingforlife.info