ACE Zambia, formerly known as Christian Alliance for Children in Zambia (CACZ) is a Christian faith-based and non-governmental organisation founded in 1998. The organisation was formed under the vision of the Alliance for Children Everywhere (ACE) US, that sought to intervene on behalf of orphans and vulnerable children in crisis whilst providing family preservation and empowerment services. The vision was brought to church leaders in Zambia by two Americans; Virginia Woods and Sandra Levinson in 1997. On their initial trip to Zambia, they engaged with several church leaders to form the initial alliance. Since its inception, ACE US has functioned as the resource mobilizing partner.
Between 2001 and 2003, ACE Zambia established three residential care facilities for children. The first, the House of Martha, provided care for children aged six to fourteen years. The second, the House of Moses, was created to care for infants and young children up to the age of two. The third, the Bill and Bette Bryant Home, admitted children between two and five years of age. Until 2010, admission practices were unregulated, and children entered the facilities through referrals from government, local churches, community members, or ACE’s direct contact with families. In 2010, the introduction of the Minimum Standards of Care Policy instituted a gatekeeping mechanism requiring that all admissions occur only through mandated authorities.
In 2013, the House of Martha was closed, resulting in children being transferred to other childcare facilities by the Department of Social Welfare (DSW). ACE’s experience with the children at House of Martha highlighted some of the detriments of residential care. Despite ACE’s intention to provide short-term residential care whilst permanent family placements were arranged, children often remained in the facilities for long periods of time. Older children started to communicate dissatisfaction with being in residential care, leading to challenging behaviours that caregiving staff were inadequately equipped to manage. This experience was a pivotal part in catalysing the organisation’s transition which commenced in 2014 and was fully completed in 2025.
Between 2014 and 2024, ACE focused their efforts on developing the family and community services required to reduce reliance on their residential care services. They partnered closely with Bethany Christian Services Global, adopting Bethany’s model of establishing preventative services, emergency and temporary family-based alternatives and domestic adoption, in collaboration with government, local churches and communities. This created the conditions necessary to replace residential care as the default emergency option within the care system. During this phase, they developed economic empowerment programs to address poverty as an underlying cause of separation, re-designed existing child nutrition programs to address the wider support needs of families and developed a foster to adopt program, supporting the government at the policy level and with awareness raising, recruitment, and training of prospective adoptive parents. Additionally, they professionalised and improved their reintegration case management system and developed more rigorous and standardised procedures for family tracing, assessment and monitoring.
In 2023, once the emergency foster program was operational, ACE ceased admitting children into their transit homes, and began the last phase of the transition; closing their two residential care services. In November 2024 the House of Moses was closed, with the last five children temporarily transferred to Bill and Bette Byrant home for a short period of time whilst their adoptions were finalised. In February 2025, once adoptions were completed for all remaining children, Bill and Bette Bryant Home was also closed, marking the successful completion of ACE’s transition away from residential care.
In total, throughout this period, ACE provided temporary residential care to 1356 children. Of those, 725 children were reintegrated back with their families (parents or extended family), 305 were placed in foster-to-adopt families and 326 children were referred to other residential care services. Post transition, and with the same budget, ACE has been able to expand their reach and support 250% more vulnerable children and families through services that ensure children receive appropriate care and protection in family settings, consistent with their rights, needs and evidence of effective practice.
