Vegetable stand in a squatter community We took a walk this morning through Garden settlement which is a squatter camp near the center of Lusaka. When Zambia, formerly known as Northern Rhodesia, gained its independence from Great Britain, many colonial landowners left the country. Thinking there would be jobs in the cities, many Zambians moved to Lusaka and began squatting on land owned by the former colonists. And t oday these squatter camps are home to millions of Zambians. With very few paved roads, no sanitation services, no trash collection, and no zoning laws, these areas are crowded and dirty but bustling with life. People eke out livings by opening small shops, reselling food items, offering services such as "tyre repairs," small grocery stores, clothing shops, etc. Right next to the local clinic/hospital, we saw the local funeral shop. We stopped in at a pharmacy that was no bigger than 20 ft by 20 ft where the pharmacist had various antibiotics and antimalaria
Day 4: Sekelela is a community school about 5 miles outside Lusaka (but with traffic congestion and very poor roads) it took us an hour to get there. The school is has about 350 students, 7 teachers and 4 classrooms; the kids are taught in 3 shifts. The teachers are all volunteers - no salaries - and several of them have to walk 4 miles to get to school every day. The chief officer of the school talked to us about the school, some of the innovative programs they have developed, and some of the plans for the future of the school: a well that doesn't go dry for 4 months of the year, electric power so they can introduce technology skills to students, a library and a collection of books for the kids, and 6 new classrooms to alleviate crowding and allow expansion. We met 8 parents of children who attend the school, and their first wish was that the teachers could be paid! We talked with students who are engaged in learning and vibrant. Several of our group members did a teaching session in the afternoon for 60 girls over age 9 about reproductive health and menstruation and provided the girls with washable products that can be reused as part of an international program called "Days for Girls." See the website www.daysforgirls.org. Our group brought with us for this and another school, 200 "Days for Girls" kits made by volunteers in Lexington and Newton for this trip.
ReplyDeleteWhile part of our group was teaching that session, Dick Bail and visited Living Hope, a community school serves 3 squatter neighborhoods in the Roma neighborhood of Lusaka. There are some 400 students who attend the school during the day and about 15 children who have been orphaned or abandoned or brought here by the state and now live full time at the school. The state provides no support for the school, so the school survives on the generosity of donors and volunteers. Zambia has over a million single or double orphans, having lost one or both parents to HIV. The epidemic was rampant 10 years ago but has slowed, because of meds, prevention measures, and education, but one of the tragedies of that epidemic is a generation of orphans. More details after the next visit we have planned there.
Busy day, beautiful weather, and a mixture of sobering realities of poverty, the wonderful spirit of children everywhere, and stories of people who work so hard every day to make good ideas and progress to places where both are sorely needed.