INTERNATIONAL
Zambia Housing Project – Galway link The Zambia Housing Project was founded in 2007 when Fr Padraic Kelly talked about it with local people from Cong, Clonbur and Cornamona in Co. Galway where he hails from. It is a long term project, a registered charity and involves Irish volunteers working alongside Zambian people to build homes for homeless families and street children in the town of Kitwee. Houses cost approx. €6,000 each to build and, to date, 19 houses have been completed, a further 7 are under construction and 22 more sites have been set aside. So far over €135,000 has been raised by the project’s supporters in Ireland. All volunteers pay their own way and all funds collected go direct to the project, and therefore to vulnerable families. W: www.zambiahousingproject.com E: zambiahousingproject@eircom. net T: 087-2210152 & 087-6500176.
Empowerment in a place of extreme poverty
John Moran reports from Zambia I spent three weeks in Zambia in April with four other volunteers to work with the Zambia Housing Project. It was my first visit to Africa. Before I left I did a little reading on Africa and the view I got was of a Continent manipulated and misruled, leading to heavy human suffering. I formed the opinion that Western countries exploited the peoples of Africa during the colonial period, and dictators abused them since independence. As I was to discover in Zambia this analysis was as crude as the underlying assumption that all African nations are doomed to victim status. On arrival in Lusaka, we set off in a mini-bus on a six-hour journey to Northern Zambia where the Project is based. The first thing you notice is the amount of street stalls everywhere and we were struck by how friendly the people were, A stall seller showed us the Zambian hand-shake and the Bimba greeting ‘Muli shani?’ (meaning ‘How are you?’). Afterwards we were glad we had paid attention as we were stopped regularly by the police during our stay. The police have many unique on-the-spot fines (payable immediately to them) including not having the correct tyre pressure. However, the hand-shake and the ‘Muli shani?’ worked for us most of the time.
Snakes, Crocs And Dark Roads
Our Project leader, Lazarath, had three pieces of
advice for us: don’t walk in long grass (snakes), don’t go near the lake out the back of our accommodation (crocodiles), and as most people walk, don’t drive after dark. Along with a local committee, Fr Padraic Kelly, over-sees the project in Zambia. The project provides housing to vulnerable families and when a family receives a house, they in turn take in a street child, who they then cloth, feed and try to access education for them. All families who get a house or have got a house must work on the site and all work is done manually. No diggers here. The project is assisted by an Irish volunteer who generally works for a year on the project. As a result of Irish volunteer work, 14 youths graduated last year in soil preparation, machine operation and block-making.
Smart People
Over three weeks we got to know the people very well, an intelligent smart people who are living with the scourge of Aids and hunger. Many of the workers on site were HIV positive and told us stories of losing family members. Many children have lost both parents to Aids and Zambia has over 630,000 children living on streets as a result. All workers on site are provided with a dinner, which means that these families are getting at least one meal a day. The meal consists of sweet potatoes and a maize dish known as chama. I tried it one day; the sweet potatoes were beautiful but the chama was like cold porridge.
“Hunger is a wonderful sauce, Big John!” When I said this, one of the locals, Moses, had a quick reply for me – “Hunger is a wonderful sauce, Big John.” AIDS is the biggest cause of death, followed closely by malaria and diarrhoea, to which children are more prone. I witnessed extreme poverty and appalling living conditions. Nonetheless, they are a proud people and dressed as we would say in their “Sunday best” for our visit. Even with the appalling conditions, all you could hear around you was constant singing, and the smiling children pointing at us and shouting “msonga”.
Dignity Pays The Rent
On a personal level it was a great honour and a privilege to work with these people. Despite what is in our eyes extreme poverty, people refuse to accept anything for nothing. Although they have little or no income, all persons who have received a house, have
“The word empowerment was used many times at my meetings with Council Officials.”
The human body burns 60 calories an hour while asleep
30.