Project Zambia - Kabweza

Kabweza

Old Kabweza is a small village about 40km outside of Lusaka, in the hills. It is part of a larger community, however, covering a large area of countryside, which contains over 20 villages. This area is largely ignored by the Zambian government, so the people there have decided that they must take control of their own destiny, so have formed a committee to oversee service provision and development for all of the villages - similar in many ways to India's hugely successful 'Village Republics'. Read on to find out about Project Zambia's involvement with the people of Kabweza and the surrounding area.

St. Mary's School

When Dr. Aidan Donaldson and his colleagues from St. Mary's CBGS in Belfast, were first introduced to the Kabweza community, the first thing that struck them was the tiny and dilapidated school, which was without desks, chairs, blackboards and had a thatched roof that leaked badly in the rainy season.

Zambia, at that time based solely in CBGS Glen Road, raised money to build a new school in Old Kabweza village, transforming the lives of hundreds of children who could not previously gain a proper education. On the official opening of the school, the headmaster announced that its name would be St. Mary's, in honour of St. Mary's CBGS.

Teacher's Houses

Project Zambia, over the last three years, has funded the building of three teachers houses in Kabweza. The reason for this was that the teachers has to travel very long distances in the morning and the evening to get to and from school and sometimes decided that it was just easier to sleep on the floor of the school, which was having an adverse affect on their teaching ability.

Now that there is a new school along with teachers houses, the community feel that they are developing and that they have a real sense of pride, worth and importance. The teachers themselves also feel that they are a part of the community, even though they are not originally from that area. They are proud of their houses and have begun to maintain gardens to grow their own vegetables. When PZ volunteers come to visit, they enjoy showing their teaching and education certificates that they have up on their walls.

Clean Water Pumps

The people of this area a few years ago, had to walk an average of 3 hours to and 3 hours back to get clean water from a pump that was located centrally in relation to most of the villages in the area. This job often fell on young girls, who are denied an education because they spend all day going to fetch water. Project Zambia has therefore funded the installation of a new clean water pump beside the village of Namatuba, about 4km away from Kabweza.

We also plan to install more pumps throughout the area, to lessen the time it takes the fetch clean water. This will have massive impacts on community health and a growth of young people entering education.

Maize Grinding Mill - (Chigayo)

A global food aid project distributes bags of maize each week to hundreds of villagers from a central collection point in the greater area. This had to be collected by one person from each family, brought back to village and grinded manually, which took hours carry and hours to grind even a very small amount. So Project Zambia, at the request of the area's development committee have funded the building of a maize grinding mill (Chigayo in Nyanja). Now, when they maize bags are collected, they are taken to the mill, which is a machine that runs on diesel, housed in a small building, staffed by one person, to be ground in a very short space of time, for a very small and affordable fee. The money is used to pay the man running the machine and to buy diesel to keep it going. The main effect is that the person whose job it is to collect the maize, can bring it back already ground and is free participate in other activities. If it is a young person - go to school or an adult can work their land or participate in the local democracy and meetings of the community.

Development Plans

A medical clinic for the area was being built by another organisation, but work has stooped due to a lack of funding. Project Zambia is currently in the process of securing major funding to complete this project and ensure its sustainability. We also have plans to install more water pumps for each village and to build another mill to serve the area of the community who still have to travel for hours to collect and grind their maize.