TRIP TO ZAMBIA (1st Oct - 13th Oct 2005)

Our CONTESA party to Zambia comprised of Dr. Margaret McDermott, Trustee of CONTESA, Lisa McDermott, Sue Oxton, Phil Cuddington, friends of CONTESA and me. Despite a delay of nearly 2 hours at Heathrow Airport on 30th September we had a good flight and arrived in Zambia on Saturday 1st October at about 7.27am, just an hour later than the scheduled time.

We were met at Lusaka Airport by my brother, Dauti and his wife Matilda (Matt), my sister Rahabe, my nephew Ezekiel and Ndambo the driver for the duration of our visit.
The others did not expect such a beautiful morning, we were greeted with bright sunshine and a gentle and cool breeze something Zambians take for granted at this time of the year. Zambia in the Sun was truly at its best for the start of our visit.

We arrived at our destination, Dauti’s and Matt’s new home which they had occupied since August 2005. The house was buzzing with Dauti’s own children, grandchildren and extended family. It is big house and there was a lot of room which could accommodate all of us. We were shown to our bedrooms, where we deposited our baggage and came out to explore our surroundings and bask ourselves in the welcoming sunshine, which became very hot as the day progressed. As the house is located on farm land, Dauti and Matt’s workers were busy planting grass and tending to flowers and to the vegetable beds where they were growing tomatoes, onions, cabbage, potatoes, beans, maize etc.

We spent the day exploring our surroundings. The rest of the guests were trying to familiarise themselves with the way Zambians live. In the meantime an endless flow of my relatives came and went.

Unfortunately our visit had coincided with one of the worst fuel shortages in the country for many years. So we had to send our driver, Ndambo, to go and look for diesel to fill the small mini bus we had hired as it was empty. Dauti had warned me upon our arrival at the airport that the fuel shortage was crippling the whole country and that he was worried about our travel plans. Apart from change of plans the crisis would also increase our costs as the prices of fuel which could sometimes be found on the black market had almost doubled and as it happened this was the only source. A litre of diesel which cost K5,000 (64p) under normal circumstances was now costing K10,000 ( £1.28) a litre on the black market. Later that evening, we all sat down together to discuss possible changes to our programme. We decided that we could not possibly make two trips to the Family Church Mission in Kabwe where CONTESA’S initial projects were under way. While we were discussing our problems the driver rang Dauti to say that he had secured some diesel and the bus had half a tank full of diesel and therefore we could visit the Church Family Mission the following morning where we wanted to arrive in time to attend the Church Service for the enrolment and dedication of the Girls Brigade at 9.30am, as well as visit the Mission’s facilities. We left our base in Lusaka at 7am Sunday and arrived at our destination some 100 miles north of Lusaka at about 9am. We all agreed that due to the shortage of fuel we would spend the night in Kabwe so that we could spend more time with the elders of the church to discuss the programme and the progress of the projects currently being carried out by them i.e. feeding programme, building of the ablution block (toilets and showers) and the kitchen and the dining block.

When we arrived at our destination at 9am, we were met by senior members of the church at the church entrance. The Girls Brigade, some 100+ strong had formed three lines outside the church and looked very colourful and eager in their blue uniform and caps as they stood to attention. They all greeted us as we arrived in the church grounds. There was a throng of members of the congregation who were mingling within the grounds of their new church even though it was not fully completed. After the initial greetings we were shown into Bishop Nkole’s office where the Bishop and the Mayor of Kabwe, Michael Banda and his wife the Mayoress joined us. After the introductions we enjoyed some refreshments of cold drinks. We were all then asked to go outside to greet and inspect members of the Girls’ Brigade who were ready to start the proceedings of the Sunday Service. The members of the congregation had meanwhile sat down in the church building and the choir were in full voice.

The service lasted almost 2 hours and was one of the most exhilarating and breath taking experiences. We were treated to a feast of songs in English, Bemba and Chinyanja. The dedication of the Girls Brigade included dancing and rejoicing in a manner that is difficult to describe. It was all awesomely inspiring and enlightening. One had to be there to fully appreciate the wonderful experience of this special day for the Church. It was full of activity of song and prayer to dedicate the enrolment of about 100+ members of the Girl’s Brigade aged between 3 to 25 years old. The girls danced and sang as they moved towards the altar to receive their certificates and blessing from the Bishop.

After the dedication the Mayor delivered his speech in which he gave an insight into the sort of work and caring this young church was providing to the community. He informed the congregation that his office was prepared to allocate more land to the Mission in order to fulfil their programmes to care and reach the community of Kabwe.

The service concluded with a simple and hard hitting sermon entitled “In Between”. Bishop Nkole emphasised the need for his congregation to look out for those people and things in between that they often do not look for in their lives. They had to open their eyes and ears so that they do not miss the things and people in between who need caring and nurturing. He called all Christians to be ready to be vigilant and embrace and deal with all that comes in between our own needs.
The Bishop offered a prayer of thanks giving for the visitors before concluding the Service.We were presented with gifts. A small statue of dolphins swimming in the sea was given to each of the visiting party to symbolise friendship and a plastic stem of sunflower in bloom symbolising light.

After the Service we mingled for a while with the congregation. We strolled around the church grounds and saw the projects in progress. We also saw a queue of orphans and widows waiting for their lunches which were being prepared in the open building. The visitors and the Mayor helped in distributing the food to the children when it was ready. It was an emotional time for all of us especially for Lisa and Phil. We all felt inadequate and frustrated that the food we take for granted in our own homes was a rarity and a big treat for these children. The children had been given an extra treat on this day as they had a meal of chicken, vegetables and nsima (thick porridge) and for which they eagerly but patiently awaited and then gratefully appreciated. It was quite un-nerving but inspiring to witness this and take part in feeding the children. Normally the 190+children and the widows are provided with a meal of beans and nsima only. The Bishop explained that currently the children are getting 3 meals a week and that they are striving to provide a meal a day when more funds are available. He added that the World Food Programme had already visited them for assessment and the Mission was awaiting their reply. CONTESA has been supporting this programme by donating £300 a month since July 2005. We all hope that the World Food Programme will be able come back soon despite the rumours we had heard that the programme was short of grain and that several projects were on hold. We were not able to substantiate this rumour so we are not sure whether this was the reason the Mission was still waiting to hear from them.

After feeding the children we drove to the Bishop’s home for lunch prepared by the women members of the Family Mission. The Mayor and the Mayoress joined us and we learnt more about the activities going on in Kabwe to alleviate suffering and poverty.

After lunch we were taken to a guest house where we left our baggage and then went back to the Church grounds to familiarise ourselves with the projects and listen to what was ongoing and what was planned. We also took time to watch members of the congregation working on the projects. The congregation provide all the labour and in many cases, especially in the building of their church, members of the congregation also contributed all the funds to build it. They divided themselves into several committees and each committee works hard to find funds to build the church and to pay for utilities and the Bishop’s accommodation.

We then sat down with the Bishop and the elders and senior women representatives in the church building. We were briefed on the progress of the projects and we were advised that ideally it was desirable that the projects should be completed before the rainy season starts. We had seen earlier that already quite a good number of building blocks for the Kitchen and Dining Room Block had already been made. The Bishop explained his future plans, such as the building of flats for rent, building a laundry for income from the community and members of the church and rearing of chickens for both food and for sale. He said the income would help to generate funds, such as education.

Margaret and I gave our thanks for their hospitality. We gave short speeches in which we both emphasised that we wanted to work with them and that we were there to listen and learn so we could find out areas where they needed our support and that we were ready to offer advice. Margaret presented the items we had taken with us, a sewing machine, wool, knitting needles, pencils, crayons and writing pads. The Bishop asked one his female leaders to thank us. She said that they were extremely grateful especially the gift of the sewing machine which the women would utilise for teaching as well as for making clothes to sell and to generate funds for women’s and children’s projects within the church. The women sang a song of thanks and danced to show gratitude for the gifts we had just presented them. Our party was greatly touched by the hospitality offered to us that day. The Bishop gave his sincere thanks and asked one of the elders to conclude the meeting with a prayer.

We left the Mission for the guest house late in the afternoon. Meanwhile Nthambo was driving around searching for diesel to take us back to Lusaka. There were endless queues of cars waiting for fuel at most garages all with motorists looking desperate as there was nothing forthcoming to fill the tanks of their cars. The shortages were affecting the whole country. Thankfully Nthambo managed to get enough fuel to take us back to Lusaka but we were all suspicious that a lot of the fuel that was being sold on the black market was mixed with other oils to increase volume and make more money. The result of such acts was that despite filling the car with a tank of fuel it often did not take you very far before the gauge started showing that the tank was empty again. We, like the rest of Zambia, were all victims of a government that is so inefficient and inept. We understood that there was no need for there to be a shortage of fuels in Zambia, and that it was due to a change of suppliers by the Government.

The following morning on Monday 3rd of October we left the Guest House at about 7am for another session with the Bishop and his elders and members of the various committees. We wanted this meeting to be early and short so that we could drive back to Lusaka before it got too hot. October is the hottest month in Zambia and our bus’s air conditioner did not work and even if it worked we could not have used it as we did not want to use up the little fuel we had managed to buy.

When we arrived at the church we found all the members sat in the church building. After an introduction by the Bishop the financial and the coordinating Committees provided us with figures for work still outstanding on the projects. The figures were all read out to us and for reference please see attached Appendix I and II.

We were further informed that one other future project the Mission intends to take on and will need support at a later date is:
Skills Block for computing, carpentry, needlework and sewing and tailoring

The mission is enrolling in January 2006, 35 orphaned and disadvantaged children between the ages of 5 and 7 and that they will need desks, chairs, books and salary for 3 teachers.
We were told that the daily feeding programme will need around £1,200 per month. We felt that this cost was rather high and that with careful budgeting and planning the cost could be much lower. Obviously the sum given by CONTESA does not support the whole programme.

After our discussions we left for Lusaka at about 10am. On our way back we discussed these figures and thought that we needed further clarification in some areas as the prices seemed to be high. We felt that if some of the products were bought in bulk the prices would be more competitive. We discussed further with Dauti later in the evening about these figures and asked him to look into them for us. Later that evening Matilda informed us that the venue for our next meeting had changed due to shortage of fuel. The ladies of the Chainda Centre which was our next project to visit had drawn up a programme to meet at the Cathedral for Bible Study at 9.30am and that we would visit the Centre after our lunch. However due to the fuel shortage it had been decided that the Bible study and lunch would be held at a house quite near our base, as Dauti’s house borders the Chainda Shanty Compound where the project is being run.

On our third day,Tuesday 4th October we were driven to the house about a mile away for the Bible study but due to the fuel shortage the Bible study started very late and we skipped through it as we had to go to the Centre in Chainda Compound to see the children and how they are fed and to look at other projects for which they need support.

We left the house to visit the Centre at about noon. We were first taken to see their new home for the Centre as their current accommodation is rented. The kitchen was near completion. The leader of the group Mrs Dorothy Kayumba told us that they will move into the new building next month and despite the absence of a dining room the children will use the kitchen for both eating and for classes. They urgently need the ablution block to be constructed and financial support was urgently needed to start this project. We were driven to the current centre where we found the children and the grand- parents, who are also included in the feeding programme, waiting for us. Firstly the grand- parents sang us a welcome song in Chinyanja.

Then the children sang and danced for us. Again it was an extremely emotional situation as the songs the children sang described their plight and the sad circumstances they have found themselves in. The lyrics of one of the songs were that they were so fortunate that they were still alive. There were lots of tears from our party. After these formalities the children lined up and one by one they washed their hands and walked into the small room where they sat down patiently until the prayers were said thanking God for their food and parents! What parents we wondered. Their meal consisted of vegetables, soya meat and nsima. Whilst we were chatting we saw children lurking within the boundaries of the centre. These had not been vetted to join the feeding programme and they stood waiting to see whether they would be included and be able to take part. Margaret had brought some sweets and so we distributed them to these children hoping that the sugar in the sweets will at least give them some little energy. It was so sad to see this situation for the children. We left reluctantly and with heavy hearts as we had to go to our hostess’s home for lunch.

During lunch we were given plans for the proposed dining hall for the Centre and a breakdown of costs. The total cost for the building is around K33,680,900 ( £4,374).
The Chainda Centre does receive gifts from containers sent by Operation Sunshine, a charity based in Tavistock in Devon. Operation Sunshine has its Head Office in Folkestone. The Chainda Centre usually sends a request of their needs to Operation Sunshine, the goods are then placed in a 40ft container together with requests from other charities and are distributed accordingly to Chainda Centre.

We enjoyed a good lunch and discussed CONTESA’S Mission with Chainda ladies, and we advised them that the work they were doing fell within the framework of CONTESA’S vision and mission. The party felt that this was a good cause for CONTESA to support especially some of the planned projects. We advised them that a report and a recommendation would be made to the Trustees in this regard.

We left our new friends and returned to our base at Dauti’s home. The party was impressed by the way the visit had gone and despite the shortage of fuel we were all thankful that we had been able to fulfil our objectives. We all agreed that what we had witnessed made us even more determined in our quest to see that as many projects as possible which are in keeping with CONTESA’S objectives are supported.

Margaret and Lisa returned to the UK on 8th October after a short visit to the Victoria Falls in Livingstone. Sue, Phil and Esnat returned on the 13th October and they also spent a few nights in Livingstone with Dauti and Matt.

During our visit to the Family Church Mission in Kabwe the Bishop and his elders also outlined other projects the mission is involved in as follows:
Primary Care
The Mission has trained 25 volunteers and divided them into 6 groups and each group looks after 6 clients mostly suffering from optimistic diseases such as TB, chronic diarrhoea and fever, pneumonia etc. The volunteers go into the community to identify clients who need counselling and support and they currently have a total of 40 clients.
These dedicated volunteers work under very difficult conditions. They lack basic requirements such as:
Protective clothing such as uniforms, and boots
Detergents and food
The mission has struggled to provide food to support the clients and their families. They currently provide the following to feed a family for 3 months:
1 kg sugar
1 bag of mealie meal
1 bottle cooking oil
Beans and Soya beans
It costs the Mission K6,000,000 (£770) to provide this food to the 40 clients and their families every three months. The volunteers have to travel long distances and often find this very difficult as transport is expensive, the provision of bicycles would greatly assist in this travelling and minimising expenses.
The Bishop also emphasised that there is an alarming increase in the number of street kids and added that there is still an alarming increase in HIV cases.

Committees

The Family Church Mission has formed several committees in its commitment to reach out to the community such as:
Women Fellowship committee
The women visit hospitals and prisons to encourage and help and pray and share the gospel. However due to a lack of funds they are not meeting their target to visit as often as they would like.
They also carry our door to door visits especially to the aged and widows.
Committee for Poultry
The committee is trying to raise K6,000,000 (£770) to buy 100 chickens to start a small self financing business.
The party noticed that there was some very optimistic enthusiasm by both the members and the Bishop of the Mission to serve the community especially those people in greatest need, such as the orphans, widows and those affected by the HIV virus.

I have uploaded thefinancial estimates of some of the building projects so that people can see how easy it really is to help them.. <HERE>

Report written by: Esnat Avon
19th October 2005