Project Zambia
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Project Zambia was initiated by St Marys CBGS Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 2002.
It was a response by a school in Belfast to the cry of the poverty-stricken people of the compounds of Lusaka, Zambia. Since then the project has grown, spreading to communities throughout Belfast.
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[edit] Goals
Working in partnership with the people in Zambia the Project seeks to help, support and empower the host communities to develop solutions to their problems and difficulties.
The Project also seeks to raise awareness of the conditions and causes that offend the human dignity of so many people throughout the world and to forge close bonds of solidarity between communities in Ireland and communities in Zambia.
Intended to link and unite people in Ireland and Zambia, it is hoped that it will help to transform lives and communities in both the rich western world and sub-Saharan Africa.
[edit] Misisi Compound
Misisi compound, the primary location for major Project Zambia efforts, is a shanty town home to around 80,000 people, and is one of the most deprived areas in sub-Saharan Africa. HIV is common among adults and children, many of whom have lost their parents to the disease. Average average life expectancy is just 32. The lack of clean water has led to regular cholera outbreaks, long eradicated in the western world but still a killer in underdeveloped countries.
Food is scarce, although Project Zambia has funded programmes to help grow maize and mill it to make bread. A charitable food aid programme is scheduled to end in autumn 2005, so the "Race against Time" is on, to build an operational bakery so that people can bake their own bread and feed their families.
[edit] Project Zambia's work
The St. Lawrence’s Centre in Misisi is entirely transformed with the following achieved so far:
- four new classrooms in the school
- major extension completed in the special needs centre
- eight teachers salaries paid
- teachers’ accommodation block and community hall well under construction
- bore hole and irrigation system put in place leading to the tripling of maze production and a mill built helping with the processing of the maize
- new agricultural programme started
- bakery and chicken run under construction
- three dormitories completed at the Home of Hope
In Kabwata Orphanage the following has been funded:
- blankets for the children for the cold season
- new plumbing system installed in the orphanage
In Old Kabweza Village (45 km east of Lusaka) they have funded the building of a new four-classroom school.
