Rotary Visits Zambia

ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END It is time to say goodbye to Zambia. Last evening we visited with two more of Lusaka’s Rotary Clubs. The host club, Lusaka East a new club only 3 years old with a very young membership. We were again received most warmly. There was great fellowship with exchanging of contact information. They have several projects that they are very passionate about and are welcoming to any help that we may facilitate. The hotel we are staying at has agreed to a late check out at no additional charge as our flight is a night flight. The day is spent taking care of any last minute details. Several of us manage a walk to the the “Zoo”. As it turns out the Zoo is the grounds of what appears to be an agricultural fair. The only animals we saw were a kennel of dogs. In closing it can’t be overstated how nice and kind all the people have been. There seems to be a gentle nature to Zambians. Now the hard work begins in trying to determine ho...

BACK TO LUSAKA Today we head to the airport in Livingston for our flight to Lusaka. On the way to the airport we made a stop at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Clinic in Livingston, primarily a clinic focused on women’s health. The Rotary Club of Mosi oa Tu in Livingston has been providing them with assistance. The Clinic’s needs are enormous, exceeding the locally available resources. The local club would like what ever help they can get. The clinic lacks much of the basic equipment essential, such as an ultra sound machine. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The flight to Lusaka was a quick up and down 1 hour flight on a small turbo prop plane. Minutes after checking into our hotel we were whisked off by a local Rotary club to visit several schools. One would like to modernize their computer and science labs and the other a school is dedicated to serving learning and physically disabled students. On our way back to the hotel our Rotarian driver, an architect wanted us to see his c...

MONDAY MORNING The work week starts with a number of visits to projects that the Livingston Rotary Clubs have been working on. These projects all could use some assistance. Like most problems here in Zambia these projects are large and worthwhile. Our first stop was to a school for deaf children. There are no government programs to address their special needs. This school was set up by a very passionate woman from the US but little attention was paid to creating a sustainable structure for the school. Their main and largest patron has pulled out leaving them in desperate financial shape. The kids at the school melted our hearts. Next stop was to several projects designed to help trafficked women. These women are now learning new skills to not only help build their self confidence, self worth and learn new skills that will help carry them to a brighter future. The first consists of a sewing program where the are producing some fabulous clothing items. The next is a farm in t...

We push on to Livingston for what we thought would be a relatively uneventful day with only a short ride ahead of us and several stops along the way. First stop was The Zimba Mission Eye Clinic a Rotary sponsored project. Weston the head administrator chatted with us about the origins and early days of the clinic. Before it’s establishment patients had to travel many miles to receive eye car, as a result most people did not get any care. Initially the clinic was staffed by groups of ophthalmologists visiting from abroad but now they have an onstaff ophthalmologist in addition to the regular visits by groups of physicians many of whom are Rotarians. The next two stops were Healthy Learners schools in Livingston that very recently entered the program. In fact the last was only weeks into the program. The common thread in all the schools we visited was the dedication of the staff for the advancement and well being of their students. Each of these schools feel there already have been...

We had meetings with two Rotary clubs from the Lusaka area that gave us an opportunity to not only learn about the projects they have decided to pursue but also get to know their members on a personal level. We as Rotarian are always looking for meaningful projects that are both impactful and reasonably attainable and sustainable. One such project involves helping equip a neonatal care unit in a large Lusaka hospital. It appears to be a well thought out project. The other involves construction to improve a local school. Between meetings we had the opportunity to meet with Martha Lungu the Executive Director of Malaria-Free Zambia. This project was recently showcased in an issue of Rotary Magazine. The project was the first recipient of Rotary’s project of scale grant. The work she is doing will save many lives and reduce a great deal of human suffering. Our evening meeting was with a high energy club from Lusaka. It followed much the same theme as our earlier meeting that day. T...