by Susan Mwape
Zambia

According to a Zimbabwean Proverb, even the smallest bird can sing from the tallest tree.

Zambian Irene Banda, a 25 year old social activist, scooped up the Sheila McKechnie 2007 International Campaigner Award. Irene first got involved in campaign work in 2002, when her organization conducted research on how government funds to all constituencies in the country were being used. This fund is called the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and, as the name suggests, it is supposed to be used for developing the local constituencies’ social setup. From their research in selected communities of Zambia, it was found out that some of the local citizens were not even aware that such a fund existed, must less what it was actually used for. After the research was performed, Irene’s role was to go round talking to people in focus group discussions, in an effort to find out if people had access to these funds, if they knew the funds existed and how the funds should be used to develop their communities. This took a lot of work on the ground and gave Irene her first experience in campaigning for social justice.

In 2003, Irene joined the Big Noise campaign spearheaded by Oxfam International, working alongside 300 other volunteers to collect over a million signatures. It was during this campaign that she was able to meet key political and traditional leaders in selected areas of the country that she felt were influential to further spread the message of the trade justice campaign.

by Susan Mwape
Zambia

Since last month, the Lusaka City Council (LCC) has been demolishing illegal settlements in the City of Lusaka. The City Council has earmarked even more area to be razed despite the pleas by the residents to formalize these areas.

The ongoing demolition has left a good number of people in the city homeless, as most of the people whose homes have been destroyed say they were not given notice. Youths have cried foul over this exercise by the City Council. They have argued that it is the council’s poor planning that has caused the mushrooming of illegal settlements.

“The best the council can do is to legalise these settlements instead of demolishing and leaving people homeless,” said Theresa from the Bauleni Compound in Lusaka.

According to Charles of the Youth Knowledge Network, the council should start by demolishing the bars that have risen in a number of townships within Lusaka. He said it has become normal for bar owners to open their bars as early as 5 am and go until way after midnight.

“How come the council is failing to demolish these bars that are a hazard to the youth and school going children?” Charles asked.

by Susan Mwape
Zambia

Where there is water there is life. Forty-three years after independence, Zambia still has persistent water issues. If anything, the introduction of a multi-party system has only accelerated the water problems that have been going unnoticed. One would expect that a country as old as Zambia would be more stable in terms of its water systems.

As we say, “life begins at forty.” Maybe life for us as a country has only begun.

New Kanyama Township is about an 8-minute drive from town, a 15 -minute walk from Lusaka’s city center. By now, this would ideally have been a habitable area, especially since this compound was founded long before the independence of Zambia and is one of the largest residential compounds in the city.

A sad development occurred here about 2 weeks ago when the Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company (LWSC) closed down all communal water taps to facilitate the opening of new taps that were placed in different locations. The new taps were designed to regulate the water systems as they came equipped with meters.

by Susan Mwape
Zambia

Many Zambians active in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector have come to appreciate the use of open source software; this is software that can be used in Windows and can be acquired freely or at a very minimal cost.