Friday part 2

Friday afternoon we went firstly to Zambia Compound still in Kafue, and then onto Southern Povince around 45km further south. Zambia Compound is a shanti town on the flood plain of the Kafue River built between the river and the railway track.

The compound must house I suspect many thousnds although trying to get an accurate estimate is very difficult. It is a community and operates on a self sufficent basis in the main. There is a large open market with in the order of 1000 “stalls” selling everything you can think of and reusing every type of container possible to hold the produce; old paint tins, flower pots, old wine/drink bottles. There are sections of the market selling cooking oil, a section for beans, one for dried fish, one for vegtables and so on. The fish is caught from the river. Apparently the local authority have legitimised the the market but you woulnt know it. No basic facilities, pigs roaming free (and very unfriendly), piles of rotting rubbish, including animal horns and everything else you can think of. The council since recognising it have started charging  for each stall (and this includes just having a few things spread on the ground) at Kw1000 per day. Thus they can get up to Kw1million a day by my reckoning. No receipts are given  and so wide open to abuse. And what do they get for their money – nothing. There are no signs of the money being collected being used to improve whats there at all..

The houses are all unplanned with some better than others. The worst ones were appalling – I hope the photos are clear enough. Most are made with mud bricks fired in home made kilns – dont look safe at all. The kids got very excited to see us though and all ask “how are you” and their standard response when I ask them the same question is “fine”.

Southern Province was a quick visit to meet with a community of about 1000 households spread over a large area who were I think all farmers/smallholders. Their problem is that because of crop failures they dont have enough money to buy fertilizer or animals. If a household could raise Kw300k (about £40) they can take advantage of a Government discount scheme to get what they need at affordable prices. They need a micro finance initiative to help (they want loans not hand outs). This is something I hope the Forum can start arranging through partners. Again when we saw them we were welcomed by the Headmen and elders, with dancing and singing. They were so appreciatitive of people making the effort to at least listen to what they had to say. Hopefully we can do a bit more than that.