Literacy

Kazungula takes education to higher level
By DOREEN NAWA

SITUATED five kilometres from Kazungula town, Kazungula Boarding High School, still under construction, will no doubt add value to the low literacy levels in the district.
The construction of the first ever boarding school in Kazungula has reached an advanced stage with more than 85 percent of the works done.
The school is being constructed under Government’s policy of infrastructure development in the education sector at a cost of more than K34 billion.
In this years’ budget, the Ministry of Education was given the highest allocation. This signifies the sector’s importance to national development.
Most schools in the country, especially those in rural areas, are in a deplorable state and not fit to be called schools. Yearly, during rainy season, a number of schools in rural areas collapse resulting sometimes in deaths and also disruption of the learning process.
This prompted Government to invest in quality infrastructure in the education sector and Kazungula district is one such district that has benefited.
Besides the Kazungula Boarding High School, Government is also constructing Nyawa High School in the district.
Kazungula is a vast district and has had no boarding school from the time it was declared a district.
Kazungula District Commissioner Albert Chifita says Kazungula Boarding High School is a treasured investment by the communities in the area because the district has never had a boarding school in its history.
“The Government is currently constructing two high schools; Kazungula and Nyawa with one in Kazungula town itself. Kazungula Boarding High School is the first of its kind. This is a modern school, which is nearing completion at a cost of K34,671,348,000,” he said.
Mr Chifita says he is hopeful that the school will positively contribute to the standards of education in the district and at the same time increase the literacy levels.
“Kazungula has the lowest literacy rates in the province, hence the need for investment in the education sector. Our children in Kazungula are eager to learn but we do not have high schools and most of the children who can not afford to continue with their education just end up in grade nine,” Mr Chifita said.
Kazungula is vast and requires adequate investment in high schools with at least a high school in every chiefdom. It has five chiefdoms namely, Mukuni, Sekute, Nyawa, Moomba and Musokotwane.
Currently Kazungula has one high school, Mukuni High School in Senior Chief Mukuni’s area.
Mukuni High School, which is more than 80 kilometres from Kazungula town, can not accommodate all the secondary school-going children.
The lack of high schools in the district has contributed to the low literacy rates because not every resident of Kazungula can afford taking their children to boarding schools in other towns.
Kazungula Boarding High School is being constructed by a Chinese firm, Zamchin Construction Company, and covers an area of about two kilometres.
The school is expected to accommodate the first intake of more than 350 girls and boys by January 2012 and construction works are expected to be completed by December this year.
Once completed, Kazungula Boarding will have 20 staff houses, a clinic, tuckshop, conference hall, library, dormitories, laboratories, home economics, administration, kitchen, dinning hall and class room blocks.
Speaking through a foreman, a Mr Zimba, one of the Chinese supervisors, Mr Wu, said the school is one of the modern schools in the country.
“We are just remaining with painting of half of the building we constructed a month ago. Everything else is in place, only 15 percent of the works has not been done,” Mr Wu says.
Indeed, an investment in any sector like education is not a mistake in any way because education is development. It creates choices and opportunities for people, reduces the twin burdens of poverty and diseases, and gives a stronger voice in society.
For nations, education creates a dynamic workforce and well-informed citizens able to compete and co-operate globally, opening doors to economic and social prosperity. 
One of the Kazungula residents, Joseph Mukelabai, says the quality of education in Zambia now depends on the amount of money the government and its co-operating partners invest in this sector.
“The investment that has gone in the construction of this modern school will go a long way in uplifting the education standards in this district. We have had no boarding school here and the only high school is kilometres away making it impossible for our children to continue with education,” Mr Mukelabai says.
Kazungula also has 57 basic schools, 44 community schools, one private school and 414 established teachers.
With Government’s commitment to educate all children in Zambia, as seen from the investment in infrastructure and resources in the education sector, Zambia might be on track in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on education for all because all children are worthy of a quality education.
The Millennium Development Goals set a more realistic, but still difficult deadline of 2015 for least developed countries that are still wallowing in abject poverty.
Despite the rise in enrolment rates in grade one to seven due to the free-education policy, challenges such as limited infrastructure and resources still persist.
Inadequate schools is part of the reason why so many pupils had to drop out of school, but with Government’s policies of making education accessible to all and improving the infrastructure, Zambia will continue recording success in education.
Education is key to any kind of development be it human. Without quality education, it will be impossible for any nation to develop and quality education is possible with supporting factors like good infrastructure, motivated staff and other resources needed like books.
So, with the first ever Kazungula Boarding High School under construction, it is expected that the literacy levels will increase in the district.

Housing

Environment

Substituting charcoal key to positive climate change (Zambia Daily Mail)

By DOREEN NAWA

ZAMBIA Environmental and Gender Organisation (ZENGO) says substituting charcoal for twigs, saw dust and cow dung has positive climate change and developmental benefits.
And ZENGO says women are major stakeholders in meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number 7 of ensuring environmental sustainability.
ZENGO founder and President Elizabeth Musonda said if the use of charcoal is not regulated, the fight against climate change will not be won.
Ms Musonda said women should play a pivotal role in promoting initiatives that seek to address the MDG number 7.
She said the use of twigs, saw dust and cow dung is a good initiative towards regulating charcoal business and in turn conserving the forests.
Ms Musonda said this initiative must be supported by everyone, including government, in order to stop the depletion of forests.
“The MDG number 7 needs everyone’s support if we are to succeed. The main solution lies on how we regulate our forests. I think we need to gradually promote and introduce the use of the twigs, cow dung and saw dust into every home.
This will gradually cut off the charcoal production whose adverse impact on the environment is terrifying,” she said.
Ms Musonda said her organisation wants as many women as possible to switch to the alternatives and this is possible through the brazier specifically designed for the use of twigs, cow dung and saw dust.
‘To promote this switch via community education and policy change, we need Government on board. I think Government should do their part and ban the use of the usual braziers and instead promote the new one called Pulumusa,” she said.
Pulumusa meaning Saviour, is designed to use twigs, cow dung and sawdust as compared to the ordinary brazier that uses large amounts of charcoal.
Ms Musonda said she has been to all provinces promoting the use of the new brazier and women are keen to switch to the use of twigs, cow dung and saw dust.
She said there is need for all stakeholders especially that environment affects everyone, to encourage the government to help women make the switch.
However, costs, availability, and fear of switching are a big concern.
“We want to move this campaign to schools so that children can teach their parents. So far we have reached pilot provinces like eastern where the response is good.
Teaching our women on the use of twigs, cow dung and saw dust using Pulumusa needs government support through policy change,” she said.
Zambia continues to experience deforestation every year. Worldwide deforestation and forest degradation account for nearly 20 percent of global greenhouse emissions.
If the planet’s temperature is going to be stabilised within 2 degree Celsius limit, one of the major solutions lies in conserving the forests.

Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking Rises in Zambia

A by-gone era of slavery appears again as cases of human trafficking increase worldwide with Zambia recording the highest cases in its history of human trafficking this year. Though slavery has been described as the greatest tragedy in human history, traces of it still exist in different forms like human trafficking in the modern day society. Olden day slavery normally dealt mostly with older people, since they were transported to other countries to do manual work. Nevertheless, modern day slavery concentrates mostly on the younger generation, which is termed the human trafficking.

According to Oxford Dictionary, Human trafficking is the acquisition of people by improper means such as force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them. So far, the recognised types of slavery in human trafficking include abuse, forced labour, and prostitution. Both youths and adults involved in this kind of slavery, in one way or the other, lose any freedom they have. For youths, their basic rights like the right to education, right of free expression, and even right for material needs are denied.

Worldwide, a generation of the youth is rapidly reaching adulthood bearing the tragic consequences of their nations’ worst problems of unemployment and poverty. This has led to a number of youths and also adults leaving their countries of origin in search of better living conditions without having a clear picture of where they are going.

The Immigration department disclosed it had in the last three months intercepted about 829 foreign nationals at various entry and check points suspected to have been destined for South Africa, Angola and Zambia respectively. Immigration Department public relations officer, Mulako Mbangweta says most Zambian borders were porous giving way to illegal entry of foreigners adding that the majority of the foreigners were using unorthodox means to enter into Zambia using it as a transit point and also their destination.

Ms Mbangweta says Zambia has, in the recent past, experienced a rise in the number of illegal immigrants entering the country as a destination as well as a transit point to South Africa and Angola- destinations of the World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations. Ms Mbangweta admits that it has been difficult to deal with cases of human trafficking in Zambia because mostly, the victims are secretive and often claim they are relatives of the alleged perpetrators. “Yes we have had increased cases of ‘suspected’ human trafficking the recent past mostly because of South Africa and Angola who are hosting these big soccer events. This is evident from the number of illegal immigrants that have been intercepted at our entry points of our immigration checkpoints. It has been difficult for us to investigate cases because the victims tend to defend the culprits by saying that they are related,” she confirmed.

Human trafficking is a growing problem in Zambia, despite an increase in the number of potential victims identified, there has not been a single conviction.

Smuggling migrants involve the procurement for financial or other material benefit of illegal entry of a person into a country of which that person is not a national or resident. Ms Mbangweta says there is little evidence that illegal immigrants coming to Zambia are considered to be trafficked because most of them say that they were brought in by their relatives which is mostly not true.

Human traffickers are trafficking people for sexual exploitation, forced labour and agricultural work. Traffickers employ a number of strategies such as offering overseas employment to the victims. Perhaps, a bigger problem is the number of people being trafficked into the country with very little evidence of them being victims of human trafficking. With the hosting of the major soccer events in mind, Zambia has become a transit point as well as a destination for human trafficking. The immigration department has recorded a rise in foreigners from Somalia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan illegally entering Zambia.

Poverty and lack of economic opportunity make adults and youths potential victims of traffickers associated with international criminals. They are vulnerable to false promises of job opportunities in other countries.

Human trafficking seems to be less pronounced on the streets of most Zambian towns but a visit to Chaisa Township in Lusaka leaves too numerous questions unanswered. Chaisa Township is a hive of activities conducted by foreigners mostly those from Somaliland-one would easily mistake the township for a residential area in Mogadishu!

Mr Jack Siatembo (not real name), a resident of Chaisa, is concerned about the increased number of foreigners in his area saying their security was at risk adding that the majority of the Somali nationals were taking advantage of their permits by illegally bringing in their fellow nationals into Zambia. Mr Siatembo says most Somali nationals did not have papers because they were illegally brought in after being promised a job in one of the mining industries but once they were brought here, the story changed and were now working as waiters or lorry boys.

Trafficking in persons is not only a violation of human rights but also an offence although the laws dealing with the offence in Zambia is weak such that it has been difficult for law enforcement agencies to punish the offenders if they do then they have to borrow from the Immigration Act. But one of the Somali nationals says Somali nationals resident in Zambia were peaceful despite them coming from a war-torn country that adding that majority of them were involved in businesses that were registered by the registrar of companies.

Mr Ali Abdullah (not real name), who runs a successful business in Lusaka, says he has been in Zambia for close to five years and has not experienced any harassment by indigenous Zambians adding that the peace that Zambians were enjoying had attracted numerous foreigners from war-torn countries to seek refuge in Zambia. Asked where he got money to start up a business in Lusaka, Mr Abdullah says the money he has invested in his business was acquired through partnership with his colleagues here in Zambia. “The money I used to start this business is my own. While in Somalia, I saved money with an international bank and after relocating here I contacted my friends here so that we could start a business. They agreed and I withdrew money from my bank and we put money together and started,” he recalls.

He notes that Zambia has a peaceful and favorable environment for everyone despite their nationality to stay and do business as long as you follow the rules with Immigration Department. When asked how he came into Zambia, Mr Abdullah says he came in through Nakonde Border and was advised by some friends who were already in Zambia on how to go about the registration with Immigration.

Commenting on increased cases of ‘suspected’ human trafficking in Zambia, Mr Abdullah says majority of people entering Zambia were ignorant of the requirements for foreigners in Zambia hence them being suspected to be trafficked. And Ms Mbangweta confirmed saying that possibilities of finding one or two illegal immigrants in Chaisa Township were high considering that most of them do not use proper channels when entering into Zambia. Ms Mbangweta further disclosed that most legal Somali nationals in Chaisa deal in transportation and fuel industry respectively adding that there could be some who were dealing in illegal business ventures that were against the Zambian laws.

The prevention of human trafficking requires several types of interventions. Some are of low or moderate cost and can have some immediate impact, such as awareness campaigns that allow high-risk individuals to make informed decisions. Strong laws that are enforced are an effective deterrent. However, serious law enforcement is expensive. According to the 2009 Global Report on Trafficking in persons, the Zambian Criminal Code contains a provision criminalising trafficking in persons, but it does not include the definition of the crime.

Virtually every country in the world is affected by this crime. The challenge for all countries, rich and poor, is to target the criminals who exploit desperate people and to protect and assist victimsof trafficking and smuggled migrants, many of whom endure unimaginable hardships in their bid for a better life. The rate at which mankind is refusing to let go of slavery, is in direct conflict with modern day democracy and its principles and has come to be regarded as a form of human rights abuse in our society.

Human freedom, dignity and pride are important. It is the responsibility of every human being to protect the rights of its fellow human and youths in particular, since they are the ones to take care of the future world.