Help train Zambian children and young people

This June, Maggie Hickland (HATW Trustee) and Jane Powell (HATW Operations Manager) visited Kaliyangile and saw many of the developments and changes over the last two years. Jane writes:

"The vocational training centre has a very spacious new workshop building comprising two large rooms, an office for Persis the centre manager and a storeroom.

The toilets are being upgraded after a storm blew the roof off the block. Flushing pit latrines are nearly finished. Once operational, Teveta inspectors will give the necessary certificates allow trainees to be welcomed back to the centre.

The next step is to complete a full refurbishment of the old toilet block, septic tank and to instal better drainage.

The centre has had a run of bad luck with many challenges coming their way – Patrick, the chair of the Board, sadly died of Covid last year and he was one of the driving forces behind the project. He was also the owner of the land on which the project sits. We met with his son Khoza who has recently moved back to the area to farm and now sits on the Kali board. We talked to him about his plans – happily the family remain keen to support the project and will renew the lease at no cost to the project, in two years time.

We had a tour of the farm and small holding – the piggery and the chicken pen could do with some upgrading and this is something Persis is keen to do. The night before we arrived, they had taken delivery of 500 chicks which were being heated and looked after to replace the laying hens, who create a good income through the sale of eggs.

There are ongoing issues with livestock diseases in the area that affect pigs and cattle locally and so they were being very careful at the project to keep people away from avoid cross-contamination risks. This is a challenge for the project as the whole site is currently quite open and not yet fully fenced, so local people can walk across.

The pigs and chickens provide a good income for the centre in spite of these challenges. Kali benefits from having a retired vet on the board who supports and help with the animals.

The hammer mill continues to grind maize for the local community at affordable cost - this is another good income generator for the project. Someone works at this daily; other farm workers manage the pigs, cows and chickens.

We were able to meet some of the local women who support the project. They are part of CWAC (Community Welfare Assistance Committee) who help find vunerable youths in the local communities and bring them to the project to find suitable vocational courses for them. We greatly enjoyed talking to these women. They enjoyed a ‘trying on session’ of various different reading glasses that we had taken over! It caused a great deal of amusement as some of them could see very clearly when given something to read, but some of the glasses were far too strong.

We greatly admired their beautiful chitenge cloth skirts which they wrap around over their other clothes.

We hope the project will be able imminently to gain the necessary accreditation to bring in new trainees and look forward to hearing that the centre’s buildings are buzzing with life. Thank you so much for your support!

It is a new year and we look forward to a new beginning! Covid-19 cases having dropped down, we are positive and determined for a fresh year of vocational training.  Working in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare, we have been able to draw volunteers from the community to help us identify and recruit students from the local area. Several preparatory meetings have now been held with prospective incoming trainees.

Responding to the challenge of the damaged ablution block, HATW donations have meanwhile enabled the construction of two pit latrines and work is underway. A funding application has been submitted to rebuild the old block and we eagerly await news.

Together, we'll help build a better community! Thank you for all your help and encouragement.