ZAP - Zambia Allocation Program

NEWSLETTER 10 - december 2010

Dear Founding Fathers and Friends of ZAP, The last newsletter of the year already; time just flew! Without your support for and confidence in ZAP it would never have been possible to actually reach all the goals we set ourselves this year. I really want to thank everybody from the bottom of my heart! Update on projects in hand: THE CLINIC IN KAINDU A project which is very close to my heart is the clinic in Kaindu. This is the only clinic within a radius of 60 kilometres. The patients sometimes have to travel for over a day to reach the clinic, but there is no waiting area available. Therefore pregnant women have to wait night and day in the open air until they can actually be admitted to give birth. Family members of desperately sick patients sleep under a tree in order to be close to their loved ones. Therefore, in April of this past year, we started the construction of a "waiting shelter" which is as good as finished. The rainy season is, as they say here, around the corner, but in the future heavily pregnant women en family members of seriously ill patients can at least sit during the day and spend the night out of the wet. The ZAP team has already started the construction of an outside kitchen and after that they will build washing areas for women and men. LANTANA FARM This farm is situated at an hour's drive from the capital. Many children come to this farm to follow lessons because there are no official schools anywhere araond. This is why ZAP has decided to build a small nursery school. The nursery school is to be completed in December. The teacher is over the moon; in addition to reading and writing she also teaches the children to make all sorts of things out of materials they find on the farm. THE BIG CONCESSION SCHOOL The ZAP team is in the process of comleting the last of a series of seven teacher's houses. It was thus possible to recruit two new qualified teachers and after the Christmas holidays another four will start working. In addition to these teacher's houses and thanks to your financial assistance, ZAP was able to donate a water-pump to the school and the community. This came as a complete surprise as we had decided not to inform the local population beforehand. And then suddenly the trucks appeared out of the blue with the workmen who managed to drill the well and install the hand-pump in just one day. It was a terrific happening and you can imagine that it is a tremendous boon for the school and the community to possess a water-pump that functions well and provides enough water for everyone. In addition it saves many kilometres' walking and lugging big water containers. © Maupart WHAT ARE THE PLANS FOR 2011? After the last of the teacher's houses at the Big Concession School have been finished, project manager Jerico will immediately start the next project in Nkulumaziba. This is a village right in the middle of the bush. Nkulumaziba is a fairly big community with about 300 children who, until now, have not received any proper education. ZAP will sart there with the construction of a school with two schoolrooms, an office and four toilets. We have already had a number of meetings with the school board and the community. For them it is the first time they get any outside help. During the meetings, they pledged that they would start right away with the construction of a store room and a 'house' for Jerico and his assistant. The clinic in Kaindu After the completion of the waiting shelter with outside kitchen and wash-areas, ZAP will start renovating two houses for clinic staff. This means that the clinic will finally be able to recruit an additional doctor and nurse. These are badly needed as, at the moment, there are only two doctors and one nurse. They work full-time, seven days a week and often also at night for emergencies. We will also build an area where the clinic staff will give weekly instruction to the community on AIDS prevention and treatment, and to women with children below the age of five on nutrition, care, childhood illnesses etc. The woman prison in Kabwe Here all preparations are still on the go. As at this moment, we have applied to all the various committees for all the necessary permits. We hope to have completed all procedures by February. In addition, ZAP has received a large number of applications from various villages from far and wide. I shall visit all these potential projects early next year and will subsequently contact the Board for consultation. I very much hope that I can continue to count on your support and confidence and wish you all a very happy and healthy 2011. With kindest regards, ZAP (Zambia Allocation Program) Josien Dudok van Heel.