Designing the Future

By Derrick Silimina

Since his early high school days, Sean Brown’s immense strength in arithmetic and science subjects has made a career in engineering an obvious choice.

Coming from a humble background, 18-year-old Brown knows that hard work always pays and embracing a vision anchored on academic excellence usually opens numerous opportunities in life. 

“I developed a passion for mechanics in my early childhood. After high school, my dream came true when I enrolled to study engineering so that I could contribute to the development of the sector,” Brown told ChinAfrica. 

Brown is upbeat that as a mechanical engineering student at Northern Technical College (NORTEC) in Ndola of Copperbelt Province, his qualification will remain a prized asset in Zambia as the Southern African country charts a new economic pathway. 

Brown and his two friends represented NORTEC at the prestigious Africa Technology Challenge (ATC) contest sponsored by Chinese company AVIC International.    

Encouraging creativity  

In a bid to support development of technological talents in Africa, AVIC International launched the ATC in June 2014 and sponsored ATC Season VII in 2022 to award the African students who emerged as winners of the contest. 

A corporate social responsibility youth empowerment project of AVIC International, ATC is aimed at identifying skills among the youth through training and competitions focused on the rapidly developing construction industry, particularly in computer-aided design, which involves reading and designing architectural drawings. 

The ATC contest has thus far been held seven times. Under the theme Limitless Innovation, which emphasises harnessing technology to push the boundaries of creativity, the 2022 contest, held in Kenya, attracted a total of over 230 engineering students from Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Egypt, Zambia and Zimbabwe, who were trained and certified in the reading and drafting of construction drawings.  

Diana Busingye of Uganda bagged the first place in the individual category. She said that ATC was a rewarding contest because it built her skills in making designs for the construction sector. 

“My secret of success during the contest was extensive reading as well as listening to my instructors,” said 24-year-old Busingye, who is pursuing a civil engineering degree at the Luyanzi Institute of Technology of Uganda, and was awarded a scholarship to study in China. 

Sean Brown, a student from NORTEC, was also awarded a scholarship to study architectural design in China after emerging as one of the three outstanding participants at the event. 

“During the contest, I learnt how to use Chinese software for technical drawing which is very simple and friendly even for inexperienced students.” 

AVIC International Project Engineering Co. Vice President Xu Fei disclosed that the Chinese firm has so far trained 960 students from 10 countries, and as a result, nine institutions were awarded design orders amounting to $500,000. 

Skills development 

Xu emphasised that the experience gained by AVIC International places it in a very unique position to collaborate with African governments to build technical, vocational education and training (TVET) capacity through the construction and upgrading of the colleges as well as the capacity building of their staff. 

Alex Simumba, director for vocational education and training at Zambia’s Ministry of Technology and Science, said the competition was a great platform for Zambian students, adding the country’s participation in such high-level competitions is in line with the government’s focus on making TVET a means of livelihood for the youth and the huge investment it has made in the state-of-the-art equipment in technical colleges.  

NORTEC Acting Principal Martin Kasonso said the win was a plus for the institution as it would help to position the college as a centre for national competitions by building capacity through various upgrades to enable NORTEC to meet the international standards that are required to hold such international competitions. 

“Such competitions would help NORTEC in coordinating with other engineering institutions to allow students to demonstrate their skills in different ways and help to position the college both at regional and international level,” Kasonso added. 

During the seventh edition of the ATC, NORTEC was the only higher learning institution representing Zambia in the young engineer’s contest after beating other technical institutions at national level. As a result, the Zambian team has been certified in reading and drafting of construction drawings. 

On the other hand, Ezekiel Machogu, cabinet secretary for the Ministry of Education of Kenya, said the East African country supports the ATC because it is a vehicle for raising awareness and enlightening students about various opportunities that may come from skills development. 

“The ATC affirms Kenya’s belief that instilling technological skills in our youth is the key to spurring our country to progress and prosperity,” Machogu said during a recent ATC event co-organised by AVIC International and Kenya’s Ministry of Education in Nairobi. 

Meanwhile, Zhou Meifen, cultural counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya, said that the ATC involves skills training and practical knowledge transfer and aims to improve the youth’s technical skills through training and competition as a way of reducing unemployment in Kenya and the rest of Africa. 

AVIC International has upgraded 144 vocational training institutions across Kenya and trained 1,500 teachers and over 50,000 students as well as support staff. 

The projects included constructing “three accesses and one levelling” (access to water, electricity and road, and levelled ground), campsite construction, and equipment relocation. 

It has also helped to repair and upgrade damaged local roads, build water conservancy facilities, share clean water sources with the community, and renovate and construct school buildings and other community facilities for free. 

Other China-based companies that are actively engaged in corporate social responsibility projects in Africa include China Resources, which tops the list measuring Chinese companies by social responsibility, followed by China Huadian Corp., and Sinopec Group, according to a recent report recently released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Reporting from Zambia 

Sisters nurture children, teach mothers parenting skills

 

By Derrick Silimina

When Anabel Mwamba gave birth to her first child in 2005, she lacked parenting skills to assess developmental milestones and determine how her baby's life would unfold.

The 36-year-old single mother of four knows how tough it is to feed and take good care of a baby amid socio economic hardships.

"As a teen mother, it's not easy to provide adequate nutrition and care for a child. When I had my first child at the age of 18, life was unbearable, especially after my boyfriend deserted me for another woman," Mwamba told Global Sisters Report.

Zambia, like many developing countries, still grapples with teen pregnancies. Many girls, particularly from lower-income environments, become mothers at a young age and, in the process, often deny their babies a dignified life.

Nearly 30% of adolescent girls in Zambia become pregnant by the age of 18, according to the 2018 Zambia Demographic Health Survey. This high rate of teenage pregnancy remains a significant concern and reduces the opportunities for the women to actualize their full potential and entangles them in a perpetual circle of ignorance, poverty and inequality.

Thanks to St. Dominic's Mission Hospital, then called Kavu Rural Health Centre, Mwamba has learned parenting skills that have helped her raise her two youngest children, with some positive effects for the two older children as well. With her third child, born in 2015, she learned the importance of giving birth in a healthcare facility.

The hospital, which was upgraded into a standard hospital from a clinic, was founded by the Dominican Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1993 in response to the community's need for quality and holistic health care.

Mwamba's rural community lacks adequate healthcare facilities, but she also learned the importance of taking her children to "under-5" clinics for children younger than 5 years old.

Mwamba received assistance through the Integrated Mother and Babies Course initiative, one of the early childhood development projects courtesy of a Conrad N. Hilton Foundation-sponsored program known as "Strengthening the Capacity of Religious Women in Early Childhood Development" (SCORE-ECD). (The Foundation also funds Global Sisters Report.) The project is coordinated by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and is being implemented in Malawi, Zambia, Kenya and Ghana.

In Zambia, as part of a holistic approach to early child development, SCORE-ECD project manager Sr. Christabel Kazembe says her scope of work involves managing community health volunteers and "lead mothers," under the supervision of nurses or sister master-trainers, to execute the program. Through group sessions and home visits, more than 1,600 mothers from the Copperbelt, Central, Luapula and Eastern provinces have benefited from the early childhood development sessions.

"My fieldwork involves doing some complementary activities, such as cooking and teaching the mothers different methods of food preparations using local available foods, encouraging mothers to deliver from the hospital, taking children to under-5 clinics, early stimulation (making toys for the baby using local available materials such as bottles and rags), and maintaining the surroundings clean, among others," she said.

The sisters' workshops cover nutrition, early childhood development, identifying depressive behaviors, mood regulation, maternal mental health integration, and strengthening of couple relationships, among other topics.

Kazembe, who belongs to the Sisters of Mercy in the Mansa Diocese, said, "We desire to live as spiritual sisters of our fellow believers, through radiating the compassionate heart of Christ."

She emphasized that her congregation, which now has 65 sisters, was founded in 1977 to assist in the Mansa Diocese (in the Luapula province in northern Zambia) with pastoral work, Catholic schools and Catholic mission hospitals.

"In addition to these, we are also engaged in developmental works of uplifting the standard of living of people in the diocese through agriculture and social work, thereby carrying out integral evangelization of needy people," she said.

Teaching mothers how to care for their children and ensuring they have adequate nutrition is an important part of the congregation's mission.

Psychologically, while no two children develop on the exact same timeline, there are time periods in which major developmental milestones are reached that can determine how a child's life unfolds.

According to a 2004 study published in Paediatrics & Child Health, pregnant women and new mothers in developing countries are affected by depression and other mental health disorders, which can adversely affect breastfeeding, mother-child bonding, parenting quality and the child's overall development.

"I have really benefited a lot from this [SCORE-ECD] program, such that my kids are now growing up healthy," Mwamba said, calling the program "informative and helpful."

For Exhilda Musonda, a mother of five from Ndola who has also benefited from the project, "before our parish sisters and lead mothers taught me how to prepare local nutritious foods and the importance of maternal health care, my kids' health was bad," she said. "But thanks to their timely help, I am now able to provide adequate care and nutritious food to my children thanks to the Integrated Mother/Baby Course that I was privileged to undergo."

Anastasia Nkandu, a lead mother who is in charge of more than 10 caregivers in an area of Ndola, stressed that the program is indeed changing lives in her community. "Most mothers here lack knowledge, especially teen caregivers, but after our input with basic livelihood skills, they are now able to take good care of their children and families responsibly, thereby adding value to their well-being."

In a bid to ensure that children under 2 years old thrive in a sustainable culture of care and support, Kazembe further noted that early childhood development is vital to any child's well-being. Most of Kazembe's work includes health and nutrition, education and social protection of young children, but she also focuses on their physical, cognitive, linguistic, social and emotional development.

The project caters to the most vulnerable children ages infant to 5 years old, with a particular focus on children from infancy to 2 years old, some of whom are disabled and/or have HIV/AIDS, Kazembe said. The program across all dioceses of the four provinces is making a difference in Zambia's remote communities, she said.

"Helping people in different ways has really helped me to radiate God's compassion to his people as our congregation mission states," she said. "By reaching out to those people, I feel I am fulfilling my duty as a Sister of Mercy. Therefore, I feel my congregation's mission and my own mission is being fulfilled."

A rosy vision of manicure, pedicure business

 

By Derrick Silimina

The manicure business is booming in Zambia with more technicians spending long hours each day buffing, scraping, painting, and polishing their clients’ nails for a living.

According to latest statistics, global nail care products’ market size was valued at over $19 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2 per cent from 2022 to 2030. 

For this reason Rosaria Chola, 30, from Solwezi’s Kyawama Market is earning money by offering nail beautification services for women including manicures, pedicures, nail polish application, nail repair, and hand and foot treatments. 

“I started the business at home in 2017 and later started operating in the market in 2022. Despite the high costs of artificial nails and glue, this service costs K100 to put nails on fingers and toes,” Chola explains. 

With a profit margin of about 50 per cent for her service, she describes the business as a good venture which is very profitable depending on the number of customers. 

Chola discloses that with an average number of customers of five per day, her total revenue per month is about K2,000. 

After realising how lucrative the nail beautifying business was, Chola took to business training in January 2020 to hone her skills and completed all the 24 topics on offer. “The training helped me with the ability to save money and to welcome customers. Identifying potential customers is another skill I acquired from the training.” 

To increase the number of customers, Chola has continued learning different nail styles and designs from colleagues and from the Internet to keep up with modern trends. 

Mentors from Fortune World Investment Limited who are the facilitators of the business training programme which is sponsored by Kansanshi Mining Plc advised her to buy a smartphone and open a Facebook page to further advertise her services. 

Since Chola intends to open a manicure and pedicure shop in town centre by the end of the year, FWL counselled her to maintain a case book to record all transactions. 

Chola said, “I thank KMP for the training which has helped me in business as without them, I would not know what to do. I urge them to continue helping others.”

Zambians choose Chinese cures

By Derrick Silimina

China’s ancient healing arts are gaining a strong following in Zambia. Residents of the southern African country are increasingly visiting Chinese-owned clinics offering a variety of ancient cures, including acupuncture, herbal medicines, massage, exercise regimes, dietary therapies, and creams and ointments against aches among others.

Traditional Chinese cures avoid many side effects associated with modern medicine, its advocates say. At least 70% of Zambians use traditional medicine, according to the World Health Organization.

Zambia’s government has noticed the growing popularity of Chinese cures and is reviewing its rules on traditional medicine with a view toward making such practices more accessible. 

Chinese medical practitioners in Zambia have been happy to meet the growing demand. “I attend to patients suffering from stroke, HIV/AIDS, hypertension, paralysis and diabetes among others,” said Feng Kehong, owner of the Zhong Yi Surgery. She opened the private clinic in 2002, five years after arriving in Zambia.

Of the wide range of traditional Chinese cures on offer, acupuncture has seized Zambians’ imagination the most. In this traditional Chinese therapy, needles are inserted into affected points on the body to relieve pain and cure illnesses.

For Bernard Siwale, a Lusaka based taxi driver, the results of the procedure are worth some discomfort. He turned to the Zhong Yi surgery in Lusaka after modern medicine did not cure a partial paralysis he suffered early this year. “The doctor pricks you with small needles and you feel a slight discomfort,” he said. “After 30 minutes the needles are removed. The process is repeated for 10 days, but thereafter the pain disappears.”

Other patients are equally enthusiastic. “A Chinese health practitioner recommended herbal medicine and acupuncture for my abdominal pains, and after 10 days the pain was gone,” said Belinda Ngulube, a pharmacist. “Acupuncture is based on the interconnectivity of our hormones and nervous system. It has helped many patients.”

Three months of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines treatments were the solution to severe bleeding for Angela Nkandu, age 38. “I used to bleed badly even with a slight injury and conventional medicine couldn’t help much,” she said. “Doctor Tiang gave me blood boosters and acupuncture and it worked wonders.”

Traditional Chinese cures are longer-lasting than cures from modern medicine, according to Chris Banda, a teacher in eastern Zambia. He travelled to Lusaka for treatment at a private Chinese clinic and said it was worth the trip. “Western medicine couldn’t cure my chronic headache. Conventional medicine can reduce pain but afterwards the pain comes back.”

Human trafficking on the rise

By Derrick Silimina

Illegal immigration is on the rise in many parts of the world, including Zambia. Trafficked persons face despicable conditions on their journeys and many end up dead or suffering life-threatening conditions.

The media in the southern African country is not strange to news of arrests of foreign nationals for illegal entry or stay in the country. Authorities have also reported intercepting long-distance merchant trucks smuggling people in goods containers.

The Zambia police service recently found 27 dead bodies dumped by the roadside near the capital Lusaka. The victims are suspected to have been Ethiopian nationals who were being smuggled into the country. These are believed to have made their way through transit points in several African countries.

Zambia is a hotspot for human trafficking within Southern Africa, especially of migrants leaving Eastern African countries like Ethiopia, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and many more, to seek job opportunities in the wealthier countries like Namibia and South Africa.

The region has an agreement for free movement of people and goods through the regional cooperation body, Southern African Development Community (SADC), which makes it easy for human traffickers to sneak people across borders.

Human-trafficking cartels operating in Zambia have continued to exploit women and children from neighboring countries into forced labor. Sex trafficking is also on the rise. 

Rwandan women have been targeted especially. They are lured into Zambia with promises that they will acquire refugee status and earn lucrative benefits. In the end, they become sex slaves who are kept against their will. Traffickers threaten to turn the illegal immigrants to immigration officials if they refuse to do what they are told.

With the rising human-trafficking cases, the local police has called for capacity building of officers both in Zambia and the Southern African region to effectively investigate and eradicate the vice. The country’s immigration department also needs further support to deal with illegal immigration.

Alick Njavwa, a Lusaka resident, says: “Our immigration department is underfunded, understaffed and lacks necessary equipment. We need to improve it in so many areas. Back in the days, immigration issues were not as urgent hence practices such as spot checks and patrols were deemed not necessary.”

There are fears that continued illegal immigration and human trafficking may threaten the free movement of people and goods in Africa. Activists therefore want the Zambian government to do more, such as securing the country’s borders with modern technology.

A Source of Sustenance

 

By Derrick Silimina

It’s past 5 a.m. and Habib Mohammed is leaving his house to start the day at his 2.5-hectare coffee farm in the lush highlands of Ethiopia’s Oromia Region. 

In this East African country, Oromia is the natural homeland of the delicate Coffea arabica plant, which is driving an insatiable thirst for a beverage that has come to conquer the world. The Oromo people from this region are thought to have been the first to have noticed the stimulating effects of the coffee beans, and it remains an important element of their traditional cuisine. 

“I wake up every morning with my wife to manage our farmland, which is our source of livelihood. After each coffee harvest, we sell our produce to a local farmers’ cooperative, which is enabling smallholder farmers like us to put food on the table and sustain our livelihood,” Mohammed told ChinAfrica.   

As Ethiopia’s main export commodity, coffee contributes to the livelihoods of more than 15 million smallholder farmers and other stakeholders in the coffee sector. It is estimated that Ethiopia’s coffee production for 2022-2023 will reach over 495,000 tonnes.  

Benefits of beans  

Mohammed, 50, is excited that in the last farming season, he produced over 500 50-kg bags of arabica coffee beans - the most aromatic kind favoured by the majority of drinkers who prefer its rich, dark liquid.  

For many people, it feels almost impossible to be productive without a cup of coffee. Even the traditionally tea-drinking countries like China are seduced by Ethiopia’s arabica coffee produce due to its charming flavour.  

With about 5 million coffee growers in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority (ECTA) has noted that more than 25 million people in the country depend on coffee production and processing for their livelihood.  

Amid the high demand for arabica coffee in China, a growing number of Ethiopian coffee growers and exporters are vying to penetrate the emerging Chinese coffee market. 

ECTA Director General Adugna Debela recently observed, “We are witnessing a growing coffee market in China and other parts of Asia. The increasing number of consumers and growing popularity of Ethiopia’s coffee among the Chinese people is encouraging.” 

Emerging market  

Like Mohammed, Gizat Worku is among Ethiopia’s smallholder coffee farmers propelling their country’s exports to China.  

“We need the Chinese market very much because China is home to about one-sixth of the world’s population, and selling to that market means more benefit to us in terms of job creation, value addition and agriculture growth, among others. All we need is to satisfy the Chinese market demand for our coffee and meet their requirements,” said Worku, general manager of the Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association, adding that the organisation has already agreed with some Chinese companies who are preparing to sign agreements with the local exporters.

Following the strategic cooperation framework agreement inked recently at the Ethiopian Embassy in Beijing, a number of Chinese companies have clinched deals to purchase Ethiopian coffee beans. Luckin, a Chinese coffee company and coffeehouse chain, is one of the firms that recently pledged to buy 2,000 tonnes of coffee annually. 

In this context, Ethiopian Ambassador to China Teshome Toga Chanaka reiterated the importance of China’s e-commerce market when he recently promoted Ethiopian coffee on China’s e-commerce platform Taobao, where about 11,000 bags of coffee were sold in just five seconds.  

“I think that holds the future, and that’s one area where we would like to cooperate with Chinese enterprises here in order for us to increase our exports to the Chinese market. We also need to work with Chinese companies so that productivity is increased in the agriculture sector, in value addition, in manufacturing and so forth,” Teshome said. 

Ethiopia’s reputation as a producer of top-class specialty coffees in terms of aroma, organic nature and variety is of great advantage.  

Gaining attention  

At the Fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) held in Shanghai in November 2022, Ethiopian coffee received a lot of attention with exporters keen to establish their roots in the Chinese market. 

According to the ECTA, the East African country exported 11,935 tonnes of coffee to China during the last Ethiopian fiscal year (8 July 2021-7 July 2022) and earned over $65 million, up 84 percent year on year, which accounts for 30 percent of Ethiopia’s export revenue. That made China the seventh major importer of Ethiopian coffee during the last fiscal year, up from 33rd in the previous fiscal year (8 July 2020-7 July 2021). The top five export destinations were Germany, the US, Saudi Arabia, Belgium and Japan. 

Wu Peng, director general of the Department of African Affairs at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recently affirmed that Ethiopia’s coffee exports to China saw an 84-percent growth in volume. 

“Good to see an 84-percent increase in Ethiopian coffee exports to China this year (2022). With the Fifth CIIE opening in Shanghai on November 5, I hope to see more African quality products make their way to the Chinese market and bring benefits to Africa,” Wu wrote on twitter late last year. 

Thanks to the booming Sino-Ethiopian trade and investment cooperation coupled with important platforms such as the CIIE, Ethiopia’s overall export to China has registered steady growth in recent years as China remains Ethiopia’s biggest trading partner. 

Chinese official data show that Ethiopia’s exports to China increased by 8 percent in 2021 as compared with the previous year. 

One of Ethiopia’s largest producers and exporters of coffee - Kerchanshe Trading - expects China to become one of the main destinations for Ethiopian coffee in the near future. 

“We are tripling our exports to China both in quantity and quality. The demand is high, and we are preparing to grow more coffee for the Chinese market,” Kerchanshe Trading Chief Executive Officer Israel Degefa said recently.  

Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde has since paid glowing tribute to all stakeholders in the country’s coffee industry value chain: “I am delighted to hear about the growth of production of coffee. Farmers, unions and exporters have been credited with the promising result. I would like to extend my appreciation to all of them engaged in this sector.” 

Reporting from Ethiopia

Sisters' bookshop evangelize Zambia's Catholics

 

By Derrick Silimina

It's past 7 a.m. and Sr. Mary Kioko, a Daughter of St. Paul, is leaving her convent to start the day at Paulines Catholic Bookshop in Lusaka, Zambia.

In this southern African country, the Pauline Catholic Bookshop, which is run by the Pious Society of the Daughters of St. Paul in the country's capital, helps enlighten local Catholics with its diverse Catholic literature aimed at shaping readers' social, moral and spiritual lives.

"We have principles whenever we accept manuscripts, and for as long as it's something that can help people morally, spiritually and physically, it is welcome," said Kioko, who runs the shop.

In their quest to evangelize the word of God, the sisters also produce radio and television programs through the Pauline Catholic Bookshop, as well as provide book exhibitions to reach readers who can't easily find a bookstore. (Pauline book shops operate in 52 countries and on all seven continents.)

In addition to the bookshop, the congregation prints books through Paulines Publications Africa, Kioko said, noting that the genres go beyond religion and include psychology, self-help and children's books, as well as theology, philosophy and Bibles.

To evangelize through broadcast, the Pauline sisters create a range of radio programs, audiovisuals and music. For example, in September — which they designated the month of the Bible — "we yearn to come up with a radio program to help people enter deeply into the understanding of the word of God, explain our mission, and address pressing issues affecting the youth so that people are drawn to Christ," Kioko said.

Kioko said the feedback to book exhibits is overwhelming and encouraging, suggesting that the Gospel is indeed reaching far and wide.

"The biblical, the catechetical, philosophical and theological books that we have are meant for our people," she said. "It is helping them to grow in their faith because as Christians, what our people need is that knowledge of Christ and how well they can become true friends of Jesus. And that can be found in the word of God, in the doctrine of the church and in all other material they find at the bookshop."

Still, the bookshop also attracts non-Catholics.

"Every now and then we see new people that come to the bookshop to buy not only religious books but also that which affects their daily lives, which is a good sign that people are really growing into this reading culture," she said. (According to recent research by the University of Zambia, historical background, inadequate resources/poverty and disinterest contribute to the country's poor reading culture.)