YOUNG AND AMBITIOUS: Medicine my passion, says John

“I WON’T be going into for the money, no. I will be going into because of the passion I have to help people, especially those in need,” answered 16 year old John Mwangala when asked whether he wants to study medicine because of the good salaries.

He is a grade 10 pupil at Livingstone Sunbridge Education Centre situated at the Mosi-oa-tunya building.

Born from Gibson and Esther Mwangala, John feels medicine is his calling.

“That is why I will do anything within my powers to make sure that I attain my dreams. I intend to go and study abroad, preferably in the United States of America (USA) although I also hear China has good universities that study doctors too,” he says.

He is the second born in a family of three, two boys and one girl.

Last term he passed number four in a class of 17 pupils, something that he hopes to change this term.

“My performance is good and I know I can do better than I did last term and that is why I am studying very hard to better my score this time around. I know what I can achieve,” he says.

Asked what his favourite subjects are, he answers; “I literally enjoy all the subjects. I like Biology, English, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Commerce and Computer Studies.”

He says he has a heart for helping people and what better way than to become a doctor. John says he would one day love to wake up to news that HIV/AIDS was no more.

“I want to be able to help people, especially those sick in the community. I won’t be going into it for the money. I will be in it for the passion. Even the people with HIV/AIDS are neglected a lot especially in the rural areas. I want to be able to contribute in a little way in the fight,” he says.

He advises young and ambitious boys and girls to always remain focused and obedient to those that pay for their education needs. “That is the only way that one can be able to achieve their goals,” he says.

12-year-old girl foregoes school for alms

IN THE scotching heat of the Central Business District of Livingstone at about 12:30 hours, 12-year-old Mutinta Hamoomba (not real names) sits under a shade on the walk way along the busy Mosi-oa-tunya road in Livingstone while people from all walks of life including tourists pass by heading to their various destinations.

In a soft humble voice Mutinta asks for help whenever she sees a potential giver. Those that feel compelled offer some monetary help others give their left over foods whilst others literally ignore and pretend they never heard the call for help.

This spot is like her working place as she has to go there almost every day when she accompanies and guides her visually impaired grandmother who goes there to beg.

She also helps to ask for help from passers-by but she hands over all the money to her grandmother who uses part of the money to buy food among other daily needs for their family of three.

“I have to escort my grandmother almost every day, if we don’t beg then we won’t eat,” she says when asked why she does it.

Does she enjoy it?

“I have no choice at the end of the day because it is from doing this that we are assured of food at home,” she says.

Mary Hamooba (not real name) is Mutinta’s grandmother. In her justification, she says she has no means of fending for her orphaned grandchildren apart from begging.

But this has come at a cost for her grandchild who has given up school to become an aide for her grandmother.

Mutinta says it is hard for the children to go to schools because she cannot even afford uniforms.

Mutinta is not the only child who has to accompany a visually impaired relative almost on a daily basis and the scenario is not peculiar to Livingstone one. There are several other children across the country in the same situation.

Every day the safety and well-being of most children is threatened through neglect or abuse. These include children who are used to guide visually-impaired people to beg for money on the streets. In the past, most of them were concentrated in the central business district, but now they are found everywhere, strategically positioned at vantage points with a lot of human traffic.

Irrespective of the dangers and risks the children are exposed to, it is business as usual. Denied the chance to be in school, the children traverse the streets begging for alms from people robbing them the opportunity to acquire an education that will benefit them and their families in the future.

The cycle of poverty just keeps rotating within the family.

To those that have managed to juggle the two, being in school and also be on the streets, research has shown that they tend to struggle in their performance as a result of the stress.

Henry Kabwe, a child’s rights activists is incensed by the trend and he says the sooner it comes to an end the better.

Mr Kabwe, who is the executive director at Media Network on Child Rights and Development (MNCRD), says using children as guides is a form of abuse and an infringement on their rights.

“But it keeps going on and on as if everyone else has turned a blind eye on this bad trend that is spread countrywide. With time, it will even be difficult to curtail,” he says.

James Zimba who at some point acted as Livingstone district commissioner says the act introduces the children to street life which breeds bad behaviour thereby affecting their development and the country’s future.

“This is what breeds hooliganism among children. They are exposed to a lot of harsh things on the streets,” he says.

Southern province minister Edify Hamukale has also commented on the matter and called for a stop to it.

Dr Hamukale says he is not happy with the idea and advises people living with disabilities to at least not drag children in their business at the expense of school.

He says the tendency disadvantages the children from achieving their dreams.

“Help us manage this time bomb, these children need to be in class so that they can be educated and empowered with various life skills,” he says.

Dr Hamukale doesn’t end there. He goes further to castigate those with disabilities that opt out of government facilities to go and beg for alms on the streets.

“Government through the department of Social Welfare has facilities for people of that kind, but why leave and drag innocent children into their business if they cannot fend for themselves?” he quips.

Godfrey Simukonde, a child rights activist is one of those not happy with the growing trend.

Mr Simukonde who has founded the Godfrey Kids Centre and Initiative says children are denied the opportunity to develop well.

“Relatives of the visually impaired people must find other alternatives such as adults that can take them to the places they want to go. If we do not take the child to school then their future becomes uncertain. It is also unfair on the development of a child.

“In the process, such children lose out on their childhood because of the responsibility bestowed on them; that of taking care of their parents as they attempt to survive on the streets,” he says.

Brian Moonga, a Livingstone resident says government is also partly to blame for not being strict on laws deterring the trend from escalating.

“Some of these people come with stamped letters from the social welfare as if legally obliged to be on the streets and ask for alms. That is what is exacerbating the situation the levels it is at today,” he says.

He adds; “The responsibility of intervening effectively in the lives of these children is not the responsibility of any one group, but for all members of society. However, it is important for Government to adequately implement more policies for people with disabilities as a way of keeping such children away from the streets.”

Since antiquity, it is a common phenomenon to use children in begging activities. You can observe a number of children on the streets stretching their hands for money “please, I’m starved, am asking for some food or some coins!”

Parents or guardians use children for begging purposes to easily influence alms-givers and boost their income. Givers may feel guilt-ridden when they see the begging face of these children who are usually encouraged by their guardians.

MEET GENIOUS MUSOKOTWANE: Youth who has declared war on early marriages

Genious Musokotwane

ZAMBIA has one of the highest child marriage rates in the world with 42 percent of women aged between 20 and 24 years married by the age of 18.

Owing to the above facts, early child marriage has currently become a vital topic of discussion amongst several development platforms which has made it more visible to many that were unaware of its existence.

Recently, First Lady Esther Lungu at the Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA) summit highlighted that the scenario of early marriages and pregnancies had become worrisome and that as first ladies, their goal was to try and find ways to eliminate or reduce early marriages and teen pregnancies.

At present, Zambia is ranked 16th amongst countries with the highest rate of child marriage in the world and although the Marriage Act establishes a legal age for marriage, and the Penal Code makes sex with a girl under 16 an offence in Zambia, these provisions rarely apply in customary law.

And as the local proverb goes: “One finger cannot crush a louse”. There is indeed strength in numbers.

This proverb holds true in the fight against early or forced marriage.

The future of most girls is threatened by early or forced marriage, making it a national concern, bringing many organisations and people on board, all in an effort to mitigate it. Twenty-five-year-old Genious Musokotwane has jumped on board to dedicate his time to fighting the vice.

This reporter caught up with the energetic young man who at his age is executive director for the Musokotwane Compassion Mission Zambia (MCMZ), a Choma-based nonprofit and youth led organisation that frontiers the fight against child marriages.Not only that, his organisation which has on a number of occasions retrieved many girls from child and forced marriages in Choma and surrounding areas has also been ensuring that it meets their needs.

Asked who Genious Musokotwane is, he answers, “I am just a simple Zambian life transformation servant driven leader.” Born in Kalomo, back in 1992, Musokotwane was raised by a single parent, a thing that motivated him to found MCMZ.

“I grew up to know that I was a solution to my community,” he says. “When my mother died I was 10 years old, I went to live in the village and my time at the village as a young boy birthed my passion to bring about positive change.”

At the age of 14, an opportunity availed itself for him to attend a boy’s camp under Peace Corps as a volunteer. “At the end of the camp, we were all asked to take a quiet moment and reflect on things we would love to change in our communities,” he says. “It was at this point that the early child marriage problem resurfaced. It was in the same year that the 2007 Demographic Health Survey on Zambia was released and it indicated that half of Zambian women were married before the age of 18 years.”

Out of his passion, Musokotwane, then aged 15, engaged Chief Chikanta of Kalomo district and Chief Cooma of Choma district and shared with them his ideas on the best practices of ending early, forced and child marriages in their chiefdoms. And this was the birth of MCMZ.

Today, his organisation, MCMZ is a member of the Girls Not Brides global partnership on ending child marriages worldwide. It is also an approved Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) in Zambia.

Asked what it was like setting up MCMZ, Musokotwane says it was challenging at first, but has no regrets now. “But I believed in myself, I understood God had called me to this and I never expected a smooth path.

With this view in mind, it made everything easy. Also, Chief Chikanta and Chief Cooma supported me with what I needed and knowing that I had such traditional leaders behind me,” he adds.

He says child marriage has been a traditional practice that has escalated now because of poverty levels. He recalls how while in primary school, a school mate got married off and later lost her life during child birth. Up to now, it still hurts him that his late schoolmate had no one to stand for her.

“If someone stood for her not to be married off, she probably would still be alive today,” he says. The impact is not just on society and the retrieved girls. It has also had an impact on him.

He says: “Serving as a lead servant at MCMZ has made me realise that we are all tools in God’s hands. The opportunity has changed my view of success as not the acquisition of fame, material things or money but by how our actions, lifestyle and character bring the kingdom of heaven to those in distress.”

He adds: “The privilege to serve under this organisation has made me have a global view on how best we can improve our communities and the country’s social and economic development for all.” MCMZ retrieves girls from child marriages and provides them with shelter, basic needs, and education support through a school sponsorship program.

“MCMZ work improves the protection, health and education chances for girls, and widens their economic opportunities in society,” he says. He adds that improved economic opportunities for families in rural areas are key in the fight against the vice.

“Since inception, we have been dealing with 20 cases on average, annually. We need to abolish all those traditional practices that impede the development of young girls,” he says.

To keep afloat, the organisation has some income generating activities such as farming, beverage brewing and supply, fundraising galas and musical concerts, crowd funding and individual donors. He says a number of prominent private and public schools in the district have partnered with his organisation to offer scholarships to the 15 girls under its auspices and care.

It operates within four thematic areas, namely, advocacy, capacity building, child protection, and education support. He wishes to construct a school for his organisation at a farm donated to MCMZ by Chief Cooma, somewhere on the outskirts of Choma town.

Musokotwane who has earned himself a name for his actions and contribution to society advises parents to desist from sending their children into early marriage.

Some of the retrieved girls

He studied public relations at Evelyn Hone College and also spent some years in South Africa studying Missions and Leadership and while there, worked for a number of charitable organisations.

“I also managed to raise funds for our organisation MCMZ back in Zambia which I had left in the hands of a friend I met in 2008 during one of our outreach programmes at Choma secondary school,” he says.

What was just an idea 10 years ago is a reality now.

Creative art: Money spinner with potential to grow Zambia

‘ART is a lie that makes us realise the truth,” Pablo Picasso, one of the most revered draftsman, painter, printmaker, and sculptor once said.
This ‘lie’ however, has the potential to turn someone’s fortunes around, if well exploited and marketed.
Picasso himself was a living testimony.
He knew from an early age that he was unlike the rest.
Born in Malaga, Spain in 1881, he displayed little skill or interest in school work as a child, and looked forward to his hours spent in detention for being a bad student, where he would lose himself in his sketchbook.
Fortunately for the world, his father was an artist and arts professor, and took a special interest in his son’s talents. He began training him in painting and drawing while he was still very young, and by the time Picasso was 13 years old, his skills had already surpassed his father’s.
Picasso was destined for a life spent swimming against the tide. He chafed at authority, and objected to the rigidity of classical traditions and techniques that were taught to him in the prestigious fine arts schools he attended as a teenager.
In 1899, at the age of 18, he fell in with a crowd of radicals, artists and intellectuals in Barcelona who would inspire his break from the classical traditions of his education, and launch him on a path towards innovation and experimentation that would see him grow into one of the most influential and transformative artists in history.
Picasso moved to Paris two years later, and began his lifelong journey through style after style, mastering and profoundly marking each in turn as he charted his own inimitable path.

His works rarely fit within established traditions.
His evolution ran from his early Blue, Rose, and African periods, through to the Cubism tradition he co-founded, and on to a brief return to Realism, before finally diving into the Surrealist movement, which saw him produce one of the famous and powerful anti-war paintings in history – Guernica, a copy of which hangs today in the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Throughout his 78 years as an artist, he produced no fewer than 13,500 paintings, 100,000 prints and engravings, 34,000 illustrations, and 300 sculptures and ceramic pieces.
Zambia has had a number of its own ‘Picasso’s’ over the years.
One of them is Flinto Chandia, a relatively seasoned sculptor who died in August last year.
He too, just like Picasso lived on art.
Chandia grew up in Kitwe on the same street as the legendary and much revered Akwila Simpasa, late Henry Tayali’s arch nemesis, an artist he has looked up to for inspiration throughout his career.
Simply put, art is one talent that if nurtured, marketed and taken as a business, has the potential to turn the fortunes of everyone, including the country’s economy.
On October 17, 2015, President Edgar Lungu, after touring the Henry Tayali Art Gallery in the Lusaka show grounds which is the Visual Arts Council (VAC) headquarters signed in the visitors’ book and commented: “Let us create a living for our people out of their talents by making art an economic activity.”
Whereas President Lungu might have been intrigued by what he saw on display in the Henry Tayali Art Gallery, Minister of Tourism and Arts permanent secretary Howard Sikwela was equally intrigued by what is on display in the Livingstone Art Gallery, the country’s only national art gallery.

“When we talk about job creation, this is what we mean. It’s not just about being in an office and wearing a tie and suit. Creative art is a job and a money spinner on its own,” he said when he recently toured the facility.

“So this is what we mean by creative arts,” he says. “You know there are very few people that can sit and come up with something that people will be able to admire and appreciate and this is where we need to support those people (the artists).”
From the time it was opened in 2014, the Livingstone Art Gallery has recorded a total of slightly over 3, 500 visitors, both local and foreign nationals.
“We have a lot of painting and sculptures here on display and from time to time, we have art exhibition for schools,” says Chansa Chishimba, the manager.
“We feel we can do better in terms of visibility. But we have over 20 artists on our books.”
But Livingstone being the tourist capital, has well over a hundred artists and you can hardly go a distance without finding artistic displays other than the art gallery.
And Reverend Sikwela wants them to affiliate with the art gallery.
“They will find that by doing that, they will rake in a lot of money and live comfortably out of art,” he said.
Whereas he desires for the art gallery to grow in terms of numbers, Reverend Sikwela is concerned that it has not been publicised as much.
“So, I just want to encourage the staff here to say, please, let us make this place visible. Let us talk about it so that people realise to say when we go that side, we will be able to learn one or two things,” he said.
“As a ministry, we just have to go flat out and market, advertise and things like that. I tell you to say, if we went out there and did random interviews on people about some of these places, very few will be able to tell you to say they are aware of what is happening here,” he said.
He adds that, “we need to tell the community to say these things are actually available in Zambia.”