Hello and Welcome!

Thanks for visiting my blog. I'm currently working as a Fundraising Advisor in Chipata for a small community-based organisation called Chipata Dzithandizeni Nutrition Group, based in the Eastern Province of Zambia.

It's a role I gained through Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) and I'm hoping to share my experiences of Zambian culture with you through this site.

I'm lucky to be working with some amazing colleagues and the community, sharing skills in order to generate income and resources to support the work of the the Nutrition Group. The Group is situated in Kapata township right in the heart of Chipata and its focus is to provide nutritional support to vulnerable children and adults in the urban and rural areas of Chipata.

Before this, I had never been to Zambia, slept under a mosquito net or even accepted a job without meeting any of my colleagues first, so as you can imagine it was a bit of a risk! I'm grateful to VSO for all their support in preparing me for all the challenges! I'm hoping that with some fun and hard work along the way, I'll look back and think that every minute was worth it.

If you like, you can see where Chipata is by clicking on the map on the right. Also feel free to click on the Zambia Country profile to learn more about this stunning country. Take a browse through my blog and feel free to post me any messages along the way!

Please remember that all the views within this blog do not represent the views of VSO or Chipata Nutrition Group.

Thanks,
Sarah

Monday, 26 October 2009

16th October - My first Zambian workshop

Today I attended my first workshop involving VSO volunteers, Partner organisations and our VSO Programme Managers. The theme of the day involved lots of ‘stakeholder expectations’, tips on how to work together and lots of death by powerpoint presentations. Overall, it was a great opportunity to meet all partner organisations working across all the VSO strategic goal areas (HIV, Participation and Governance and my area of Food Security). The day started off in true ‘Zambian time’ (a couple of hours later than scheduled), lots of mobile phones going off and lots of presentations ending with ‘a keeloh’ (a type of Zambian hand clap, which I’ve decided to use in all my workshops!) It was a great, inspiring day, but very tiring and slightly overwhelming. Now, I’m just looking forward to heading to Chipata in the morning, so I can start putting theory into practice – help!
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