21st October - My first day in the office

We’ve now been without water for 2 days. The landlord and the plumber were supposed to turn up to sort out the grass fence, the living room lights, the malfunctioning toilet and the water problem, but instead of the landlord turning up without the plumber (as he did on Sunday), the plumber decided to turn up without the landlord and then refused to do any work as both parties were not around to work together . It’s getting slightly frustrating now, as we’re now resorting to washing our teeth with stored water from an outside tap, which since writing this has now decided to pack in too, so luckily we went round to Tina’s for dinner (a lovely Zambian lady who knows the VSO community really well) , where I took advantage of orange squash on tap and a lovely meal made from Spinach, Samp, Nishima (traditional maize dumplings) and chicken – lovely way to spend what has been a frustrating day. Finally, I can report that all is well with my new employers. Today was officially my first day as a volunteer fundraiser for Dzithandizeni Nutrition Group (pronounced zee-tandy-zay-nee). I was picked up at 8am and driven to the offices by Mrs Banda (Nutrition co-ordinator). They are situated in the area of Kapata, which is a 10 min drive from my house in Chipata. I was shown the land that they occupy which has an area for planting seeds which they use for community demonstrations. Local volunteers use the area to show the local community how to grow their own food. They also have a hammer mill, which was donated by a Danish organisation some years ago, but is now malfunctioning. The grounds also contain some rehabilitation rooms, which they used to use for outpatient care, particularly for malnourished children who have been discharged from the local hospital. However the funding has now dried up so there is no longer a matron who looks after rehabilitation services and the rooms are now lying empty. It was quite a sad sight to see, as the Nutrition Group had such great services, but due to lack of money and resources a lot of their work has now ceased during a time, when it’s needed most. The final nail in the coffin came when my colleague Mr Zulu pointed out that they also don’t have access to a borehole (type of water pump), so they use the neighbouring house to access water. I began to wonder how on earth they manage to still exist, but it was explained that the majority of the funding comes from rent paid by local tenants who live in a few houses owned by the group. The rest of the funding is based on ad hoc projects funded by local businessmen. Despite the huge lack of resources, I was inspired by the drive, determination and commitment shown by my colleagues to making things work. They are highly organised and passionate about what they do (providing nutritional support to the Chipata district through cooking/planting demonstrations and home based care for malnourished children and families, particularly those living with HIV). I dread to think how and who would be able to represent the nutritional needs of the community of Chipata if they weren’t there so hopefully my role as a fundraiser will be able to help them in some sort of way.