I senaste numret av Plans tidning Barnens framtid kan du läsa om ”zambulanserna” som hjälper kvinnor på landsbygden i Zambia att ta sig till förlossningskliniken. Bläddra fram till sidan fyra i pdf:en för att läsa mer om Belinda.

Läs Barnens framtid nummer 4 här (Extern pdf) » 

Medverkar gör:
Marika Griehsel – är en journalist, dokumentärfilmare, föreläsare och var 1990 och 2001 SVT:s korrespondent i Afrika.
Erika Bjerström – är journalist, utrikeskorrespondent, programledare och författare.

Information:
Tid: Tisdag 29 November, Kl: 19:00
Plats: ABF i Vårby Gårds Centrum, Caféet KBC, Vårby Allé 22

Välkomna hälsar ABF genom Svensk-zambiska föreningen!

He continues: ”Especially not one who is a populist who lashes out against anyone, supports Mugabe and also wants to throw out Chinese investors. But still when opposition leader Michael Sata was formally declared the winner of the Zambian Presidential Election of 2011 I cheered with the Zambians. When southern hemisphere now enters into spring, democracy in Zambia is in full bloom.”

Read the whole article by Petter Bolme from Globalreporting.net (external link) »

Detta skriver SIDA på sin hemsida:

Vinnaren i presidentvalet blev oppositionsledaren Michael Chilufya Sata. Sverige deltog i EU:s valobservation och finansierade en observationsstyrka på 20 parlamentariker från 12 olika länder i SADC-regionen.

Inför valet pekade opinionsmätningarna mot ett jämnt lopp mellan den sittande president Banda och utmanaren Sata. Den allmänna uppfattningen var dock att Banda, stärkt av Zambias ekonomiska framgångar och med regeringspartiet Movement for Multi-Party Democracy:s valmaskineri i ryggen, i slutändan skulle ta hem spelet.

Dessa förutsägelser kom på skam då Sata bärgade segern med 43 procent av rösterna, jämfört med Bandas 36 procent. I parlamentsvalet blev det jämnare.  Satas parti Patriotic Front vann flest platser men inte tillräckligt för en majoritet i parlamentet. Andelen kvinnliga parlamentsledamöter sjönk från 14 procent innan valet till 11,5 procent, en siffra som placerar Zambia långt ned på såväl den regionala som globala skalan. Valdeltagandet ser ut att ha varit lågt, uppskattningsvis runt 55-60 procent av registrerade väljare tros ha röstat.

Läs hela nyheten på SIDA:s hemsida (extern länk) »

”Genom ett initiativ från civilsamhället som kallas Bantu Watch kan medborgare anonymt lämna rapporter om oegentligheter inför och under valet. Genom att sända textmeddelanden från mobiltelefoner till ett lokalt nummer, 3018, eller genom att logga in på en hemsida kan allmänheten rapportera incidenter. Lokala valobservatörer kontrollerar uppgifterna för att sedan agera själva eller ta hjälp av polisen.”

Länk till artikelen i ETC som berättar om Bantu Watch i Zambia (extern länk) »

1. Märta Simonsson skrev den 13 april 2010:

   Jättefint jobb ni gjort med att uppdatera hemsidan. Det är så roligt att läsa om ungdomsprojektet och att ni har fått förlängt bidrag i tre år till. Det var ju projekt som detta som vi drömde om, Bengt och jag, när vi var med om att grunda SweZam år 1974. Lycka till i fortsättningen. Kan jag göra något för att hjälpa till? Märta

2. Ylva Werlinder skrev den 21 april 2010: 

   Hej Märta, vad roligt att du hittat hit till hemsidan och att du också skrivit en kommentar! Ja, visst är det kul att Mindoloprojektet fått fortsatt stöd!

   Något som SweZam alltid behöver hjälp med är ju att samla in medel för egeninsatsen till vårt projekt. Om jag inte minns helt fel så behöver vi ca 15.000 kr per år!

   Om du har kreativa idéer kring hur dessa pengar kan samlas in så tas de tacksamt emot! En idé är att sälja SweZam-pins till sina vänner? Eller ordna en insamling på sin syjunta eller när man träffas i någon annan samling?

   Vad säger du?
   Hälsningar Ylva

The ambassador of Zambia - Mrs Joyce Musenge and her husband

During the month of February the former Zambian ambassador, Mrs Joyce Musenge, left her position here in Sweden to instead become the ambassador of Zambia in China.

A farewell audience was held in her honour at the Royal Castle on the 9th of February 2010 and SweZam wishes Mrs. Musenge all the best with her new challenging tasks in China. The name of the new ambassador is Mrs. Anne Mtamboh (another woman!) and we hope to continue the good cooperation between her and the Swedish-Zambian Association in the future.

Dancing together at the farewell party in October.

Combining business with pleasure is fun. A recent opportunity for friends of Zambia and members of the Swedish-Zambian Association took place October 17 in Stockholm.

Organisers of the event were board members Lisa Arrehag, Anna Tyllström and Ylva Werlinder as well as member Åsa Knutsson.

The event was a combined fundraising function and farewell party for Linda Malukutu, Don Mwindilila and Bruce Mubanga  from the Youth Rights project that Swe-Zam supports in Kitwe. The function capped a two-week visit by the trio, and was also the second stage in a SweZam exchange project (for more details of their visit please see other articles).

Rolf and Anna introducing the SweZam project.

After initial mingling, the guests were invited to help themselves to the tasty dishes that had been prepared by some of the organisers. The meal was followed with a presentation of the Youth Rights project at Mindolo, outside Kitwe. The Zambia visitors, their Swe-Zam exchange counterparts Karin Johansson and Ylva Werlinder as well as Swe-Zam Chairman Rolf Svanström shared impressions of the project, some of the impact and how it has evolved.

The presentation included photos and video footage from the visits to Mindolo and a nearby school and meetings with youth, parents and teachers.

Greta and Anna talking - SweZam members sharing experiences.

After endulging in all this “food for thought” it was time for desert – coffee and brownies. This was accompanied by a fascinating musical tour of Africa by Namibian-born musician Tauna Niingungo. He sang and played a variety of instruments ranging from thumb pianos of different sizes to percussion instruments including a South American tube filled with pebbles that made sounds like rain or runnng water. Pure magic.

Members of the female art collective Hakka  meanwhile joined in a fashion show displaying classic designs by honorary Swe-Zam member Anna-Greta Mattsson  (under her label “Anna-Greta of Zambia) to comfortable capris-style Makame pants that Anna Tyllström imports.

HAKKA and guests dancing together at the party.

The show ended with a lively dance along, and many of the guests jumped off their chairs to join in the jive before it was time to select the winners of the raffle. A dozen or lucky winners were applauded and cheered, while those of us who failed to win were heartened at the thought of knowing that we had contributed to a worthy cause.

By now the evening was drawing to a close and guests started to leave, lucky raffle winners with their prizes; others wearing a Swedish-Zambian flag pin on their lapels – the pins were also sold as part of the fundraising activity that generated a good contribution to the Youth Rights Information Centre.

Text: Lennart Simonsson, SweZam board

Cutting the Independence cake at the Independence party 2009.

Yours excellency, distinguished guests and friends

We are gathering here to celebrate the 45th anniversy of the young nation Zambia and I am honoured to be a part of this. occasion.  I had the privilege to spend three years in the service of the Zambian government on a Sida contract in the beginning of the 90s. Those years were veri rich in experience and changed somewhat the direction of my life. I didn’t know much about Zambia  before but I have learnt a lot since both about Zambia and Sweden. Things I took for granted in Sweden are the result of of many peoples hard work during many years to build a well functioning and complex state. I follow the development in both countryieswith great interest.

Lately the so called corruption scandal within the Ministry of Health and how it has been handled both in Zambia and in Sweden. To my understanding it was the Zambian authorities  with help from the civil society that discovered and reported the problem and not the donor community and their audit systems, which I regard as a positive sign, a feather in Zambia´s cap and not as a failure of the Swedish control system as the responsible minister formulated it.

This event has also initiated a debate in Sweden about development support which I think is good. But there is one important thing missing in my point of view – the time frame. Zambia, and most other African states, are very young. Most of the Zambian leaders were born when the country still was a colony. How long time does it take to build a nation with well functioning infrastructure and institutions? How long did it take in the Western world?

During my years in the Ministry of Health I was very impressed by how much energy and committment many of the colleagues put in, not everybody of course but many. So I think there is a lot of potential by the Zambian citizens and that Zambia will eventually develop to a good place for most of their people to live in but it will take time. We need to equip ourselves and our leaders with patience and endurance.

The Association is contributing in a small scale to the development of Zambia by the Youth HR project in Kitwe. Recently we were visited by three people from that project ,working together with us to develop realistic methods and tools for monitoring and evaluation of the effects of the project. I think we made good progress and the Zambain friends are saying that they had a very inspiring experience. They and we spent quite many hours on Zambian territory i.e. the premises of the Zambian Embassy. I want to convey the Association’s gratitude to the Ambassador for letting us using your beatiful office not only for this event but also for our board meetings where often somebody from your staff  is with us sharing information. We do appreciate it a lot and it strengthens the bonds between Sweden and Zambia. If you want to support the project there will be pins, vouchers and lottery tickets for sale later.

I propose a toast for the friendship between Sweden and Zambia.

Rolf Svanström, Chairperson SweZam

Sharing of experiences between RFSU and SweZam.

RFSU (the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education) welcomed us on a Thursday afternoon. Sharing experiences of our projects – both of them focusing on gender issues.

Thursday 15th of October
Olle Wängborg and Eva Magnusson informed us about RFSU, the background of the association, that they belong to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF, which also the partner in Zambia, PPAZ does),  the projects they are running, and most of all the project that they had running in Zambia and other parts of southern Africa, Young Men as Equal Partners (YMEP).

They have carried out the YMEP in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia in a school setting. It started with a pilot period 2000-2003 and the final part of the project (which started in 2004) has now come to an end (for detailed information on the project, please visit the very detailed website http://www.rfsu.se/about_ymep.asp).

What does it mean being a man and a woman in Zambia? PPAZ made a baseline at the start to find out what beliefs there were. The youth were represented in the planning and monitoring process.  They have also carried out midterm and final term evaluation studies. The way they proceed with their studies seem very interesting and useful, which is why we have been sent digital copies of these studies.

RFSU has recently become a framework/umbrella organisation under Sida, which means  that they can make one application for all their projects and programs in 11 countries, starting from this year. Their hopes are to cooperate with PPAZ, YWCA and Youth Vision in Zambia.

We received a lot of printed material in English, which will come to good use in the Youth Centre. The team who went to RFSU think we can learn much from the RFSU studies, the methods and tools used.

Text: Karin Johansson, SweZam board