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
