Communities Without Borders

Like many other squatter compounds in Lusaka, Zambia, Chawama grew into a shanty town in the years following independence (1963).  People from rural areas streamed into Lusaka hoping to find a job and a better way of life.  Of course, they had no land of their own so they squatted on whatever land was available.  This was usually the least desirable land which had been deserted by the colonists who had been displaced.  And, so it was with Chawama.  The land is near a river and the surrounding lowlands regularly flood with great ponds of water during the rainy season.  This results in the easy spread of gastro-intestinal illnesses among the population, even including cholera, which regularly strikes Chawama more than other communities, leaving children sick and dying.

Chawama is home for tens of thousands of people squeezed into a few square kilometers.  The houses usually constructed from cement cinder blocks with a tin roof are very crowded together.  The people live in very close quarters often squeezing a family of ten into one small room.  Unemployment is very high with many women eking out an existence by buying and reselling small amounts of vegetables or charcoal.  The markets along the streets are nearly impassable with small tables next to one another where the women display their sales items.  Some people make a living from the river:  they pound large rocks into a powder that is used in a nearby cement factory, but this is very hard physical work, and child labor abuse is prevalent because people are desperate to find a way to earn a little money in order to eat.

There are no sewers and not enough latrines.  There is trash everywhere as city disposal services are non-existent.  There are no reliable water mains.  Many people stand in line to pay for water from a bore hole and then carry it home.  But, many others must rely on shallow, unprotected wells, which definitely do not provide potable water.

Coming from rural communities, where there are close and supportive family and tribal bonds, people in Chawama are from many different places and cultures and so have lost the strength of rural community support.  Life here is a continual struggle to eat, find safe water, to find a protective home and to avoid disease.  Imagine how difficult it is to obtain an education.

The First Unitarian Society in Newton, Massachusetts, USA has been linked with Chawama since 2000 through Communities Without Borders and our partner NGO Society for Women and AIDS in Zambia (SWAAZ).   252 students are currently being supported at Chawama in pre-school and in government schools.  There are 65 students in the preschool, 159 in primary government school and 28 in secondary school.