Digital Postcard from Zambia

CEDPA's Senior Technical Advisor for Education and Youth, Mary Ellen Duke, shared her thoughts as she met with a CEDPA alum in Zambia .

Nov. 22, 2005—This morning I found myself in Lusaka ’s largest (approx 92,000 inhabitants) informal settlement, Mtendere. This settlement didn’t quite seem to be “informal” as it was alive and bursting with activity at 10am. The dusty streets were crowded with vendors selling everything from mangos to kale to tomatoes to baskets full of caterpillars. In addition to the street vendors, small businesses lined the streets.

I especially liked the “Beuty [sic], Butchery & Fish Centre" sign over a door. It appears that one-stop shopping is here to stay! Women leaving the local health clinic were dressed in bright batiks with their babies wrapped close to them in equally colorful cloth. To finish the ensemble, the women shielded their babies with huge umbrellas made of every color of the rainbow.

After about 10 minutes of turning down various streets, I finally located Africa Directions Buaze Community Youth Centre. The Executive Director, Evans Banda, attended CEDPA’s Youth Leadership and Reproductive Health workshop back in 1997. After winding my way past a large group of children quietly absorbed in a video program, I was able to locate an adult to point me in the direction of Evans. When I got to his office he smiled and said, “I am always happy to meet somebody from CEDPA.”

Back in 1997, Evans came to CEDPA by way of Youth Media, a Zambian media organization. His expectations of the workshop were to learn how to better reach out to youth and to come up with strategies. As he told me today, “My expectations were met in a very big way.”

He explained that his time at CEDPA was a life changing experience as it bears on the work he is currently doing with Africa Directions. He told me that everything he learned at the workshop is put into practice.

He was also touched by his visit to The Door, a youth center in Manhattan that runs programs for marginalized youth. Once Evans got back to Zambia, he decided to move on from Youth Media and use what he learned at CEDPA and work toward his dream—an independent youth centre.

He partnered with a drumming group in Mtendere, wrote up a proposal (again, using those skills gained at CEDPA!) and started to approach donors. Because most programs for youth on reproductive health and HIV/AIDS were located downtown, he wanted to work in Mtendere—where the problem exists. The original proposal counted on a beneficiary population of about 20-35 youth per day. In 2000, the Royal Netherlands Embassy took a chance and funded the proposal.

Evans told me how they didn’t really expect it work given his age (29) and inexperience. They started out in 2001 with one building and found that they had 50 youth coming in each day. By the end of the year, they had outgrown their space. As well, the Royal Netherlands Embassy saw what a success it had become and gave them more funding. Today, they have four buildings and on average, 200 youth visit each day.

Evans told me CEDPA opened his eyes. “The workshop played a pivotal role in shaping myself and the Centre. There is a direct relation to every topic in that workshop to the day-to-day activity here.”

He’s got his CEDPA workshop binder in his bookcase in his office—ready to refer to at anytime. He has used the leadership skills gained at CEDPA, he’s now running the entire operation as Executive Director and supervising a staff of 20 full-time employees and 80 volunteers.

The Centre provides a variety of activities for youth ages 8 to 25 including sports and recreation, sexual health and family planning information, workshops and skills training, HIV counseling, career counseling, drama and drumming. Peer educators are an important part of their formula. They have recently added a program for children under the age of 5 and also serve as the umbrella organization for the 51 non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations in Mtendere.

I asked Evans what challenges he faced and I really expected his answer to be funding. His challenge is getting more girls into the programs. Right now, they only make up about 20 percent of the youth that come to the Centre. Cultural reasons often keep girls at home; they should be home cooking and cleaning. As well, given that some of the programs touch on topics that are taboo, girls who openly talk about condoms are considered “loose.” Mtendere can be a scary place for young girls as there seems to be a bar on every corner. Evans is aware of all of this and knows there is still work to be done.