Mothers of Africa Zambia Trip Update

The Mothers of Africa team arrived safe and sound in Zambia on Sunday. We recovered quickly, so that Monday was full-on, its safe to say. First of all, news of the Shiyala Village team: Maggie and Sue, Gwilym and Jon, two artists and two engineers went down today with various tasks in their sites. Maggie delivered three sewing machines, kindly donated by Janome. On delivery they worked perfectly and immediately a women’s group formed up learning, everyone very happy to learn how to use them. There was real enthusiasm. Sue made some fabulous Sun Prints with members of the village and women’s co-operative. We’re hoping to make an exhibition of these things in Chongwe Hospital by the end of the week.

Jon and Gwilym really went to work on the solar, assessing the system, understanding how it might be made to work better, explaining to locals how to maximise its performance. They’ve been ducking and diving all day, so we haven’t managed to catch Jon in one place long enough to get photos. Gwilym has been sorting out the computers which need a bit of a service, so he’s going to be re-imaging and we’ll leave them all in good working order. A good and productive day. News of the hospital activities tomorrow.

Judith