Community: Zambia Project
Established over 15 years ago, the Arthur Cox Zambia Project continues to raise the standards of living in remote regions of Zambia by supporting a wide range of initiatives to build resilience in the local communities. This includes investment in food and water security initiatives, health and education infrastructure as well as climate and nature positive capacity building.
In February 2024, the President of Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema, declared a national emergency due to a drought that devastated the country’s food production and electricity generation. Against this background, our project continues to make significant inroads into building local capacity and resilience, tackling food and water security and the development of health and education infrastructure in the Chikuni and Mwandi regions.
Directly funded initiatives 2023/2024
Our Arthur Cox Zambia Project continues to work in partnership with trusted NGO partners and local community groups to support grass roots initiatives identified and implemented by the communities in which we work. For many years, as part of the project, our trainees have volunteered on the projects in Zambia to develop education infrastructure in the Chikuni region. Following a COVID-enforced hiatus, our trainees returned to Zambia in August 2024 for the first time since 2019. They resumed their assistance with the community to build a new 1x3 classroom block and 1x2 teacher housing in the rural village of Hakalinda. This was the location of the first community school that Arthur Cox trainees helped to build in 2014, and so it is a testament to its success that pupil numbers continue to increase year-on-year (with 172 pupils in 2023 to 230 in 2024) requiring an additional three classrooms.
We are pleased to report that fundraising initiatives here at the firm this year have continued to be very successful, (albeit slightly behind last year’s total), enabling the continuation of projects on the ground in Zambia. Through various fundraising initiatives involving the whole firm, over €46,500 has been raised this year. We are grateful to the firm’s staff who fully get behind these fundraising and volunteering initiatives to support the continued success of the programme.
To find out more about the Arthur Cox Zambia Project and the work that has been done to date, please click on the video below:
FOOD AND WATER SECURITY
Mwandi Region
The Loanja Rice Growers Company (LRG) was founded in 2019 as part of our Arthur Cox Zambia Project with the aim of addressing food insecurity in the southwest region of Zambia. The LRG operates akin to a cooperative between participating farmers in the region under the guidance of agronomist and project facilitator, Mr Henry Ngimbu, and the local offices of the Ministry of Agriculture with the support of the District Commissioner, Mrs Kabika, as well as the traditional leadership.
Rice farming in the Mwandi district, especially around the Loanja plains, expanded from 100kg of surplus rice purchased by LRG from farmers in 2016 to more than 500 metric tonnes purchased by LRG from farmers in 2023. The cooperative works by selling seed to farmers, providing the means to process the harvested crop, acts as a guaranteed buyer for farmers and then sells the processed rice through shops in local communities – i.e. farm to store.
Unfortunately, the drought and national emergency in early 2024 has had a devastating effect on the rice crop. Following consultation with local communities, Mr Ngimbu and the Mwandi Council Water Development Department, funds were provided in January 2024 to upgrade three existing hand pump boreholes to solar boreholes at Masese Agricultural Camp, Sibeso village and Silayi village, and install a further three new solar boreholes at Manyemwe, Kandelemuna and Kalundu villages. These initiatives will directly benefit 8,400 people (increasing to 25,000 in three years). They will also target the devastating effects of drought by providing a means to irrigate crops and scale up productivity and yield by 50% or more. In addition to the immeasurable benefit of water security within a community, these boreholes also have positive knock-on effects on school attendance, with more children able to attend school rather than fetch water.
Ancillary Initiatives
The work of the Zambia Project has been assisted greatly by our partnership with Mr Ngimbu who reports on these initiatives to our Zambia Project leadership regularly. Demonstrating the sustainability of the firm’s investment in the LRG, the company successfully obtained, out of a total of 200 applicants across Zambia, circa $35,000 in funding from the UN Global Environmental Fund in 2024 to support agricultural training, irrigation infrastructure and forestry conservation initiatives within a catchment area of 50,000 hectares.
The LRG has established a Centre of Excellency for Forest Conservation and aims to plant 100 million trees using indigenous species which will reduce forestry encroachment by 30%. Part of the UN funds will also be used by the LRG to research and develop certified crop seed in Sibeso village for onward resale across Zambia. This will support not only the local communities, but the entire nation. It will directly impact 30,000 forest-dependent households’ livelihoods through the promotion and implementation of climate smart agricultural practices and technologies. The UN Funding was secured on the back of commitments of in-kind contributions by local communities and by leveraging investments already made by Arthur Cox in relation to solar boreholes and donations of Arthur Cox computers.
In September 2023, training was provided, with the assistance of the LRG, to the local community to make sustainable charcoal and biochar soil improver. The aim of this initiative is to minimise illegal harvesting of native forests and charcoal production, which has increased significantly during the current drought as traditional income sources are adversely impacted.
While these initiatives are not funded directly by the Arthur Cox Zambia Project, we are pleased to be kept updated through our close ties with LRG and Mr Ngimbu. In addition, the independent nature of these ancillary undertakings, being initiatives of our partners on the ground in Zambia demonstrates the sustainability of the firm’s investment in Zambia.
Chikuni Region
Water security is also a key focus for the Project in the Chikuni region of Zambia. Each of the six schools funded by our Zambia Project have the benefit of hand-pump boreholes.
Recognising the key role that water access plays in ensuring food supply and energy so that school children can focus on learning and expanding their future opportunities, upgrading the existing hand pump boreholes to solar boreholes in each of these communities will be one of the focuses of the Zambia Project in Chikuni going forward.
In light of this, our project has assisted with the recent installation of a solar borehole at Hakalinda village. This will have the added benefit of ensuring that the bricks for the expansion of the Hakalinda school can be prepared on-site which will also reduce the construction costs. The roll-out of solar boreholes to the community school at Munyona Central and the remaining Arthur Cox-funded schools will be a focus for 2024 – 2026. We anticipate being able to support one borehole per year at a minimum.
Arthur Cox delegation during the May 2024 trip to meet with the Mwandi District Commissioner, a senior government representative in the area who plays a key role in providing information on the areas with greatest need in the district
Arthur Cox delegation with the District Commissioner and Henry Ngimbu at the newly established Centre of Excellency for Forest Conservation established by the LRG
Solar borehole installation
EDUCATION
Our Arthur Cox Zambia Project has partnered with the Chikuni Jesuit mission since 2014 on a community schools programme, which provides primary education to those who do not have adequate access to State facilities across 17 different communities in the region. Across the 17 community schools, of which our trainees have helped to build six, student numbers have increased from 2,776 students to a total of 3,946 students in the past year. Students attending these community schools often out-perform their peers in fee-paying government schools.
As a testament to the success of these community schools and the dedicated teachers and community mentors that work in them, pupil numbers in Hakalinda have now increased to 230 in 2024. This expansion requires three additional classrooms. In addition, while teachers in the community schools were once unqualified volunteers, there are also now three government funded, fully qualified teachers teaching in the Hakalinda primary school together with three volunteer mentors. We understand that key to the retention of government funded teachers is the provision of teacher housing facilities. Currently, the teachers allocated to Hakalinda are living in temporary housing facilities.
The construction of a 1x3 classroom block and a 1x2 teachers’ house, to provide housing for the full-time teachers supplied by the Zambian government, is now underway. Given the extremely low reserves of food within the community, the project will support the provision of meals for community volunteers who assist with the construction efforts which was identified by our partners on the ground in Chikuni as a key additional resource to ensure community buy-in given the impact of the drought this year.
In 2023/2024, the Project also assisted with the purchase of six upgraded lithium batteries for installation at the six Arthur Cox-funded community schools. These batteries have a longer life span and help to provide solar powered electricity at the schools, including power for lights required for evening classes.
Arthur Cox delegation with the community at Hakalinda primary school in May 2024, being the first school that Arthur Cox trainees helped to build in 2014 and where student numbers are now at 230 requiring the need for a new classroom block
Plaque presentation commemorating the build of the school by Arthur Cox trainees to the Sintemba IRI School in Chikuni
HEALTH
Healthcare in Zambia has always been a key area of focus for the project since 2008, with the renovation of a rural medical clinic in the village of Masese which provides services to a population of 5,700 people. We installed a borehole water supply and running water and also built a seven-bed maternity ward.
The Masese Clinic was officially handed over to the Department of Health in 2014, although we continue to annually review and provide support to the clinic for repairs and provision of medicines. In early 2023, the clinic underwent a full refurbishment with the benefit of local government funding, which is testament to the success of the project’s core pillar of community ownership. The community is currently in the process of constructing a waiting shelter in consultation with the local government, with a portion of the funds donated by our project.
In early 2024 the Mwandi Mission Hospital, achieved Level 2 status by the Zambian government. This expands its catchment area from 40,000 to 200,000 people. The accreditation will see six consultants being assigned to the hospital upon receipt of funding from the Ministry for Finance. Plans are underway to construct a new diagnostic centre and to provide more specialised and improved care to the community without the need to refer patients elsewhere. An oxygen plant and associated infrastructure was constructed in 2022 at Mwandi Hospital to supply piped oxygen to hospital patients. The Arthur Cox Zambia Project funded the oxygen manifold which provides the interface between the oxygen plant and distribution infrastructure. Plans are also underway to construct a small office building in 2024 for the technicians who are responsible for the oxygen plant. Mwandi Hospital also provides a one stop centre and a safe refuge for victims of domestic violence, with access to doctors, the church and the police under one roof. Our Zambia project work in Mwandi is supported by our partners Keith and Ida Waddell who assist us in identifying funding opportunities and providing updates.
Masese Clinic representatives in May 2024, which provides services to a population of 5,700 people and includes a seven-bed maternity clinic
Weighing scales used for newborn babies born in the clinic