Chodort - Week Two

Chordort - Week Two




I started to write this on Saturday evening but I expect that it will be Sunday before I get it posted. The temperatue was in the mid 30s today and it is still over 20 as the sun goes down. The sun sets here are beautiful, but stay out doors for too long in the evening and you are a prime target for the dreaded mosquitoe . I have been very fortunate not to be troubled so far but I have however caught the sun a little. I do try to stay out of the sun in during the hottest part of the day


The working day here starts at 07.30 and officially ends at 17.30. Although it is only a five minute walk from the house to the Centre I tend not to go back to the house at lunchtime. There is a staff room where folk congregate at 10.00 for the morning smoko (Australian for tea break). The staff are most inquisitive and never stop asking me questions with topics ranging from Margaret Thatcher to the independence referendum. Mr Simataa who is from Sesheke asks the most questions and is very interested in the Scottish Independence debate. Sesheke is in Western Province (Barotseland) which before Zambian independence in 1964 had special status as a British Protectorate. The traditional Monarch of Barotseland is the Paramount Chief, called the Litunga meaning 'keeper or guardian of the earth', who is directly descended from the ancient Litunga Mulambwa who ruled at the turn of the nineteenth century and through his grandson, Litunga Lewanika who ruled from 1878–1916, with one break in 1884-5, who restored the traditions of the Lozi. There has been some unrest in the province of recent times with calls for independence. The population of the Province is about the same as Scotland. The politicians seem to be talking to each other and things are quite now in the province, Zambia remains an oasis of tranquility compared to some other countries in this part of the world



I am now well into the work for the Challenges Worldwide assignment and have spent the week meeting and talking to staff members about their roles and what they see as the challenges for Chodort over the next three to five years. I have lots to read as many of the staff have completed the diagnostic review questionnaire that I sent out the Chodort before I arrived in Choma. I have also started to analyse some of the financial records and have prepared some break-even calculations based on the information to hand. Record keeping is something that needs some attention and I will be addressing this in the coming week. Another area that needs some work is in Costing and Pricing of the work undertaken by the production unit. Mr Mwango, the vice principal is responsible for this. Unfortunately he is not in the best of health and during the time I have been here he has been to Lusaka - a five hour drive - twice to visit hospital. He will be away again at the start of next week, returning on the day that I leave for the Copperbelt. Jenny, the principal at Chordort has some meetings in Kitwe and she has kindly offered to take me with her. I will have three days to catch up with the folk that are still around from the time I lived and worked in that part of the country.



Continued Sunday Evening

Just back from a visit to Lake Kariba. This was not planned for today but came about by chance. I was invited to the Boys Brigade Enrolment Service this morning by one of the carpenters at Chodort. He is the Captain of the Brigade based at St. Stephens church which is in the complex at Chodort. It was quite an event with boys as young as 4-5 being enrolled. I was given one of the best seats in the church sitting next to the Bishop. It was at the end of the ceremony that Vincent, the BB captain told Jenny, Chodort Principle that the father of one of the new students had died at Maamba which is very close to Kariba. Jenny offered to take the student to Mamba and so began the trip to Kariba via Maamba. The economy of Maamba is reliant on Maamba Collieries which is the largest coal mining
operation in Zambia. It is 65% owned by a Singapore based holding company and ZCCM has a 35% equity.

The Open Pit at Maamba

The Colliery is located at Maamba town in Sinazongwe district of which is about 350 km from Lusaka and about 100 km from Choma.
It is an open pit mine with reserves of 140 million tonnes of high grade and thermal grade coal, spread over 1070 hectares. Like most large mining operations in Zambia the company is very much involved in the development of the local  infrastructure and community development like construction of roads and bridges and recreational and educational facilities.

After taking the Chodort student to Maamba, as Kariba was so close Jenny offered to take me to Lake Kariba. The road was beginning to show signs of being affected by the rains as most rural roads do that this time of the year. We were fortunate to be in a 4x4 vehicle so although the ride was a little uncomftable we arrived there in one piece and enjoyed our lunch and a cold beer by the lake shore. 

The Road to Lake Kariba

Lake Kariba is the world's largest man made lake and reservoir by volume. It forms part of the border between Zambia and Zimbambwe. The lake was filled between 1958 and 1963 following the completion of the Kariba Dam.

Kariba Dam

Lake Kariba from Space

My First week at Chodort

How time flies, I am writing this on Sunday morning in the kitchen after breakfast of porridge and tropical fruit. I have also spent some time planning a short visit to Sesheke in the Western Province to visit the school that I taught at when I first came to Zambia in 1968.  From what I hear the road from Livingstone to Shesheke is in very good order and the journey will take a little over an hour. When I lived there it was a whole day in the dry season and if it was raining it was better not to attempt the journey on the Zambian side of the border. The road was better traveling through Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe crossing back into Zambia over the road bridge linking Zimbabwe with Zambia at the Victoria Falls.

Students for the vocational courses on offer at Chodort - Carpentry, Tailoring and Computing will start their courses tomorrow – 13 January -   I understand that the courses will fill over the first couple of weeks of this the first of a three  term year. The instructors have been busy preparing their classrooms and their course material over the past few days.

My first week on Campus which is about a five minute walk from where I am staying was spent getting to know people and what they do. I was invited to sit in on all the staff meetings and this was invaluable in giving me an insight into the current issues facing Chodort. I also started to speak with key   individuals in the carpentry production unit and collecting information from them to enable me to appreciate the challenges that are confronting the staff. I had prepared a business diagnostic questionnaire together with a marketing questionnaire and these have been with the staff since before my arrival. I hope I will be able to start reviewing staff responses early next week. Jenny Featherstone, the Principle was here, there and everywhere and spends a great deal of her time on matters that could be dealt with by other members of her team. I hope that I will be able to help her to find more time to devote to strategic planning.

Having the computing instructor available to help me get my laptop and phone working in Zambia has been a godsend. I am not sure that I would have managed without his help. I have Wi-Fi both in the office and back at the house and although the connections are a little slow they do seem to work   most of the time. I have a colour printer and supplies of paper.

I am not sure that Chodort has a landline phone, I have yet to see one. Almost everyone that I have met has one, if not two cell phones (mobiles) and they never seem to turn them off. There does not seem to be any law against using a mobile whilst driving or if there is no one seems to pay any attention to it. 

The roads are very busy in and around Choma and although the main road through the town – The Livingstone to Lusaka road – is in good repair the side roads are far from it. Most are not paved and deteriorate during the rains. I have not yet driven a vehicle  but have been both a front and back seat passenger  in some rather bumpy journeys.

On Saturday afternoon I was invited to the Macha Malaria Instutute which is situated at the Macha Hospital which is about 70km from Choma along a largely unpaved road. It took about an hour and a half to get there and I was able to meet Dr. Phil Thuma, the Director who I believe is a world authority on Malaria.  

The Malaria Institute at Macha (MIAM) is a joint collaborative effort - to develop a center of excellence in rural Zambia that will carry out state-of-the-art malaria research - including molecular biology, entomology, epidemiology and clinical studies.

The partners involved in this   are the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg  School of Public Health; Macha Malaria Research Institute (MMRI), which is a US-based non profit organization; Macha Mission Hospital   and the Zambian government through its Ministry of Health.

The vision they have   is that some day malaria will no longer cause such a heavy burden of suffering and death in children living in this part of Africa. Dr. Thuma told me that the incidence of malaria in the Macha area has been reduced by 90%.

I have started to read The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver a tale set in the Belgian Congo of 1959. It is the story on one family’s tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in post colonial Africa.

The book awaits – more next week. 

First Impressions 

I arrived in Choma at around 19.00 (local time) on Friday evening after a two day journey via Amsterdam & Nairobi. The college principal, Jenny Featherstone met me at Livingstone airport. We had time for a light lunch in the town before we began our road journey to Choma. It would normally take around two and a half hours to drive between the two towns but we had to stop off in a small town, Zimba to collect two  carpenters from the college who were fitting a kitchen for a customer. Jenny had dropped them off on her way to collect me and arranged to pick them up on the way back. It gave me an opportunity to see the work that they get   and to meet the first members of staff from the carpentry shop.
We arrived back at the college and I was introduced to Mike from Sweden who is one of the Computer studies tutors. It was a little late to tour the college complex  as     sunset is around 18.30 and it gets dark very quickly after the sun goes down.

Jenny had promised to show me round on Saturday morning and I was up bright and early looking forward to my tour of the college and house building project. Before we got to start Jenny found out that the new tenant for house number 3 was planning to move in that very afternoon. Jenny very quickly contacted Mr. Mwanga her vice principal and the person responsible for the building works to be told that the power company had not yet connected the power supply to the property. Mr. Mwanga was quickly dispatched to the offices of the power company (ZESCO) to find out if the power could be connected. No one thought they would do it, but against the odds they agreed and they said that the power would be on by 14.00. Jenny had been up to the house to check it out and returned to tell me that it was in no fit state for anyone to move into. The new tenant was insisting that she move in on Saturday as she was moving from Lusaka to Choma and would have nowhere else to stay if she was unable to move into the house which had been promised for Saturday  .  Suffice to say when I saw the house I wondered how it could be in such a state on the morning that the tenant was moving in. We promptly set about cleaning up all the building material that was still in every room, the kitchen was far from finished and the rest of the rooms were almost there but not quite. By the end of the day the house was habitable and the new tenant took possession and seemed pleased with their brand new house. House No 4 needs to be ready by Monday - The odds are against it but miracles do happen.

House Nos. 3 & 4 at the Chodort Building Programme

During most of Saturday I was in and out of town to buy small items needed to finish the house, light bulbs, wall plugs and Tilly lamps to name but a few. This gave me the opportunity to see small town centre life in Zambia and to note the changes between now and when I lived and worked here for about 14 years until 1985. The population of Choma is around 40,000 and Zambia has just over 14 million inhabitants. When I first arrive in 1968 the population of the country was in the region of 4 million rising to 8 million by the time I left in 1985. Small business ventures by indigenous Zambians seen much more   prevalent  and street trading is now allowed whereas it was restricted to official market places when I was last here. This has the effect of making the town centre a very colourful and vibrant place. Some of the South African supermarket chains such as Shopright and Pick & Pay are now well established. The range of goods on offer would match what are available at home and prices are reasonable. I am still getting used to the value of the recently re based Zambian Kwacha. The official exchange rate is £1 is equal to ZK8.5. I have not had the opportunity to purchase anything as yet  and it will only when I do that will I get some idea of the cost of living here.
All the people I have met here have been more than welcoming right from the immigration and customs officials to everyone at Chodort. I have spent Sunday exploring the garden and learning about the eccentricities of the domestic water system. There is a town water supply but it is not 100% reliable so there needs to be a backup which is a well in the back garden. No power failures as yet but I understand they are frequent and can last the whole day. The garden is extensive and has a good selection of tropical fruit and even an apple tree. There is a juicer in the kitchen so I should be able to make fresh juice with the freshest ingredients.

One of my favourite garden plants - Frangipani - the perfume in the evening is almost overpowering

I am writing this before lunch on Sunday and hope that this afternoon I will be able to visit a family that I knew from my previous stay. Time has certainly slowed for me over the past couple of days  and life is lived at a more leisurely pace.
The Chodort college day starts at 07.30 and I will be there bright and early to start work on my Challenges Worldwide assignment.

Some Background Information (As I Depart for Choma)

Challenges Worldwide facilitates the development of businesses and social enterprises in low- and middle-income countries. These business enterprises are the driving force for economic growth and social progress in the areas where they are located. Often there is little formal business training available in these areas and most businesses and social enterprises cannot afford professional advice.

Challenges Worldwide recruits professional associates with experience in the public, private and voluntary sectors to work on short placements of one to six months to help strengthen businesses, social enterprises and organisations.

Each associate undertakes a specific piece of consultancy work, agreed at the start of the assignment, and is offered support throughout. The associate enjoys a professional and cultural experience that enhances his or her personal and professional development. Additionally, as Challenges Worldwide is a CMI approved centre, there is an opportunity to gain a CMCE or Chartered Manager qualification.

 

During the period of the assignment the associate will facilitate learning and strengthen the skills of local entrepreneurs and small- and medium-sized businesses to stimulate economic growth.

Challenges Worldwide also design and deliver a range of programmes including local capacity building to help incubate start-up businesses and support businesses with growth potential. For this work Challenges Worldwide use the knowledge of the core team to work with local partners and involve expert associates.

 

 

Chodort Training Centre in Choma, Zambia is a Training Centre, which was set up as a result of a partnership between Choma Consistory in the United Church of Zambia and a Consistory in Dortmund in Germany.  The Church Leaders in Choma Consistory saw that many of the young people in the district were unemployed.  This is largely because there is little formal employment in the town of Choma and in the surrounding area. In addition to this most of the young people do not have any workplace skills or training so even when opportunities of employment come along they do not have the necessary skills to take up the employment. Having looked seriously and critically at the local situation they concluded that there is a great and immediate need for skills training for the young people in the church and in the community.

These needs can be summed up as follows:

•   To cater for the needs of those who do not reach Grade 12 for whatever reason.
•    To keep college fees to a minimum so as to keep the courses within the reach of the young people and their guardians.
•    To provide training which will enable the trainees to start in business on their own as well as take up formal employment.
•      To offer courses to both male and female students.

 The Church Leaders decided that they should set up a Training Centre that would take these needs into account. Partners in Dortmund, Germany agreed to support the project and so Chodort Training Centre came about taking it’s name from Choma and Dortmund.  The first course to be offered was in Carpentry & Joinery followed by a Tailoring, Dressmaking and Design Course. 

A purpose built workshop for the Carpentry & Joinery Course incorporating a Production Unit is part of the college complex. From the start it was the aim that the Production Unit should be profitable to support the Training Centre.  This has two major benefits: Firstly it generates income for the Centre and secondly it gives students industrial experience while they are training.

 

This purpose-made building was designed and built, incorporating the production unit at one end, a storeroom, an office, a classroom/workshop and a toilet block.  This building has been built with the help of the Partners in Germany and has been equipped with modern tools, equipment and machinery from the Methodist Container Ministry in Ireland.

 

The college also offers computer courses and classes in Tailoring and Dressmaking.

 

 

 

My Assignment I will start my work at Chodort by undertaking a review of the carpentry Production Unit to:

• Establish the current trading position
• Identify areas for development
• Advise on management practices
• Establish the breakeven point for the unit
• Assist with the preparation of a business plan for the medium term

I will endeavour during my time at Chodort to improve the trading performance of the Carpentry Production Unit and to make it a viable business enterprise capable of making a net contribution to the finances of the college.

 

My second task is to develop training material to be used by college staff to assist students who are considering starting their own business after their graduation.  

 

I expect to start my work at Chodort on 6 January 2014. 



 

My work at Chordort is made possible with the very generous support of the Church of Scotland

 

Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west. The capital city is Lusaka, located in the south-central part of the country. The population is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the North West.

On 24 October 1964, the country became independent of the United Kingdom and then-prime minister Kenneth Kaunda became the inaugural president. Kaunda's socialist United National Independence Party (UNIP) maintained power from the 1964 until 1991. From 1972 to 1991 Zambia was a single party state with the UNIP as the sole-legal political party, with the goal of uniting the nation under the banner of 'One Zambia, One Nation'. Kaunda was succeeded by Fredrick Chiluba of the social-democratic Movement for Multi-Party Democracy in 1991, during which the country saw a rise in social-economic growth and increased decentralisation of government. Chiluba selected Levy Mwanawasa as his successor; Mwanawasa presided over the country from January 2002 until his death in August 2008, and is credited with initiating a campaign to reduce corruption and increase the standard of living. After Mwanawasa's death, Rupiah Banda presided as Acting President before being elected president in 2008. He is the shortest serving president, having held office for only three years. Patriotic Front party leader, Michael Chilufya Sata defeated Banda in the 2011 elections.
In 2010, the World Bank named Zambia one of the world's fastest economically reformed countries. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is headquartered in Lusaka.

Southern Province is one of Zambia's nine provinces, and home to Zambia's premier tourist attraction, Mosi-oa-Tunya (Victoria Falls), shared with Zimbabwe. The centre of the province, the Southern Plateau, has the largest area of commercial farmland of any Zambian province, and produces most of the maize crop.
The Zambezi River is the province's southern border, and Lake Kariba, formed by the Kariba Dam, lies along the province's south-eastern edge. The eastern border is the Kariba Gorge and Zambezi, and the north-east border is the Kafue River and its gorge, dividing it from Lusaka Province. The Kafue Flats lie mostly within the province's northern border with Central Province. In the north west lies part of the famous Kafue National Park, the largest in Zambia, and the lake formed by the Itezhi-Tezhi Dam. The south-western border with Western Province runs through the teak forests around Mulobezi which once supported a commercial timber industry and for which the Mulobezi Railway was built.
The provincial capital is Choma. Until 2011 the provincial capital was Livingstone City. The Batonga are the largest ethnic group in the Province. A rail line and the Lusaka-Livingston road forms the principal transport axis of the province, running through its centre and its farming towns: Kalomo, Choma, Pemba, Monze, and Mazabuka. In addition to maize, other commercially important activities include sugar cane plantations at the edge of the Kafue Flats, and cattle ranching.
Southern Province has the only large source of fossil fuel in Zambia, the Maamba coal mine in the Zambezi valley, served by a branch line of the railway.

Choma is a market town lying on the main road and railway from Lusaka to Livingstone. It is home to a small museum dedicated to the cultural heritage of the Tonga people of southern Zambia. The population of Choma is said to be about 40,000 people and it serves as the commercial hub for the central region of the province. The Nkanga River Conservation Area lies nearby.
Choma is also the headquarters of a district of the same name. Most of the district lies at 1,400 metres above sea level. It has the typical climate of southern Zambia with temperatures between 14°C and 28°C and sunshine ranging between 9 and 12 hours per day. The highest temperatures occur between the beginning of October and the end of December. Once the rains start, temperatures tend to fall, partly because of the rain and partly due to the often heavy cloud cover. The lowest temperatures are usually recorded in June and July.
The rains generally start in the middle of October and continue through up to the beginning of April. Rainfall reaches its peak around January after which it diminishes slightly up to the beginning of April when usually it ceases entirely. Choma has an average rainfall of 800 mm of which 369 mm falls in January and February. There are variations in total rainfall and rainfall patterns from year to year and even in a particular season. These variations can have a major impact on crop yield. Humidity falls to about 33% until the onset of rains in October after which it skyrockets to about 77% in February. Humidity nosedives once the rains cease in April. The wind is predominantly from the east and south-west, and to a lesser degree from the north-east. The strength of the wind from these directions can be comparatively strong.