• Meal time: Children gather at Tutalike Life Begins Nutrition Centre for a meal. Picture courtesy of Susiku Mwanang’ombe.

By ANGELA MWANDU –

SHE may have been born and bred in neighbouring Zimbabwe, but 45-year-old Susiku Mwanang’ombe is Zambian by descent.

Ms Mwanag’ombe was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and came to Zambia’s tourist capital Livingstone in 2006.

She settled in Ngwenya Township, about eight kilometres from the central business district, but the kind of life she found there is heart-breaking.

Most families were headed by either children or elderly people.

Most of these children prematurely took over the responsibility of being bread winners after losing their parents to HIV/AIDS.

“Due to HIV/AIDS, many people in my generation died and left children behind with their grandparents who also lacked the means to support themselves and the orphans left in their care,” Ms Mwanangombe says.

This situation has left many elderly people with no choice but to assume the task of raising their grandchildren who have been left orphaned.

Early marriages, child labour and high rates of school drop-outs have become a norm for the orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) in this area.

This is compounded by the lack of an effective social welfare system, where these families could turn to for support.

In adapting to the cliché of ‘survival of the fittest’, they feel justified to engage in whatever means to an end for survival.

For someone like Ms Mwanangombe who grew up in Zimbabwe, this scenario was somewhat strange.

This is because in comparison with Zimbabwe’s impressive investment in social welfare for vulnerable people and the church’s active role in helping the needy in communities, the system in Zambia leaves much to be desired.

She explains that in Zimbabwe, old people, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups were generally well cared for by the government and members of the community who took it upon themselves to supplement government efforts.

Because this is not what is prevailing in Livingstone, Ms Mwanang’ombe premised the establishment of a project called Tutalike, translated in Tonga to mean ‘life begins’.

This project is located in the heart of Ngwenya Township in a bid to lend a helping hand to the vulnerable people within that locality.

“I started this project in 2006 as I believed Ngwenya was the most vulnerable community in the tourist capital, Livingstone,” she says.

“I saw elderly people struggling to make ends meet with no one to help them. OVCs survived by picking food from garbage sites,” she added.

When she started the project, about 250 elderly people were heading households in the area and the majority of them survived on stone crushing stones to earn income.

Child labour in form of children assisting their grandparents crushing stones was very rampant in the area, because there were no relatives to rely on for financial and material assistance.

She says the situation was desperate but it inspired her to take up the challenge of trying to help by bridging the gaps left in the families that had now become vulnerable after losing their bread winners.

Currently, Tutalike support project looks after 105 needy children, 200 elderly people and 45 persons with disabilities.

The project also runs a nutrition centre where children feed from every day, and goes an extra mile by extending financial and material support to the beneficiaries.

Ms Mwanangombe said most of the children supported by the project are currently enrolled in government schools, with a few of them in private schools.

“However, by 2015, we want to have all our children in better schools as we believe their livelihoods can change if they get quality education,” she said.

“When you educate a vulnerable child it is better than even feeding or clothing them because education is key to a better life and development,” she added.

So far, about K21, 000 has been paid for 2014 first term school fees to ensure the children are retained in schools, because Ms Mwanang’ombe believes that investing in the development of vulnerable children would ultimately translate into a better citizenry.

Tutalike project also runs a project for crafts and arts,and peanut butter making for women groups.

The beneficiaries do not only sustain their households through the income they get but also help the project continue its activities by contributing 10 per cent of their income.

Ms Mwanang’ombe says the 10 per cent received from the women engaged in income-generating activities goes towards the purchasing of foodstuffs.

“There is a monthly food pack which we distribute to the elderly people to enable them get by and it contains mealie-meal, sugar, cooking oil, soap and Vaseline,” she says.

She, however, bemoaned the high price of the staple food which has prompted the project to reduce the quantity of the commodities contained in the pack. But to ensure the beneficiaries do not starve, they have the alternative of feeding from the project if food runs out in their homes.

The Project also runs a programme entitled ‘Gender Insaka’ on a local radio station where issues of gender are discussed.

“We sensitise the community on gender equity and the importance of women standing up against gender violence, child labour and other vices,” she says.

Tutalike project implores Livingstone residents to take advantage of the school re-entry policy to ensure girls who fall pregnant to return to school soon after delivery.

For the much older women who feel they are too old to get back into school, the project encourages them to find jobs in the suburbs mostly as maids for them to provide at least the basic needs for their children.

Those with toddlers are lucky as they can leave their children at the project premises, where Tutalike has members who babysit for working mothers.

Tutalike Life Begins is one of the projects that receives grants from government through the Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health.

Individuals based locally and in the United Kingdom also contribute material and financial support to help sustain the project.

Ms Mwanang’ombe says she will forever remain indebted to government which donated the project’s most valued asset; the peanut butter making machine.

She says this is because the machine has helped to enhance income generating activities for women.

With almost 50 years after attaining independence from British rule, Ms Mwanang’ombe realises that the background of women in Ngwenya has caused them to be vulnerable because many of them never went to school.

She says despite the free education which was available during Dr Kenneth Kaunda’s reign in government, traditional norms prevented most girls from accessing it, and they grew up being illiterate.

But even with this gloomy background, Ms Mwanang’ombe is happy with what Zambia’s women have contributed to the country’s development.

“The fact that we have women in influential leadership positions shows that the place of a woman is not restricted to the kitchen,” she says.

Ms Mwanang’ombe says women have earned their places in leadership positions because they have proved that they are able to deliver.

She further says the Patriotic Front government acknowledges women’s contribution to national development, hence its stance on increasing women’s representation in leadership positions.

Ms Mwanangombe says even the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day, “Inspiring change: Celebrating God’s favour on 50 years of Women’s excellence and achievements could not be disputed by anyone as it truly reflected the journey women had undertaken since independence in 1964.

She noted that women now had representation in the Judiciary, Cabinet, Police Service, Foreign Service and even in the private sector unlike in the past when they could not even run small businesses.

She is happy that women can now stand up for themselves, fend for their families and speak against issues that affect them negatively such as gender based violence.

“What is prevailing in the country shows that there is more to women than just getting married, bearing children and being companions to men,” she said.

Ms Mwanangombe however, called for more support for women in the political arena as their motherly hearts enabled them to deliver even where their male counterparts failed.

She urged men and women countrywide to work together and support each other especially in communities that were lagging behind in terms of development.

Livingstone District in particular and the country at large, needs more selfless men and women like Ms Mwanangombe who is always willing to do something to make the lives of vulnerable people better in a wholesome way.

Tutalike Life Begins is a beacon of hope for the hopeless and represents a fresh start for those in need at their most vulnerable time in their lives.

“I am blessed to have an opportunity to help the needy in Ngwenya and give myself a daily task of lending a helping hand because doing otherwise saddens me,” she says.

Ms Mwanangombe has the grace to help the needy and what makes her remarkable is that she does it with a smile.