Completed projects: Decent Work and Economic Growth

In Zambia there are many children with disabilities, the causes are many but in particular the lack of hospital facilities, the distance from such facilities, and the lack of medicines all lead to complications and post-partum infections, and other non-medical infections. The treatments to these infections can put children's health at risk. In recent years our organization has specialized in following disabled children who are not orthopedic but affected by hydrocephalus, spina bifida and cerebral palsy.

In a society where poverty is unfortunately high, disabled children are the least fortunate and their parents (very often the mothers) find themselves managing difficult situations with very little help, both socially and financially. Therefore to help mothers and their children once a year we have organized a meeting with all the mothers in order to help them better manage their disability in the context in which they live (psychological support and disability education).

The group of mothers of disabled children in the Chistu district is made up of about ten mothers and they meet every week on Wednesdays; the function of the group is to find mutual help. Mothers are united by the fact that they live in precarious economic conditions, many of them have never gone to school and to survive they do odd jobs such as cleaning houses or washing clothes. Therefore to improve their economic conditions, the mothers would like to learn a trade.

For this purpose, the mothers have thought about various possible economic activities that can help them, they have identified three activities: creating a vegetable garden, cutting, sewing, and manufacturing of local crafts as well as others. Among the activities indicated above, the desire to learn to sew was the one that has obtained the most sympathy among mothers; therefore the idea was born to start a cutting and sewing course lasting 4 months.

The basic cutting and sewing course provided training to 10 mothers, through donations we were able to acquire 10 sewing machines and materials for training, pay a teacher and an assistant, as well as cover other expenses such as transport, communication and management. The course lasted four months; at the end of the course the mothers were issued a certificate of participation. Given the spread of the Coronavirus all over the world and in Zambia, the same equipment was used to sew masks to be distributed in surrounding communities to prevent the spread of the virus.

The course took place in the Pamodzi Ndi Ana headquarters and is offered free of charge but it is required that participation be obligatory. A final evaluation with the mothers has allowed them to understand how to use the knowledge acquired to start income-generating activities.