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Czech Embassy supported five local projects in 2019

Like every year, in 2019 the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Lusaka supported local organizations to implement development projects under its small-scale grants programme. This time, four projects were implemented in Zambia and one in Zimbabwe.

Besides the usual bilateral multiyear projects, the Embassies of the Czech Republic around the world support local organisations to implement small-scale, well focused projects aimed at helping local communities. In Zambia and Zimbabwe, the Embassy of the Czech Republic supported in 2019 the following projects:

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA Zambia) constructed a block with two classrooms at the Situtu Primary School in Nkeyema District in Western Province. This enabled the school to increase significantly the number of enrolled students. Thanks to the enhanced infrastructure, the Ministry of Education of Zambia subsequently upgraded the school to serve as an examination centre.

New school block in Situtu, Western Province

New school block in Situtu, Western Province

The Sisters of St. Charles of Borromeo, under the supervision of Caritas Prague, established a solar-powered computer laboratory in Mpanshya in Rufunsa district, Lusaka Province. It is a welcome development for village schoolchildren in this district since they had never been able to access such equipment due to lack of power supply from the national grid.  The schoolchildren should now be able to match the IT skills standards of their peers in urban centres.

Thanks to another embassy’s grant, the local non-governmental organization Mthuzi Development Foundation introduced apiculture for villagers in Chipata, Eastern Province. They were given necessary equipment and training for beekeeping and marketing of bee products.  The harvesting and selling of honey should help the villagers to improve their livelihoods.

New bee hives being installed in Eastern Province.

New bee hives being installed in Eastern Province.

The Zambian branch of the Czech international NGO People in Need continued with the propagation of the biodigester technology among farmers in the Western Province. The biodigestors use cattle manure to produce biogas used for cooking by people in remote areas who had been dependent on burning wood or charcoal, thus saving them a lot of time and labour and at the same time limiting deforestation. The manure processed by the biodigestor serves as an excellent organic fertilizer. The project has promoted the biodigestor technology throughout the Western Province.

In Mbire District in the remote north-eastern part of Zimbabwe, the local NGO Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe built an additional classroom block at the Mariga Primary school, which has helped increase the primary school enrolment of the marginalised Doma children and enhanced education quality.

Currently, the list of projects to be supported in 2020 is being finalised.