Follow-up stories

As follow-ups to past postings on this blog...

Transparency International’s 2009 report says Zambia’s ranking has improved on the Corruption Perception Index. Zambia scored 3 above Argentina, Egypt and Indonesia and jumped from 11th to 17th place. (The higher the number the worse in terms of perceived corruption.) New Zealand, Denmark and Singapore, top the list as the least corrupt countries while Zambia is on a par with Bosnia and Jamaica. The nations at the bottom of the league include Haiti, Afghanistan and Somalia.

Lusaka Magistrates' Court recently freed The Post’s news editor, Chansa Kabelwa whom you may remember was charged with circulating obscene photographs of a woman in labour during the health workers’ strike earlier this year. These, it was alleged, would be liable to corrupt public morals. Ms Kabwelwa did not publish the photos but sent them to the Vice-President, Minister of Health, some women's organisations and a Church leader, hoping to move the Government to end the strike. The Court found no case to answer. This verdict is an important one as far as freedom of expression is concerned in this country. However, the Editor of the Post, Mr Fred Mmembe is still facing contempt of court charges for an article commenting on the case that he allowed to be published during the trial.

Meanwhile at the Mission we have had another eye team in doing cataract surgery earlier in the month. They come from Hickory, North Carolina every second year. With the Hickory Team for a second visit, were also a couple who supply amputees and other people with mobility difficulties with artificial limbs. Others were able to beef up the maintenance team and the hospital computers were overhauled by an IT expert. All good and useful work.

After much prayer and with perfect timing, a container with amongst other things parts for the prostheses, medical equipment, school supplies arrived while the team was there. The Hickory Church were major donors and had helped box and pack many of the items, so it was good that they were able to personally distribute donated materials to the designated recipients.

The Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) programme through AIDS Relief is entering another phase with teams going round communities from door-to-door and offering this service to the entire family. More about this later.

At the school, the classroom block is progressing and has now reached ring-beam level. The steel and concrete will be poured next week after I purchase the shuttering in Livingstone tomorrow. All the window and door frames are being made locally this time, this is a good development as with the first block there was no-one making these frames and they had to be purchased and transported from Livingstone. Please continue to pray that we receive permission from the provincial education authorities to open our Grade 10 in 2010.