PRESS RELEASE: Mama Chungu Foundation Brings Clean Water to Mansa

A new charity called Mama Chungu Foundation commenced its first borehole drilling programme in Mansa district in Luapula Province of Zambia in late November to give rural communities access to clean water. This is one of three key aims of the new community-based organisation. It also aims to open up farming to enhance food security and local income as well as provide renewable energy for food processing, education and living.

The Foundation is inspired by the life of Mama Cecilia Chungu who lived from 1924 to 2017 in Mansa. She was married to Alexander Chungu for more than 56 years and were blessed with many children and grandchildren. Mama Chungu cared deeply about her wider family’s well-being and its future. She worked very hard to educate her children, secure food and water, and a roof over their heads. She always gave a helping hand to anyone in need, welcoming all into her village and house.

Her story is what the Foundation is all about.

Clean water is life and the first objective of the Foundation
Children and women often walk long distances to draw daily water beginning before school and other household chores or farming activities.

But where do rural communities get their daily water if not from a borehole?

The answer is from dirty ponds, rivers, and shallow wells such as this one pictured below at Patel Village where a shallow well has been dug next to a slowmoving stream. These resources are also a key source of deadly cholera and dysentery.
Mansa Municipal Council has identified 148 new boreholes required in the district and 37 are unusable and in need rehabilitation. Among these are at two schools and two clinics, which are without potable water today.

In our experience, these numbers underestimate the critical need for quality water in rural areas of Mansa.
Public sector resources and equipment are insufficient to address this burning need for clean water. NGOs and charities are essential to filling this gap.

Mama Chungu Foundation was launched to assist rural communities in Mansa. It engaged STAR WATERWELL DRILLING LTD of Kitwe to drill an initial six boreholes and install community handpumps in Munchini Village, Patel Village, Kabunda Mission and Lukangaba Village in Mansa District.

These boreholes are the first of several planned by the Foundation. What has been achieved is remarkable as the rains begin in earnest.

A high-powered board steers the Foundation in the right direction.

The Foundation has established a ten-person Board with two patrons – Paramount Chief Mwata Kazembe of the Lunda people and His Excellency the former president Rupiah Banda. The other members include business people, the mayor of Mansa, a leader in Muchini village, and an Appeals Court judge.

The Foundation is registered with the Registrar of Societies of Zambia and funded as a non-profit by individual donations.

What’s next?
The rainy season 2019-20 will be spent fund raising for next year’s ambitious drilling programme that will begin in April next year. The Foundation will also lay the basis for community-based farming.


For more information contact:

David Ryder
Chairman
M: +260 965-611612

Veronica Ryder
Deputy Chair and Secretary
M: +260 969-173099


 

Inaugural CSR Awards

The Corporate Social Responsibility Network Zambia (CSRNZ) organised and hosted the national Responsible Businesses and CSR Awards, to recognise and honor Zambian companies implementing CSR in Zambia. Running under the theme – Shaping Responsible Businesses Towards the Attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, (Vision 2030). The awards Gala dinner was held at the Golden Peacock Hotel, along Kasangula Road, in Roma Township, on 29th November 2019.

The Guest of Honor at the awards was the Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Hon. Christopher Yaluma, represented by Director of Cooperatives, Mr. Shadreck Mungalaba.

The following companies were honored:

  1. Airtel Zambia
  2. Kashikoto Conservancy Ltd
  3. Natural Valley Ltd
  4. Konkola Copper Mines (KCM)
  5. Lubambe Copper Mines
  6. First Quantum Minerals Ltd (FQML)
  7. Barrick Lumwana
  8. HLB Zambia
  9. FINCA
  10. Stanbic Zambia
  11. Ecobank
  12. Access Bank
  13. DHL Zambia
  14. Zambia Airports Corporation Ltd
  15. Zambia Railways
  16. IHS Towers
  17. Betway
  18. NECOR
  19. Cashbuild
  20. Maamba Collieries
  21. Zambia Sugar
  22. Sun FM
  23. Pick N Pay
  24. Action Aid
  25. G4S
  26. Madison Financial Services
  27. Trade Kings
  28. Tongabezi
  29. Dangote Cement
  30. Royal Air Charters
  31. Vision Care

These Annual CSR Awards are intended to be Zambia’s prestigious CSR and Sustainability accolades, recognising the contributions being made by individuals, the Private and Public sectors towards community development. Winners are mobilized from the diverse sectors and industries which have created positive impact towards Zambia’s sustainable development and the promotion of Sustainable Development Goals.

Zambia Partners with Huawei in ICT Development

Huawei and Zambia have continued to enhance cooperation in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector aimed at promoting ICT access across the country in line with the China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Action Plan 2019-2021.

Zambia’s Consular General in Guangzhou, China Daniel Chisenga noted that the Zambian government realises that ICT has the potential to contribute to the overall economic growth of the country as it is an enabler of the growth of several other sectors of the economy such as agriculture, agro processing, education, manufacturing, health, tourism among others.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the 2019 Seeds for the Future Program, Chisenga said the Zambian government has identified Information and Communication Technology as a catalyst for socio-economic development by promoting competitiveness as well as being an enabler of good governance.

The Seeds for the Future program is a major CSR Huawei initiative designed to help ICT professionals fill the gap between theory and practice and master the required skills.

He noted that it is so gratifying that Zambia is part of the program and disclosed that so far, 40 Zambian students have benefited in just fou4 years and congratulated them for being among the most outstanding university students in the world.

“The Huawei Seeds for the Future program has created a platform for Zambian students to learn from the best in the ICT sector.  The program gives hope for the future development of the ICT sector in Zambia and the win-win cooperation between the two countries,” said Mr. Chisenga observed.

Impact Assessment is the CSR game-changer

Impact can be defined in different ways for every organisation’s CSR. One of the methods is by calculating return on investment wherein we measure the monetary value of benefits derived by the beneficiaries. The impact may also be based on the measurement of the outreach of a CSR project. For certain organisations, the impact can be defined as the actual change– social and environmental. An insight-driven method of evaluating social impact is mapping the behaviour change among the beneficiaries receiving the interventions. Assessments of impact differ as the organisations adopt their respective understanding of it.

Impact assessment has become a medium through which organisations can communicate to their key stakeholders—their implementation partners, shareholders, and board of directors about the effect of the initiatives shared with the beneficiaries.
For a CSR program to succeed, building commitment towards a singular and long-term vision of change from the key stakeholders like the board of directors is required. A committed board then directs the project towards producing a sustainable change in the lives of its beneficiaries. It is equally important to build trust among the beneficiaries. Accurate impact assessment can aid in building commitment from internal stakeholders and trust within the external stakeholders as it continues to identify the successes and limitations of the program.

In order to conduct an impact assessment that delivers on these key areas, investment to acquire expertise is imperative. It is also important to develop appropriate skill sets across the various partnerships for efficient and effective execution of a CSR project.

More often than not, CSR programs are evaluated on their investments and returns. There is a need for a shift in this approach and to capture the data on the lives impacted. This can be done using quantitative surveys with the beneficiaries and key stakeholders. These quantitative surveys can help identify the key changes we bring in through our programs. To complement these findings there is a need to understand the underlying reasons for change among the beneficiaries, which qualitative interviews can help address and build social impact stories.

Impact assessment helps the board direct the CSR funds towards its optimum utilization, where initiatives that have a maximum impact can be scaled up while programs leading to limited impact can be curtailed. For organisations implementing programmes in partnership with social organisations, it can be a useful exercise of capacity-building, where the two organisations can work closely towards achieving their common goals through the knowledge of outcomes shared by such assessments. The outcomes of these assessments can also be a way of communicating with the wider eco-system of beneficiaries who can learn about the impact and build their own agency towards addressing the community challenges. It becomes a proof-of-concept that organisations can use to build and scale their programs across geographies.

At WPP Foundation, we have defined its theory of change through a key process map which helps to direct our work towards achieving our vision through robust impact. The theory of change has identified over 20 interventions focussing on outcomes such as increasing retention in secondary schools, improving learning outcomes, enhancing work-readiness skills and addressing key social norms.

Through robust measurements, foundations can take quick and corrective decisions on regular intervals to ensure the rigour of their work in line with defined goals, as well as enables partners to build capacity to address gaps. This requires us to spend disproportionately. The positive encouragement towards this can be observed with government mandates now allowing more percentage funding towards Research & Development within CSR.


AUTHOR.
Rama A. Iyer, Director General WPP India CSR Foundation – December 7, 2019.

Director General at WPP India CSR Foundation. She is also a panel member to the World CSR Congress, nomination for ‘Expert Trainer in guiding CSR consultants develop strategies for Indian SMEs and exporters with a special focus on the European Market’. She has partnered with state-level Governments for evaluating, developing and advising in creating IEC material for interventions related to health, hygiene, gender, nutrition and skill development.

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