The support of Africans in Europe to causes in Africa.

Watering the roots

Introduction

The turn of the century finds millions of women, men, and children of African descent in Europe, America and other lands. Some are descendants of migrants over the centuries, some are compelled by the demands of diplomatic or international duty and others are responding to the economic pressures of the North–South divide. But they nearly all share a common love of their continent and a strong desire to contribute to family, community or national development. In recent years this common desire has found expression in the birth and growth of Non-Governmental organizations which have as their sole purpose the support of social causes in Africa. We report on one such NGO, ITEZO.

The International Trust for the Education of Zambian Orphans (ITEZO) was established in 2001 as an autonomous specialized off-shoot of its parent NGO, the Zambia Support Group in Geneva, (ZASUGG). The Zambia Support Group had been created by Mrs Mary Kasonde and her colleagues in Geneva in 1991 and continues to promote the welfare of women and children in Zambia through appropriate projects and income generating activities since its formation in 1991, with the generous assistance of well-wishers. In this context the Group has been supporting primary school education either directly or indirectly through more than 12 projects across the country, funded by some women’s organizations, Church Groups and international schools in Geneva and individuals. Towards the end of the first decade the attention of the Group was drawn to the emerging crisis of AIDS Orphans in the country. By 2000 the number of AIDS Orphans in Zambia had reached nearly one million (out of a total of 12 million on the continent of Africa). In particular, the Group was concerned by the difficulty of orphans to access formal education, thereby setting up a vicious cycle of lack of education leading to poverty and poverty leading to an increased risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS. The Group responded to this challenge by establishing the International Trust for the Education of Zambian Orphans (ITEZO). Mrs Mary Kasonde became the Founder and Chairperson of the Organization.

ITEZO has two primary objectives: to secure formal education to orphans; and to empower them to get gainful employment. The organization has embarked on a programme of sponsoring children for secondary school education from start to completion (grade 8 to grade 12 in Zambian classification). A few have been sponsored to undertake technical training for a maximum of two years. To date there are 110 such students in 26 secondary schools and 5 technical colleges, located in seven of the nine provinces of Zambia. It is the intention to strengthen sponsorship of students in the rural areas in view of the existing disparity in access to education between urban and rural areas: 70% of eligible children living in urban areas are enrolled in school, compared to 50% in rural areas. In both cases orphans have greater difficulty in getting enrolled because they have no funds to pay fees and no parents to push their case in this competitive environment.

In the second line of activity, ITEZO, through the Youth Empowerment Project is sponsoring courses for orphans to acquire knitting skills which will enable them to obtain paid employment or self-employment; eight such trainees are enrolled every four months. They produce knitted garments and other materials for sale. A typical training set-up is shown in the photograph below.

The message of ITEZO’s experience is that Africans living outside their continent are increasingly serving their communities in Africa and that, far from being the “brain drain”, can be the “brain gain” or the watering of the roots. This should be recognized and encouraged.

More information on ITEZO can be found on the web:

http://www.itezo.org (Submitted by Mrs Mary Kasonde)