In limbo

We are sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring. I am exaggerating of course but at the moment I am unsure whether I should be packing my bags, pots and pans, and everything else in the house, and getting ready to move to Lusaka, or continue twiddling my thumbs in the DATF office in Mazabuka. Since the start of the New Year we have had a number of meetings with NAC, the World Bank and UNAIDS, which have all been perfectly useful, pleasant conversations but progress remains slow and why there is a delay is not completely clear. The limbo is compounded by friends, many of the Italians, sadly leaving Zambia and therefore it feels like a good time to change and leave sweet Mazabuka behind for something new. A move to the big city awaits, I am just not too sure when exactly at the moment.

The new rules

Today the new District Commissioner addressed the Heads of Department within the Council and Government Line Ministries in Mazabuka for the first time . The speech mentioned little about policy, aside from stressing the need to alleviate the high levels of rural poverty. Instead, the key messages focused on responsibilities and the behaviour expected of the Heads of Department. It covered: needing to act as leaders, both for the community and for their staff; working as civil servants and not as politicians or business people; being accountable, transparent, honest and impartial; also being punctual and keeping time; observing careful planning, management and reporting of development activities, and being ready to share this information with others; finally, zero tolerance on corruption and any mis-use of resources (transport in particular). Fine words and a very encouraging start. Now for actions if these rules are ignored.

Allowances

Despite now being in Zambia over a year I can still find the allowance culture frustrating and annoying. In brief, rather than people making claims (at cost) for Government / Development related work allowances are given out which may cover things like transport, food and drink, accommodation, sitting or meeting attendance and so on. In principle this makes sense and is fairly easy to administer, but does lead to significant abuses. For example, there are occasions where senior officials will attend meetings when the allowance is deemed large enough (for their presence) but send juniors along when the amount is not enough, or only attend if there is a sitting allowance on offer. Similarly, people will go chasing allowances by seeking to be part of certain committees or as happened last year wanting to be part of the Census teams because of the sizable allowances available. I have been told that the forthcoming Presidential elections will be even worse. For many people allowances are being used to supplement their income which is either pretty meagre, or inconsistent in supply. However, more often than not it is the people who are already at the top of the food chain who then tuck into the large allowances.

None of this is unusual or unique to Zambia, and I know other volunteers could point to much worse, but hey one example just got a bit too much for me today sitting in my hot, sweaty Mazabuka office. An international organisation was using a couple of Zambian Government staff to collect some general information from Government bodies.  I was politely asked to go a nearby office to answer a few questions on HIV and AIDS. Afterwards and for my 30 second walk I was offered a transport allowance of ZMK50,000; approx £6.50 but a pretty decent amount here. Initially, I refused but was then informed by the visitors that returning with the money would be very awkward for them. So I relented, accepted the money, and will give it to Stella and family.   Rant over for now. 

Working with the Disabled

Some days things fall into place: the workshop starts on time; the commitment and involvement from the people present is inspiring; time flies; the mobiles do not ring too loudly; and everyone leaves with a smile on their face. Today felt pretty much like that as we ran a training session for the Mazabuka Network of People with Disabilities. The group lacks any form of support whether it be funding, structures, roles, plans and so on. During the day 10 people from the Network talked through things like what they are supposed to be doing, the issues that people with disabilities face in the district (including ones related to HIV and AIDS which was our main interest), and what activities can be carried out to address these problems. None of this is rocket science but the Network was missing a guiding hand to kick start their thinking and work. The vote of thanks at the end was very touching. For now the meeting was a small step in the right direction for this neglected group of people who more often than not are ignored by most stakeholders; HIV and AIDS are at fault here too. And I suspect there will be more frequent knocks on the office door as they ask for more help and advice.  

Mapping HIV and AIDS in Mazabuka

Now this takes me back.  In my early days at SQW I worked on a number of projects where we were commissioned by local councils to map the amount of public sector expenditure flowing into their district or area, and then to try understand which themes (education, health, environment etc.) and and which wards the money was going to.  At the time it felt like a good piece of analysis (with pretty shaded maps too) which could be used by the policy makers in a council to query where the funding was going.  Jump forward 8-9 years and we have started some mapping work in Mazabuka.  Basically we just do not know enough about: what HIV and AIDS activities are taking place in the district; which organisations (Government, private, faith based, community based, NGOs etc.) are working here; and which areas of the district are the organisations and activities occurring.  These may sound like some pretty obvious questions but at the moment we cannot answer them. 

A couple of weeks ago we began piloting this work in Mazabuka by visiting around 15 stakeholders to test the questionnaire with them and to understand their own interest in this type of information.  They have greeted the work with much enthusiasm and want the exercise completed as soon as possible.  At the very least we hope to produce some fancy, interactive maps that show who works where and on what activities in the district.  At the best, and if we can mobilise enough funding, I want to produce a directory of the stakeholder activities and some large scale maps, and then get these hard copies distributed as wide as possible.  With this sort of information we will know: how many organisations are working on HIV and AIDS activities in the district; what are they actually doing; challenge them where we feel duplication is taking place in the type or area of activity; and ask why are some areas seem overwhelmed with activity, whilst others are being missed out.  And then it is a case of updating the information when an organisation arrives or leaves, and repeating the exercise in full each year.

Stakeholder meeting

On the work front (as I do do some work here rather than just travel around!), we recently held our quarterly stakeholder meeting; bringing together around 50 people from Government, NGOs, faith based organisations, community organisations and disabled groups to share learning and experiences of working on HIV and AIDS activities in Mazabuka.  It is one of the occasions when we (as the DATF Secretariat) can tell stakeholders about our plans for the year and get their feedback on our work.  These meetings tend to be a mixed bag: typically start at least one hour late; some presentations by stakeholders are good and well prepared, whilst others are recycled and may make little sense; the questions, comments and ideas are often thought provoking; yet any follow-up actions vary in terms of commitment, time and resources.  This meeting was no different - frustrating and rewarding - and hopefully a good start for the year ahead.

Gladys' house

I was not entirely sure why I was asked by the DAO (District Administrative Officer) to help out but it probably had much to do with me being one of the few people with a camera at the Council. But anyway, some storms had caused damage to a house in Mazabuka and the occupant needed a report and photos to convince the insurers that there really was a problem. Here is my 'official' report

To whom it may concern,

Re: ASSESSMENT OF DAMAGE TO PLOT NUMBER 2950, HILLSIDE, B5 MAZABUKA

An assessment was carried out by Robert Wootton, a member of the Mazabuka Disaster Management Committee, of the above property on 10th February following a request by the occupant, a Banji Sikacheya (NRC 171661/61/1), to inspect the property. The assessor was informed that damage was sustained to the property on 23rd November 2010 following a storm and strong winds. Evidence of the following damage to the roof was found:

• Damage to 20 iron sheets (2.5m in length) and 20 iron sheets (3m) used to form the roof of the property. The iron sheets had flown off during the storm and most are deemed unusable as a result

• 10 wooden poles that support the roof were broken

• 4 iron ridges also part of the roof were damaged

• Roofing nails were damaged or lost

• A number of bricks on the side of the house were cracked with cement needed to repair the holes.

In addition, when the iron sheets flew off the roof they landed on and broke a cistern tank, and broke some furniture including a coffee table. Without the protection of the roof water from the storm damaged clothes, suitcases, papers and other personal effects.

Attached to this report are a couple of photos showing the damage to the property.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Wootton

Mazabuka Disaster Management Committee / Mazabuka DATF

Back down to earth

The magical world of Zanzibar is a fading memory, as back in Maz life continues with a few bumps and hiccups along the way . . . This week has seen a few power cuts (always at the wrong time i.e. when we want to cook dinner) with the threat of more, and longer ones, on the way. It is raining cats and dogs too, bucket loads of water is falling from the sky as the road outside our house becomes a muddy, boggy mess yet we even had a water shortage on one day! Whilst back at work . . . our funding has arrived but only what the organisation was meant to receive up until September last year. So the rest of last year’s money is still missing along with the funding for the first quarter of 2011; messy and frustrating to put it politely.  The move to the new office space has therefore stalled.  The Boma – the district HQ where our office is based – could also be described as a mess. The smell of bat shit has returned as a nearby office has removed a huge pile from its roof and just dumped it outside.  Chickens also run amuck, clucking around through the office corridors. Naively I hoped things would be a bit different but so far more of the same. Welcome back.

Strategic planning

The work continues on the DATF Strategic Plan.The meetings can be an absolute pain to organise as I can never be too sure how many people are going to turn up, when they will arrive and also whether they will actually stay for the whole session; you are guaranteed that people will get up an important moments to loudly answer their phone. But when we do get the right HIV and AIDS stakeholders it is fascinating, enriching and almost enjoyable to listen to them discuss problems, ideas, issues, solutions, frustration and so on about Mazabuka. The actual strategic plan is a long way off and will no doubt require much more work but at least the material going into will be very rich.

Hammermill

It is surprising (to me anyway but now not anymore) how much trouble a hammer mill can cause a community. Nameembo is small rural community in the district of Mazabuka and to get there we had to travel for 20mins along the main road to Lusaka and then a further 2 hours along a bumpy, rutted, falling apart excuse for a road. A few years ago as part of a HIV project, the community of Nameembo had received some funding, training and materials to help sensitise the community on HIV and AIDS issues. This also included the donation of a hammer mill to process locally grown maize, and therefore act as an income generating activity for the community. As there are no other hammer mills for approximately a two hour distance, then this one would hold a dominant position in the Nameembo area. The income could be used to provide transport to the local clinic, develop other income generating activities and provide more care and support for people affected by HIV and AIDS. In practice, this makes sense but this was our second visit to Nameembo in two months because the hammer mill had yet again become ‘personalised.’ By this I mean that a few people part of the committee responsible for the hammer mill had taken it over for themselves – they were benefiting directly from it rather than the community.

Our visit to Nameembo took most of the day, listening to the debate from all sides of the community (a friendly local man did much of the translation from Tonga to English for me) and in the end we elected a completely new committee to look after the hammer mill. Both we and the community itself seemed to have little trust and faith in members of the previous committee. We left them actions and deadlines in the hope that they would follow them, otherwise they were warned the hammer mill would be taken away and given to another community.

Ideally, Nameembo is one of the communities that I should be visiting every month to provide what can be seen as very basic support such as how to hold committee meetings, write minutes, monitor and report on activities. However, at the moment Judy and I have both hands tied behind our backs whilst we wait for the National AIDS Council in Zambia to provide funding for our organisation.

Office girls

A few pics of some of the people that make life around the Boma (District Council office) enjoyable even when we still have no office. Sadly, the girl in the orange Sandrine, has since left Mazabuka as she was offered a job elsewhere. She was our secretary at the DATF and in my first few months here was invaluable in orientating me to all the people and organisations here in Mazabuka. She was also a very handy translator given that some people come to the office cannot speak English and I certainly cannot speak Tonga.

 

The Bat cave

In a recent email I wittered away about our office being a bit of mess at the moment in a rather dismissive way not realising how big the problem actually was. It now definitely warrants a few photos. During last weekend the crack in our office ceiling gradually got bigger and more debris started falling through with the general assumption being that this was just a few rat droppings. On Monday the Buildings Department came to inspect the problem and, to be fair, got some workers to come in immediately and start tearing the ceiling down because it was becoming dangerous. As they did this work thousands of bat droppings fell down covering the whole office. We doubt the office has been serviced or cleaned since it was first built 50 or 60 years ago so the bats have had plenty of time to get cosy up there. Because it is a windy time of year this dust and smell was blown through any of the nearby offices at the Boma. As people kept on saying, great manure but a pretty toxic smell. So work continues on removing all the droppings, putting in a new ceiling and removing (probably killing) the squeaking bats.

Training fun

Working out how to balance 12 nails on top of only a single nail * Using amateur gymnastics to lift a tyre up and down over a netball post as part of a ‘bomb diffusion scenario’ * 15 people, hands tied to each other, learning how to walk to lunch, serve each other, eat together, and then wash our hands * Dodgeball with one and then two balls * Netball with one and then two balls (this created much chaos) * and some good old fashioned tug of war.

To explain, the office was quiet today so I climbed into the back of one of our stakeholder’s vehicles and headed out to a rural community called Nega Nega, which is about an hour from Mazabuka along bumpier and bumpier roads. I joined in with some of the training involving around 20 community workers and volunteers. Honestly there was some learning as well as plenty of fun.

Workshopping

On a serious note, I am doing some work here and one of my biggest tasks at the moment is to help develop a Strategic Plan for my organisation (DATF) to show what it wants to achieve over the next five years. Possibly in the UK this might be led by only a few individuals, however, in Mazabuka we have to involve our numerous HIV and AIDS stakeholders, particularly as they will have a much greater influence on the district through their national and overseas funding compared to what my organisation can do. So we held the first of hopefully a series of workshops to kick start this process, which I am pleased or relieved to say went well. Aside from not achieving half of the things that I wanted us to do in the two days, and very few participants arriving on time, everyone was very positive about the discussion and ideas coming out.

Without going into too much detail, much of our time was spent talking about the six main drivers of HIV and AIDS in Zambia and how they relate to Mazabuka. In summary, the drivers are:

1. Multiple and concurrent partners (MCP) – evidence shows that the bulk of new HIV infections are coming from casual and concurrent multiple sexual relationships

2. Low and inconsistent condom use – the use of condoms has not risen enough to impact significantly on HIV transmission

3. Low rates of male circumcision – studies show that male circumcision can offer at least 60% protection against HIV infection. However, male circumcision is not widely practiced in Zambia

4. Mobility and labour migration – there is evidence that this factor can destabilise regular, long-term partnerships and lead to multiple and concurrent partners, and relationships with sex workers

5. Vulnerable and marginalised groups – such groups including sex workers, men who have sex with men, prisoners, OVCs, migrants, people with disabilities are more at risk of HIV infection

6. Mother to child HIV transmission – 10% of all HIV infections occur in children under 14 years and most of these infections are as a result of a mother transmitting HIV to her child