Menstrual Hygiene Day 28th May

For over two years now we’ve been discussing and working on addressing menstrual hygiene in the schools and communities we work with. Girls and women face challenges in this area of life as disposable sanitary pads are expensive and often not affordable. Girls, especially those whose parents have passed away and are living with extended family, often aren’t bought sanitary pads and are left to use dirty old rags as a means of managing their periods.

It’s our aim to give girls and women dignity in this area of their lives. So often there is shame when talking about menstruation but it is our hope that we can help remove this shame through honest and open conversation but also with providing females with access to sanitary products.

As many of you know, we make reusable sanitary pads here in Zambia to sell (at a subsidised and affordable price) to girls and women. We’ve sold approximately 70 pad packs over the last year, to the older girls in the schools we partner with, former pupils who have heard about this initiative and to the teachers. We are now beginning to get requests from women in the community asking for these pads as well. There is a great need for products like these in some communities.

If you’d like to help provide reusable sanitary pads for a girl or woman, please click here to visit our Alternative Gift store.

http://www.beyondourselves.co.uk/donate/alternative-gifts/item/3/53/reusable-sanitary-pad-pack/?a=sl

Zambia For Tourists

Trying to get accurate and up to date figures on the various sectors of the Zambian economy is very difficult if not impossible. The Mining industry, mainly copper, has been Zambia’s biggest source of income for many years but due to various worldwide factors the money raised from this sector is decreasing. Tourism meanwhile is growing. As many of you may have seen there has been quite a lot of information in the European and US press regarding Zambia’s potential. At the moment Zambia mainly relies on just two main advertising routes, the Mighty Victoria Falls, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, and Safaris and wildlife.

Many people would combine both attractions visiting Victoria Falls first. These majestic Falls on the Zambezi River need little introduction. You can visit them all times of year and get a very different feel from an almost dry rock face and cliffs in the dry season to a raging torrent and dense spray all around in the wet season.

Victoria Falls in the dry season

Looking from above Victoria Falls over a very dry Zambezi River at sunset

The Falls with all the spray

Victoria Falls in full flow

Although Livingstone has a small wildlife park, the two major parks are some distance away. Kafue National Park is a huge wildlife area the size of Wales and South Luangwa National Park is smaller but is more suitable for tourists. Both are at least one and a half days drive away from Livingstone. Roads in Zambia are often of poor quality so many people will prefer to fly, but of course that means higher costs. Both parks have all of the “traditional” African animals such as Lion, Leopard and Elephant along with many other animals, birds and reptiles. 

Early morning mist on the Kafue River

Puku in the sunset beside a lake in Kafue

Spotted Hyena on the main road in Kafue

Lion cub drinking from a pool by Kafue River

Lion affection in Kafue

Young Elephant playing in a mud wallow

Lion fight in South Luangwa

A nocturnal hunter, the Leopard

Thorneycroft Giraffe in South Luangwa

The Lilac Breasted Roller, one of the most beautiful birds in Zambia

The Crowned Crane with Elephants watching

Wild Dogs play fighting

What’s the point of knowing what a balanced diet consists of if you can’t prepare one?

This was the message for a great lesson I happened to see when visiting Greater Joy School a few weeks ago. The grade 6 class had been looking at a healthy balanced diet in science and so the training teacher in the class decided to teach a hand on lesson to demonstrate what this looks like in ‘real life’. The lesson consisted of preparing a feast with as many different food types as possible.

Here the teacher is discussing potatoes – as she prepared the potatoes for a Beef stew she discussed the starch in them, the need for energy foods, she reminded the children to use the correct scientific language to describe these food groups ‘Carbohydrates’. As you can see from the photo there was a wide range of food available – not normally what we expect to see from our community schools. The feast was a result of careful planning and preparation– The teachers had divided the class into 3 groups – carbohydrates, fruit and vegetable and protein. Then within each group they had asked for different food items – discreetly asking more vulnerable families to bring the cheaper easily available food such as tomatoes grown in their own garden. Wealthier pupils were asked to contribute meat or fruit. A very clever way to ensure that all pupils were able to be ‘equal’ in their contribution to the lesson.

Challenging stereotypes...The teacher asks “who wants to fry the fish?” - Many of the boys were keen to try cooking as this is normally a ‘women’s job at home.

Preparing potatoes for the potato salad

Gutting fish ready for seasoning. Children learning about different types of protein but also how to prepare and season fish for cooking. 

Sifting for stones in the rice

I was completely distracted from my normal work and found myself joining in and asking children questions about food and cooking at home. Sadly I had to leave before the feast began but was very glad to have had a glimpse of some truly great and inspirational teaching.