Facts and stats

Zambia is a landlocked African country and covers an area of 752,614 square kilometres.

It boarders the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Capital city: Lusaka

Population: 13.8 million

Adult literacy: 71%

Life expectancy: 52

Language: English

Religions: Christianity, Hindu and Muslim

Tourism: Approximately 60,000 visitors from the UK alone each year, many go on Safari or visit Victoria Falls

In 1964, when the country gained independence, it was the second richest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa, next only to South Africa.

Copper was at the heart of the country’s wealth and in the late 1960s Zambia was the third largest producer of the metal after the America and the Soviet Union. Despite this promise for the future when copper prices collapsed in the 1970s the effects on the economy were devastating.

Today, the future is looking brighter for Zambia as the copper output is growing once again; however, the World Bank is urging the country to develop other sources of income through tourism and agriculture.

Despite the improving economy the country remains incredibly poor with 68% of Zambians living below the World Bank poverty threshold of $1 a day.

Although Zambia has one of the largest fresh water resources in Africa, water supply coverage is poor, 40% in rural areas and 90% in urban areas. Sanitation ranges from 51% in rural areas and 55% in urban areas, which is why WaterAid is working to improve the lives of those living in Zambia.

Enduring the inoculations

Last week further details arrived from WaterAid about the trip. Included were Visa details and information on malaria and the dreaded jabs!  

Deciding to strike while the iron was hot (and prevent it from seeping conveniently to the back of my mind) I decided that there was no time like the present to get the first jabs out of the way!

So, off I trundled to see the nurse with an (unashamed) glint of fear in my eye – who likes injections?

Fortunately previous trips abroad and the inoculations I had as a child prevented the need for me to look like a temporary pin cushion, all that was required for this first trip was Hepatitis B, however I will need to return in the New Year for rabies and potentially a nice anti-cholera drink.

Maybe that is one reason to not want the New Year to come by too quickly!

About WaterAid

Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, WaterAid is a charity which has a vision of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation.

We are all take clean, safe running water and hygienic toilets for granted. Gone are the days when we had to walk to the nearest river with a large container to collect drinking water or use a long drop. If this happened here today there would be public outcry, but in some parts of the world this is still the norm.

Some shocking statistics taken from www.wateraid.org:

o    884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one in eight of the world's population. (WHO/UNICEF)

o    2.6 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation, this is almost two fifths of the world's population. (WHO/UNICEF)

o    1.4 million children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation - 4,000 child deaths a day or one child every 20 seconds. This equates to 160 infant school classrooms lost every single day to an entirely preventable public health crisis. (WHO/WaterAid)

WaterAid aims to transforms lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world's poorest communities.

WaterAid is making a difference:

o    Since 1981, the charity has reached 15.89 million people with safe water

o    Since 2004, WaterAid has reached 11.02 million people with sanitation

o    In 2010/11 1.45 million people were given access to safe water and 1.62 million people with sanitation through WaterAid

o    Just £15 can enable one person to access a lasting supply of safe water, improved hygiene and sanitation. (WaterAid)

www.wateraid.org

But more needs to be done.

I hope that through my trip to Zambia in February I will be able to raise awareness of this charity and the plight of many throughout the world.

I will witness first hand those who are yet to receive help and the conditions they are living in, WaterAid’ss work in progress and how lives have been transformed as a result of the charity.

For more information on WaterAid visit: www.wateraid.org

The revelation

There are some questions in life you think you’ll never get asked, and even when they are asked, you can’t quite imagine they actually have been. In this case it was: “So, how do you fancy going to Zambia?”

Two weeks ago the thought of going to Zambia hadn’t even entered my mind, to be honest, the country had barely entered my mind during my 29 years as far as knowing it existed.

That was until an email popped into my inbox.

The email was an invite to apply for the WaterAid supporters visit to Zambia which is to take place in February 2012.

Since I began working for my local water company I have been involved in promoting the good work staff and the Company have been doing to raise money for this charity both internally and externally. I have got stuck into fundraising too, running The Bath Half Marathon on the 6^th March 2011 to raise much needed funds.

As a result of this work, I was invited to apply, and with a potentially life changing week on the horizon, I could hardly turn it down. So with blessings from my boss and family I put in my hopeful application.

A few days later came that question: “So, how do you fancy going to Zambia?”