Historic meeting in Chesterfield, England

Friends of Chitambo (FoCh) is full of wonderful surprises including a recent historic meeting between Trustees, in the England Peak District.

Mr. Chola Mwelwa, FoCh Trustee, is from Chitambo but currently living with his family near Chesterfield, England.   Chola and his wife, Loveness, are both nurses in the area.

Jo Vallis, FoCh Chair, and her husband Richard and sister Marion (visiting from New Zealand) took the opportunity to call on the Mwelwa family when visiting their younger sister who lives in the area.

Jo and Richard Vallis with Chola, Loveness and youngest Mwelwa son, Mumba

The Mwelwas' home is situated in a quiet suburb overlooking vast fields of corn.  It was magical to meet the family and sit in their lovely living room drinking tea, eating tumbua (Zambian doughnuts), and reminiscing about Chitambo.

Chola, Loveness and their youngest son, Mumba (pictured in his Zambia shirt), are heading to Zambia this month and are kindly taking some items for us.  These include our grant project conference poster for presentation at the AHILA conference, Uganda, by Zambian partners Vincent and Consider (October 2016).  Items also include a memory stick containing a health e-library, kindly donated by Scottish NGO MACAI: http://www.mcai.org.uk/  This is for an emergency care resource centre requested by Chitambo partners and funded by our Scottish Government Small Grant project.

As a project Steering Group member, Chola is invaluable and his visit home to Chitambo provides the ideal opportunity for him to link with In-country Project Lead, Mr. Consider Mudenda, on some project monitoring and evaluation.

The visit to Family Mwelwa also provided the opportunity for a book signing!  Jo Vallis had given Chola a copy of her sister Marion's book 'Livingstone's Hospital: the Story of Chitambo'....a history o Chitambo Hospital.  Chola had been astonished to read about many familiar names and places and requested that Marion sign the book.  This also made her day!

God speed to the Mwelwa family, and especially to young Mumba, who last visited Zambia when he was only 4 years old (8 years ago).  Although he is now a young Englishman, he should be very proud of his Zambian and Chitambo heritage.