Eastern Region

District population: 83,981
Communities where Plan works: 12
Sponsored children: Around 7,860

Plan’s Chadiza Programme Unit is situated in the eastern part of Zambia where the Chewa people engage in subsistence farming. They grow crops and keep animals, which are often herded by boys under 10 years old.

Although their crops are not enough to meet their needs, they sell some of it to pay for their children’s fees and essential household items.

The Chewa people are very proud of their culture and celebrate traditional initiation ceremonies - including Nyau for boys and Chinamwali for girls, which require children to be confined in houses or deep in the bush for months. As a result, many children are deprived of  the opportunity to fully participate at school.

Programme highlights

Plan’s programmes benefit about 80% of the total district population and include:

Building capacity

Plan has invested in training children and other community members on child rights and how they can be fulfilled.  As a result, there are now signs of improving farming methods and community involvement in managing projects. There has also been notable improvement in the management of childhood illnesses.

Learning

Working with school improvement programme committees and the Ministry of Education, Plan has helped to train teachers on child-friendly teaching methods - such as postive discipline techniques instead of corporal punishment.

We also support learning by providing desks and text books and building or rehabilitating classrooms and teachers’ houses.

Early childhood care

Plan has supported and encouraged parents to build over 150 centres in Chadiza for children aged 3 to 6, where they go to play and learn about their environment, culture and hygiene.  Child growth monitoring and nutrition classes for mothers also takes place in some of these centres.

Health

Water quality in many communities in this area is poor, leading to outbreaks of disease such as cholera, dysentery and diarrhoea.  Plan has funded drilling of boreholes providing many households with safe water.  

“I collect water for cooking from a borehole with my friends.  Some villages do not have boreholes, so they use water from streams for cooking.  The water is not safe to drink.  It has caused some children to contract bilharzias, a nasty disease of passing blood with urine,” shared Veronica, aged 14.

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