Access to water and art for the children

 Click here to read an interview with Vicky and Jose, after arriving back to CICD in May!

Development is many things...also creative arts!

In these three months in Zambia we have been doing different projects. After visiting some communities around we decided that the three priorities were:

• Repairing the mono-pumps to provide clean water to the communities
• The construction of a new shelter for a meal meal machine (for grinding maize flour) in order to get the electricity necessary to use it.
• Help the parents in Kachasu community to start the construction of a new school. Their children are walking around two hours every day to get to the nearest school, and then 2 hours home again.

As a team we started the process making a video to fundraise the money necessary for these projects. We have already repaired three mono-pumps, the shelter is nearly finish and we are just starting the process of the construction of the new school.
We have started another interesting project also. We are building different prototypes of water collectors to provide the houses with water during the rainy season. Our idea is to show the people how to do it, so they can do it by themselves.

At the same time, with the help of José I have a daily workshop with the children in Katongola Market. When we arrived to the rural communities of this area to start our volunteer work we noticed the need for activities for the children, to fill their free time and help them in their personal development. These children are living in an extreme poverty without water, without electricity, with a basic diet and a lack of hygiene.
The families here have a lot of children. They take care of themselves most of the time. It's very common to see little girls carrying theirs brothers or sisters on their backs. Immediately we started offering them the possibility to participate daily in creativity workshops. Art helps the mental and physical development of the children and increases their self-confidence when they start experimenting and expressing. In the beginning it was difficult. Many of them didn't use a brush in their lives. All the materials were new for them.
Another obstacle was the language. They speak Bemba, the local language, and only very few words in English. But they were so excited and interested in the workshop that nothing could stop it. Every day the house front door was full of children asking to make drawings.
The workshops are richer now. We are doing traditional games, dancing, pottery, we project films....... The children enjoy it a lot and we can see great changes in their art, in their self-confidence and in the way they interact with each other. Regarding the language, they have been learning a little bit English and we have been learning a little bit Bemba. It's really a pleasure for us to give them the tools to help them in their personal development . To be creative will be the best weapon for the new goals that they will have in the future.

A hug.
Vicky Delgado, May team 2017 / Fighting with the Poor