ZAMBIAN BREWERIES HANDS OVER 28 HOUSES TO ITAWA FAMILIES

Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry Hon. Christopher Yaluma and Zambian Breweries brewery operations director Franz Schepping officially handover houses to members of the Mapalo informal settlement in Ndola.

LUSAKA, ZAMBIA – Zambian Breweries has shown itself to be an important part of the community of Ndola as the business completed the construction of 28 houses and donated to the members of the Mapalo informal settlement in Ndola earlier in week.

Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry Hon. Christopher Yaluma was the guest of honour at the ceremony and thanked Zambian Breweries and its partners for helping to preservice the Itawa water springs and relocating the families that encroached on it.

Further, Hon. Yaluma commended Zambian Breweries for investing over K100,000 in the training and empowering of youths who encroached the water springs.

“As government, we would  like to commend Zambian Breweries for not only looking at preserving the water springs, but also investing in resettling and empowering the families that lived close to the springs,” said Hon. Yaluma

“I am also aware that Zambian Breweries invested more than K100, 000 in the training and empowering of the youth through the provision of tools in carpentry, tailoring and catering for them to have better skills and will diversify their options and ventures that they can use to earn a living,” he added.

Zambian Breweries invested, over,  K3 million and partnered with both public and private institutions that included GIZ and Habitat for Humanity Zambia to build the houses for the 28 families who previously lived in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in the Mapalo community on the banks of the Kafubu River. The old houses were constructed without regard to durable building materials, basic sanitation, ventilation, lighting and privacy. These houses were mainly constructed of mud and were structurally unsafe. Because of the poor structural integrity, many collapsed during the rainy season.

The new houses have running water, electricity and in-door bathrooms and toilets. The 28 resettled families also received training on how to handle gender-based violence and prevention of HIV/AIDS.

Zambian Breweries has come to the rescue of the city by taking on the Itawa Water Springs restoration project. The project aims to save the water springs from pollution and ensure that the city of Ndola continues to have a supply of clean water.

“Our goal is not only to clean and restore the Itawa Water springs; we also want to help and empower the communities that were affected by our restoration efforts. By building them new and better homes we hope that our efforts will improve their quality of life,” said Zambian Breweries brewery operations director Franz Schepping.

“We are pleased that our partnership with Habitat for Humanity Zambia has yielded such positive results. We at Zambian Breweries see the importance of empowering the communities around where we operate, and we are glad to have played a role in the improvement of the standard of living for the new owners of the houses,” added Duncan Tembo, regional risk control manager at Zambian Breweries.

The housing project is one part of the company’s wider restoration project that will continue for the next one to two years and includes ecological restoration, legal protection of the site, project sustainability and stakeholder engagement, and community awareness and empowerment.