Zambia 2018

Wow, it is hard to believe that we’re writing end of semester reflections right now—where did the time go? Even though we’ve still got a few weeks until our departure, I feel ready and excited to start this important work. Andrew has been a great partner already, and our research is coming along smoothly. Meeting with Linda Paul as a stakeholder was such a treat because she provided valuable insight into her experience working on GBV and into some of the challenges that researching such a sensitive topic can come with. She explained that some people might not want to talk about it, and it might feel so embedded in society that it is impossible to fix or change or have any kind of impact on. I think that is what I am most worried about—finally getting to Zambia and realizing GBV is even more complex and interconnected than I previously predicted. I think that is why I’m so happy that we are teaming up with Cornell and making something tangible out of our work. This...

As Sabrina and I have began our initial research on gender based violence in Zambia, we have become more engaged in the topic and eager to get started. Gender based violence is an incredibly sensitive issue, and in Zambia, just like everywhere else in the world, it is a prevalent issue. However, Zambia has made significant strides in the past few years to curb gender based violence by implementing a number of preventionary and reactionary measures. In preparation for our presentation, Sabrina and I read several articles and were given resources to research from Tine. Moving forward, I am excited to explore the effectiveness of the measures Zambia has already enacted, and examine possible tweaks to make them even more effective. Once we get in country, my initial game plan is to speak to many different stakeholders to develop a dynamic understanding of the prevalence of GBV in Zambia. By speaking with religious leaders, members of the judicial system, and advocates for reform in GBV l...

Initially, it was fairly challenging to understand our topic and the specific interests of our partner organization as our topic of local philanthropy in the context of Zambian Diaspora seemed very nebulous. However, after researching further, we realized that our topic is a macro level approach taken by ZGF to attain sustainable development in Zambia through their philanthropic work. Their current campaign of #shiftthepower ( shift the power) is based on the model of sustainable local development by trying to get Zambians involved in the process of development. This would reduce the dependency on foreign aid and make Zambians both accountable and responsible for the development of Zambia. ZGF believes their goals of innovation and sustainable development can be achieved through engaging the Zambian diaspora with their philanthropic work and linking them to communities or causes they would want to support.  It was evident from our partner organizations email that they would like...

Upon being assigned to my partner organization, the SANI Foundation, I was excited, but nervous. The SANI Foundation aims to “facilitate the full inclusion of persons with intellectual disabilities in Zambia into all aspects of society”. As Alex and I began our research, we quickly realized that there is not much research available relating to Zambia as a whole, but especially concerning people with intellectual disabilities (ID). This lack of research exemplified how people with ID generally exist as a marginalized population in Zambia. During our preliminary research, we were able to learn more about the social stigma surrounding ID. However, we still have a long way to go in order to learn more about how this affects employment opportunities for people with ID. I am excited to learn more about this using various research methods and hopefully give the SANI Foundation useful information in order to better support people with ID living in Zambia. Alex and I also began looking into...

I only became more and more excited the more research I put into my research topic this summer. Applying to the program, I had hoped that I would be doing some type of research on economic development and poverty reduction, which was something I was passionate about. I’m extremely satisfied when I learned that I was going to be researching that exact topic this summer with the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ). My topic for this summer is the effect of mining on poverty levels and health outcomes in the North-Western Province of Zambia. So far, my partner and I have been limited to various literature reviews and journal articles on poverty in Zambia. We started out by trying to contextualize and break down the topic into different sections so we have a better understanding of the issue at hand and where our focus needs to be. We found that many of our sources were related to Zambia as a whole, with only a few focusing on the North-Western Province, which is where CCZ wants us to fo...

The research process has been going smoothly thus far. At first, Gabby and I were unsure about how gender rights, climate change, and livelihood resilience were connected, but we were able to find an ActionAid Zambia news article about the connections. We have learned that rain-fed agriculture is very important in Zambia and those crops are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Because agriculture is such a major contributor to GDP, climate change has a large socioeconomic effect. Furthermore, women face land ownership battles between customary and statutory laws so ActionAid provides them additional support with conservation agriculture and livelihood resilience techniques. As we move forward, we want to understand this relationship between gender rights, climate change, and livelihood resilience more specifically. It is not clear what interventions ActionAid specifically engages in and learning more about that could guide our research questions. Additionally, climate change af...

The research that I have been doing has been surrounding the topics of water, sanitation and hygiene and how these three aspects of health play out in health facilities and the nutrition of mothers and children, as well as the community as a whole. So far, I have noticed that one of the biggest problems surrounding this topic is the lack of handwashing and decent toilets in households. From the articles that I have read, efforts have been made to improve sanitation and stop open defecation in Zambia for good by the year 2020. One of the efforts that has been made was presented in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. The article discussed how communities in Zambia are working on changing the beliefs, behaviors, and perceptions of sanitation and hygiene. Through community-led total sanitation, “community champions”, which consist of individuals who are highly respected in the community, are taught how to carry out a process known as “triggering”. Esse...