AFRICANEWS

Zambia

Bishops challenge government on social crisis

Human rights

The country's Episcopal conference has issued a dynamite statement on focusing on the health and education crisis. It is a challenge to the government and message of hope to the ordinary people who continue to bear the burden.

Mr. Mwale, a resident of Lusaka tells how he lost his cousin, a breastfeeding mother. "One day my cousin went to do some errands in a compound neighbouring ours. She , had heard that there was an outbreak of cholera there but did not think she would contract the disease so easily.

When she came back home after a while she started vomiting profusely. When this continued for the next few hours, I decided to take her to a cholera centre for first aid administration and clinical observation.

When we got there, we were told that she could not get treatment since the centre had run out of drugs. The nurse told me to buy IV fluid and a course of antibiotics. I managed to persuade the nurse to give her something. I promised that in the meantime I would buy the drugs.

Unfortunately, my cousin had lost too much water from her body. She died within 24 hours of her contracting the disease. " Mwale's cousin left a two months- old-baby. He is saddened because the cousin will be buried like a dog, as no funeral/vigils are allowed for such deaths.

The health system in Zambia is in a state of crisis. A situation which has prompted the members of the Zambia Episcopal Conference to issue a pastoral statement on solidarity in face of the country's social crisis. The statement .is a follow-up to the communique that the members released on 29th January 2000. "We want to strongly express again our deep concern for the situation in our country today and add our profound worry that nothing significant has happened to improve that situation. As you all know so very well, the greater majority of our sisters and brothers throughout the country face very serious difficulties meeting the basic needs of daily survival in conditions acceptable to human dignity," the statement said.

As if their patience had run out, the members said that anyone visiting a government hospital or clinic today cannot be shocked to find the absence of basic essentials while the strike of junior doctors continues unresolved or five months now. This is has not only made the health system intolerable but has also affected the economy of the country as the government has brought into the country foreign doctors at great expense, and taking out of the country for medical care high officials at great expense besides high officials out of the country for medical care.

One other root causes of the crisis in the health sector is the reduced support to public health programmes by local authorities, which in turn have had very minimal support from the central government. Restructuring the health sector has meant the public health sector has continued to be downgraded on the list of priorities, in the face of scarce resources and an ever increasing urban population.

The statement further recognises the fact that "there is no future development without healthy and educated citizens." An observation is made of the deplorable state of the education system; "Recent assessments of government primary and secondary education systems, assessments undertaken by the Government itself, reveal the extremely disappointing level of quality and the very disturbing decline in quality of education being offered Zambian children."

Of particular interest is the case of Kabanana Basic School. As reported recently by the Zambia SAP Monitoring team in Kabanana Parish, the school was built in 1962 and has never been renovated since then. The buildings were in a pathetic state without windows, doors and in some classrooms had no roofs. The team reported that the school is overcrowded with about 50 pupils per class, in total there are about 1,600 pupils in the school. Due to lack of enough space there are three sessions of short learning hours running.

The team later managed to set up a meeting with the area member of parliament who fortunately got funding from the Japanese and now the school is being renovated.

Prior to the coming election year of 2001, the members in the statement insist that the government must put the country's priorities in place pointing out that religious sisters have demonstrated to draw attention to the suffering that they see and minister to every day around the country. This was in reference to the incident of January 30 this year when 120 Catholic sisters demonstrated to lobby for the establishment of a representative committee that will direct, monitor and oversee that the freed resources as a result of debt cancellation benefit the poor people of Zambia. The sisters are part of the Catholic system that runs 60 per cent of the rural hospitals in the country.

The statement also notes that Bishops in their quest for justice and equality have met with the President and top government officials to discuss these issues while doctors and other citizens have had a peacefully demonstration and were arrested.

After all has been said and done the members of the Episcopal conference in this dynamite statement observe that nothing seems to be happening that would measure up to the severity of the crisis. "Surely more serious responses are called for by all Zambians, whatever their positions or political persuasion."

The statement is a challenge to the church to demand for justice and work towards seeing justice done. The President has been called upon to publicly acknowledge the extreme social crisis facing the nation while the government has been asked to recognise and appreciate the commitment and dedication of Church Management agencies serving in the country's Educational and Health institutions.

Finally, the statement offers a message of hope to the ordinary people who are bearing the great burden of the social crisis and continue to suffer because of violation of their rights to good medical care and education, to know that the church is sensitive to their needs and is determined to move our country in the direction of dignity and development for all.

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