BY JAMES MUYANWA
A TWENTY-nine-year-old woman has been ditched by her fiancé after giving birth to a limbless baby boy.
Melody Miyoba of Sigwidi village in Chief Bright Nalubamba’s area in Namwala district was betrothed to Trust Michelo who has, however, changed his mind following the birth of his limbless son, Blessings.
Ms Miyoba and Mr Michelo’s brother, Mayuni Habansimbi confirmed this to Sunday Times of Zambia in Lusaka during the week.
“He does not want me now as he says that the child is not his because of the disability. He does not want anything to do with me and yet he had promised to marry me before I got pregnant by him,” she said during the interview at Sunday Times offices.
She said Mr Michelo was afraid of the having a child leaving the disability and did not want the people to laugh at him that why he decided to leave her insisting that he was Blessings’ father.
Blessings was born on June 23 2008 without limbs, the situation medical experts at University Teaching Hospital (UTH) describe as a near total amenia or absence of all four limbs.
Ms Miyoba who is currently keeping up at 85/37 Old Kanyama Township at her former fiancé’s brother, said for her as the name entails, Blessings was a blessing from God and she was proud of him despite the disabilities.
She is, therefore, requesting for assistance from medical experts for gadgets to help the baby as well as financial support to enable continue looking after the baby who frequently required specialized medical attention.
Mr Habasimbi 28, said he was ashamed of his elder brother for denying his own baby and pledged support to the child whenever he can manage.
He said he had allowed Ms Miyoba and the baby to stay at his home because he, unlike his elder brother, was more widely exposed and excepted people living with disabled as just as human.
Mr Habasimbi said his brother was supposed to take Ms Miyoba as the second wife and all the necessary Tonga procedures had been followed.
He, however, changed his mind upon the birth of Blessings and was currently in Mukonchi area in Kapiri Mposhi with the first wife.
Mr Habasimbi, who is a smalltime businessperson, said Ms Miyoba and baby are stigmatized whenever they are back home in village because of the ignorance of the people.
“Some people don’t even want to use the cup which Blessings uses. They take such disabilities as a curse or some bad luck,” he said.
According to a medical report by signed by UTH’s Dr Chowa, Blessings “condition is extremely difficult to survive especially in a poor social economic status that the mother finds herself in.”
He says that Blessings needs special custom made orthopaedic appliances at each stage of his growth, which makes more expensive.
“Since there is no manufacture of such appliances in Zambia, the child will have to be sent abroad for needs assessment and technology intervention. We are yet to identify a possible destination for such intervention.
“At this moment the mother has immediate money needs of, stay in Lusaka, food, transport etc while we make contacts across the globe,” states the medical report addressed to whom it may concern.
Ends
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
ZAMBIAN BRIDES SEE HOPE
By James Muyanwa
PROSPECTIVE Zambian brides will be given their dream chance to walk down the aisle in graceful white wedding dresses at a nominal fee courtesy of a project mooted by a British national in Berkshire.
Abigail Parker, 46, has set up the project in which second-hand wedding dresses are being collected following requests across the world for Zambian brides-to-be and a shop would soon be opened in Zambia for the merchandise.
Ms Parker said in an interview in Lusaka that the shop to be called Blessing Bridal Hire would be opened in Zambia’s sprawling township of Kalingalinga in Lusaka.
“In the next few weeks we will open the shop. We are just doing the finishing touches and we will be on,” she during her a trip to Zambia to oversee the preparatory works.
Ms Parker who once lived in Zimbabwe for 10 years also runs AIDS Support Awareness Project (ASAP) in Zambia, which is involved in the fight against the pandemic through the imparting of awareness, mainly among women.
She said ASAP is closely working with Tasinta a local organisation founded by Professor Nkandu Luo. She said Tasinta will be getting 75 per cent of the proceeds while the remainder will be retained by ASAP.
Tasinta deals with mostly reforming and reformed former sex workers who are helped to find their own feet outside one of the oldest trades.
The wedding dress project has been widely covered by the international media resulting in the inundation of donated wedding dresses, of all sizes and shapes, from across the global.
Wedding News, a United Kingdom (UK) online publication, reports that since launching the request for second-hand wedding dresses, Ms Parker has been overwhelmed with donations, with some dresses coming from as far as Canada and Russia.
As part of Ms Parker’s plan, she will hire out the donated wedding dresses to brides in Zambia, and later in other African countries for a small fee.
“The scheme goes beyond simply donating second hand wedding dresses to Zambian women. Abi Parker has come up with a plan which will not only help the brides-to-be in Zambia have a very special day, but also support the community in aiding them to create a better future for themselves,” Wedding News reported.
Ms Parker whose other two partners in ASAP were born in Zambia told the BBC recently that some of the donated dresses were from brides desperate to get rid of them following a marriage breakdown and others are from women keen to pass on the clothes that brought them joy.
"It's an African woman's dream to get married in a white wedding dress. It's a sign of stature, like a sort of keeping up with the Joneses thing and it's usually only the very, very wealthy African families who can afford it.
By doing this we are giving people, who could not usually afford it, the opportunity to get married in a white dress,” she said.
Some young women talked to in Lusaka said that the project will enable some people who could otherwise not imagine themselves in white wedding dress one day to realise that life dream.
Sharon Mwense said the project is encouraging but hoped that the hire charges will not be beyond the reach for most people who currently cannot afford to buy or hire the dresses on the market.
“I would not mind putting on such a dress,” said soon-to-wed, Patricia Chibbona of Chilenje South Township.
ASAP
“We at A.S.A.P (Aids Support Awareness Project) are committed to tackling HIV/AIDS by addressing previously un-tackled cultural issues and practices using linguistically correct educational and positive speaking DVD’s, which we show via laptop presentations to remote rural communities.
“The project has begun in Zambia and we hope to spread across Africa. It is our key aim to use this innovative high-impact educational material to aid in increasing awareness of how certain cultural practices are contributing to the rapid spread of HIV in Africa,” said Ms Parker. She said most of HIV/AIDS awareness materials are produced in English and in written form, which cannot reach those in terribly afflicted poor rural communities.
It is the right of all people to have access to the services and information they need to help them stay alive and this is simply not happening in many rural parts of Africa, as the people continue to live in ignorance.Ms Parker said despite the fact that the governments and other stakeholders had done so much to ensure all the people now know the words HIV/AIDS, the people still lack knowledge on the complexities of the disease and how certain cultural practices aid in its spread.
“It is these practices, which restrict condom usage, create cross-infection through traditional healing methods and marginalize women, thus allowing the infection rate to continue at catastrophic levels,” she said. Backgrounds
Ms Parker said the founders of ASAP are very knowledgeable about African challenges and the life generally.
“All of us, however, have a great awareness of Africa, two having been born there, one having lived there and one still doing so. We all have first hand, grassroots knowledge of how this pandemic affects everyone’s life on a day-to-day basis.”
After completing her university education, Ms Parker worked with British Airways on their long-haul fleet travelling worldwide and it was from those experiences that her passion for Africa, the people and the continent, grew.
She then immigrated to Zimbabwe in 1996 where she became involved in a local orphanage Jiros Jeri under the care of Zimtrust. Another director, Jeffery Taylor, was born in Zambia to British parents then working for Anglo-American Corporation on the Copperbelt in the 1960’s. He now lives in Zimbabwe from where he is director of Chevron Trading Pvt. and where he remains amid challenges.
Mr Taylor’s life has been impacted by the AIDS crisis on a daily basis, through the loss of staff/colleagues and their relatives to the disease.
Christopher Young joined the Charity in March 2006 having grown up in Zambia as a son of Zambian farmers.
Ends
PROSPECTIVE Zambian brides will be given their dream chance to walk down the aisle in graceful white wedding dresses at a nominal fee courtesy of a project mooted by a British national in Berkshire.
Abigail Parker, 46, has set up the project in which second-hand wedding dresses are being collected following requests across the world for Zambian brides-to-be and a shop would soon be opened in Zambia for the merchandise.
Ms Parker said in an interview in Lusaka that the shop to be called Blessing Bridal Hire would be opened in Zambia’s sprawling township of Kalingalinga in Lusaka.
“In the next few weeks we will open the shop. We are just doing the finishing touches and we will be on,” she during her a trip to Zambia to oversee the preparatory works.
Ms Parker who once lived in Zimbabwe for 10 years also runs AIDS Support Awareness Project (ASAP) in Zambia, which is involved in the fight against the pandemic through the imparting of awareness, mainly among women.
She said ASAP is closely working with Tasinta a local organisation founded by Professor Nkandu Luo. She said Tasinta will be getting 75 per cent of the proceeds while the remainder will be retained by ASAP.
Tasinta deals with mostly reforming and reformed former sex workers who are helped to find their own feet outside one of the oldest trades.
The wedding dress project has been widely covered by the international media resulting in the inundation of donated wedding dresses, of all sizes and shapes, from across the global.
Wedding News, a United Kingdom (UK) online publication, reports that since launching the request for second-hand wedding dresses, Ms Parker has been overwhelmed with donations, with some dresses coming from as far as Canada and Russia.
As part of Ms Parker’s plan, she will hire out the donated wedding dresses to brides in Zambia, and later in other African countries for a small fee.
“The scheme goes beyond simply donating second hand wedding dresses to Zambian women. Abi Parker has come up with a plan which will not only help the brides-to-be in Zambia have a very special day, but also support the community in aiding them to create a better future for themselves,” Wedding News reported.
Ms Parker whose other two partners in ASAP were born in Zambia told the BBC recently that some of the donated dresses were from brides desperate to get rid of them following a marriage breakdown and others are from women keen to pass on the clothes that brought them joy.
"It's an African woman's dream to get married in a white wedding dress. It's a sign of stature, like a sort of keeping up with the Joneses thing and it's usually only the very, very wealthy African families who can afford it.
By doing this we are giving people, who could not usually afford it, the opportunity to get married in a white dress,” she said.
Some young women talked to in Lusaka said that the project will enable some people who could otherwise not imagine themselves in white wedding dress one day to realise that life dream.
Sharon Mwense said the project is encouraging but hoped that the hire charges will not be beyond the reach for most people who currently cannot afford to buy or hire the dresses on the market.
“I would not mind putting on such a dress,” said soon-to-wed, Patricia Chibbona of Chilenje South Township.
ASAP
“We at A.S.A.P (Aids Support Awareness Project) are committed to tackling HIV/AIDS by addressing previously un-tackled cultural issues and practices using linguistically correct educational and positive speaking DVD’s, which we show via laptop presentations to remote rural communities.
“The project has begun in Zambia and we hope to spread across Africa. It is our key aim to use this innovative high-impact educational material to aid in increasing awareness of how certain cultural practices are contributing to the rapid spread of HIV in Africa,” said Ms Parker. She said most of HIV/AIDS awareness materials are produced in English and in written form, which cannot reach those in terribly afflicted poor rural communities.
It is the right of all people to have access to the services and information they need to help them stay alive and this is simply not happening in many rural parts of Africa, as the people continue to live in ignorance.Ms Parker said despite the fact that the governments and other stakeholders had done so much to ensure all the people now know the words HIV/AIDS, the people still lack knowledge on the complexities of the disease and how certain cultural practices aid in its spread.
“It is these practices, which restrict condom usage, create cross-infection through traditional healing methods and marginalize women, thus allowing the infection rate to continue at catastrophic levels,” she said. Backgrounds
Ms Parker said the founders of ASAP are very knowledgeable about African challenges and the life generally.
“All of us, however, have a great awareness of Africa, two having been born there, one having lived there and one still doing so. We all have first hand, grassroots knowledge of how this pandemic affects everyone’s life on a day-to-day basis.”
After completing her university education, Ms Parker worked with British Airways on their long-haul fleet travelling worldwide and it was from those experiences that her passion for Africa, the people and the continent, grew.
She then immigrated to Zimbabwe in 1996 where she became involved in a local orphanage Jiros Jeri under the care of Zimtrust. Another director, Jeffery Taylor, was born in Zambia to British parents then working for Anglo-American Corporation on the Copperbelt in the 1960’s. He now lives in Zimbabwe from where he is director of Chevron Trading Pvt. and where he remains amid challenges.
Mr Taylor’s life has been impacted by the AIDS crisis on a daily basis, through the loss of staff/colleagues and their relatives to the disease.
Christopher Young joined the Charity in March 2006 having grown up in Zambia as a son of Zambian farmers.
Ends
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