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.
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