Alum, Bruce Mukwatu and the Zambia Academy of Community Change

Communities throughout Zambia have the local wisdom and resources to participate in and manage their own community development, particularly in the areas of health and agriculture. Future Generations alumus, Bruce Mukwatu, is creating the Zambia Academy of Community Change to train existing institutions and practitioners in how to work more effectively with communities and then link these groups together in an on-going process of learning.

The Zambia Academy will perform two functions. First it will train Zambian institutions who are already working with local people in order to increase levels of community ownership and participation and the effectiveness of programs already underway. Second the academy will link these now trained groups into an on-going partnership. (The field of social change rapidly advances around the world, and Zambia will prosper if tied to evolving best practice and simultaneously these groups, through being networked, can help inform what is best practice.)

 

Institutions that are already training community development practitioners include: Agriculture Farm Training Centers; the College for Health Sciences; and Rural Health Centers which are working with over 1,000 Neighborhood Health Committees in five districts; and church development institutions. In partnership with these institutions, training of trainer programs will be developed to teach an integrated curriculum of community change process and agricultural and health skills. Training will target cadres of community development officers, agricultural extension worker, health center staff, and community leaders.

Leadership: Bruce Mukwatu, a 2005 graduate of the Future Generation’s Master’s Degree, has guided and led national initiatives for community-based primary health in Zambia for more than twenty years. He initiated this proposal for a Zambia Academy for Community Change to move forward the efforts of community mobilization and education in the areas of health and agriculture. Bruce will provide the leadership and guidance for the development of this program. As he works to formally register and establish the Zambian Academy, in his spare time, he and his wife provide humanitarian support and training for Angolan refugees.

Contact Information: Bruce Mukwatu, bmukwatu@gmail.com, Lusaka, Zambia