Misisi

Misisi Compound is a shanty town, which is located in Lusaka, Zambia. Misisi has been identified as one of the five worst slums in Sub Saharan Africa. Due to a lack of resources there has been poor record keeping, but according to best estimates, there are between 80 and 90,000 people living in the area.^[1]

Health

The average life expectancy is around 32 years. HIV and AIDS remains a huge problem in Misisi, as with many areas in Africa. Education into prevention and removal of social stigma is a major aim of the Home Based Care unit. More than 50 percent of children living there have lost at least one parent to the HIV/AIDS.

There is also a prevalence of many other diseases in the area. Cholera remains a huge problem, due to a lack of clean water. Malaria is also a major issue during the warmer seasons of the year. Health problems related to poverty, such as malnutrition create huge problems in the day to day lives of the people.

Language

While the official language spoken in Zambia is English, the people of Misisi tend to speak a number of local languages, in particular Nyanja and Bemba.

Project Zambia

Misisi is one of the main places in which Project Zambia works. Much of the work takes place in the adjoining St Lawrence's Centre, which houses the Home of Hope, an outreach programme removing street children from Lusaka and offering them a safe haven and attempting to reunite them with their families, a Community School, bakery, Agricultural Project for a few examples, but a significant amount also takes place in the compound itself, such as the provision of clean water.

Project Zambia also works in the St Catherine's Centre, in the middle of Misisi; it is a school offering education to local children of Misisi. Project Zambia's continued work in the St Catherine's Centre, with the work of Mr Peter Tembo, the co-ordinator of the St Catherine's centre, has seen its expansion from a few buildings acting as a temporary school, to a walled compound that has continued expansion with each year that Project Zambia continues its involvement.

Footnotes

1. ^ "The U Foundation". http://www.theufoundation.org/Misisi_Compound.html. Retrieved 2007-12-01. ^{[dead link]}

External links

• The Zambia Society Trust
• Groundwater quality assessments in the John Laing and Misisi areas of Lusaka