My Connection with Mambilima

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     The boarding school (Chengelo) I attended for five years in a remote part of Zambia was hell for a number of reasons that I won't go into here. It did however have some good things that made it almost worth while; one of these things, for me at least, was the outdoor program. Once a year each form goes on a trip into the bush and everyone is ripped from their comfort zones but (usually) end up having a great time. In form five however the form is split into three groups, one goes to Lusaka to work with a transit home for street kids, the other goes north - something like 14hrs to Mambilima Special school and I can't remember where the third went.


        My group went to Mambilima where we spent a week playing, talking and teaching the kids (though I think they taught us more things than we taught them!). I think the two most striking things that came out of the experience, at least to me, were how tough these people were - if you've ever been beaten at football by a guy with one leg and no arms you'll know what I'm talking about! The second thing came out when talking to the only physiotherapist there (who doubles as the informal GP). He constantly pointed out to us that so many of the horrific cases we saw could relativley easily be prevented or treated by simple operations. The coordinator of the outdoor centre (Ndubaluba) linked to the school, Richard Thompson, reckons that such an operation would cost around $150 which is really cheap considering the result!

    I found some pics on flikr from Mambilima:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/mencap_photos/1275025116/
If anyone has any other feel free to post them on here or send them to me at: bwana_shmane@yahoo.co.uk

  Oh yeah, and there'll be more info about Mambilima (what they do, how it started etc.) coming soon written by guest blogger Richard Thompson

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