Linden Warburton: Sukie Barber - Opportunities Zambia

At last week’s meeting, Vice President Mairhi Trickett welcomed speaker Sukie Barber and guests Kathy Anderson and Trevor McBain (from Christchurch New Zealand).

Sukie’s talk on Opportunities Zambia covered its formation nine years ago to the present day. Its initial aim was to feed children in a school in one of the poorest communities in Lusaka, greatly helped by Vincent Luigi, a man of many skills including being a talented builder. As the school grew from 250 to over 750 children, an extra classroom and ladies' sewing room were added.

Another school in Lusaka was opened in 2021, followed by a move to a rural community and the building of two more schools, with a hand operated water pump, storage tanks, four classrooms and a kitchen. Within a year, three more classrooms were added to one of the schools, a sewing room and teacher to train unmarried mothers, and an office. The plan now is to start a secondary school in January 2025. A hummer mill for grinding maize has been gifted and a machine to make peanut butter will enable children to be fed daily. A shop also sells these products to passing road traffic, with all proceeds helping to fund the school.

It was while teaching women and girls to make washable sanitary and incontinence pads that Sukie met a group of 20 orphans that had been taken off the streets. The plan is to build a home for them, as a family with a house mother, near one of the rural schools.

Most of the funds to achieve this are raised from ‘Sukie’s Scones’ coffee mornings held in Darnick Village Hall along with the sale of craftwork made by women and girls and brought back from Zambia by Sukie. On her last visit she and a friend took 11 suitcases of donations and returned home with many of these now filled with craftwork.

A much deserved vote of thanks was given by Jane Cox, after which Club Members had the opportunity to examine and purchase various goods: aprons, table mats, children's dresses, jewellery, wood carvings, various knitted items and woven baskets all made by Zambian ladies and girls, and of course Sukie’s own homemade scones and assorted chutneys.