Friends of Chitambo SCIO

Friends of Chitambo is an offshoot of Scottish charitable group, Penicuik for Africa (PfA). Chitambo is a community, in central Zambia, with a very special link with Scotland: it is where Scottish missionary/explorer Dr David Livingstone died. Livingston’es nephew, Malcolm Moffat, prospected for a site to build a hospital in Livingstone’s memory. Chitambo Hospital was founded in 1908 and staffed by many Scottish doctors and nurses. It is still active today, as a Zambian government hospital, with an all-African staff.
PfA gave substantial support to Chitambo Hospital, from 2005, including fundraising for an ambulance as a hospital centenary gift (2008) and for locally made mukwa wood furniture for the newly re-opened Chitambo School of Nursing.
Due to exponential growth and interest (local, national and international), decided to become an independent organisation in its own right and is now a registered charity. Our charitable purposes include: relief of poverty; advancement of education; advancement of healthcare, including reduction of mortality rates and health workforce training/development; contributing to saving lives; and contributing to advancement of community development. These aspects are incorporated in our constitutional aims which are to:
• Contribute to prevention and relief of poverty through actively engaging in fundraising, mainly in support of the Chitambo School of Nursing and Hospital, through for example, provision of nurse training scholarships for particularly disadvantaged students, and improved accommodation and subsistence for hospital patients’ relatives, but also in support of other institutions (church, schools, orphanage, local businesses etc.), as possible
• Contribute to the advancement of education through supporting the Chitambo School of Nursing with equipment (books, teaching aids etc) and sponsorship of some basic and advanced nurse training
• Contribute to the advancement of health, in the Chitambo District, particularly through up-skilling of local health workforce by provision of nurse training scholarships for students and teaching staff
• Contributing to the saving of lives through assistance with locally identified clinical needs, such as ambulance maintenance and upkeep in order to promote rapid transfer of patients to hospital, from remote, rural areas
• Contribute to advancement of community development, at Chitambo, through working together to identify and address local health, education, business and other needs and encouraging community-driven solutions