Chongwe’s ABESU Women Housing Cooperative (AWHC) diversify
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Abesu Women Housing Cooperative (AWHC) 2015 Board
By Ashton Kelly Bunda
ABESU Women Housing Cooperative (AWHC) Headperson of Chongwe Rural in Lusaka Province Bridget Phiri cites increased population as an incentive encouraging people to venture into agriculture.
Ms. Phiri described agriculture as a firm foundation of the Zambian economy evident by her ABESU Women Housing Cooperative diversifying from building houses to agricultural production and trade.
The youthful Bridget Phiri recalls that diversification by ABESU Women Housing Cooperative has been prompted by the noted scramble for land.
“We have noticed that citizens from urban areas competing to invest and secure land for farming purposes. We are diversifying from building houses to agriculture and trade as a means of complementing President Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s mission of creating employment in Zambia,” Phiri told the author during a tour organized by Sustainable Energy Southern Africa Forum of Africa –EU Energy Partnership in Chongwe rural.
Ms. Phiri is content living in a solar powered house, a solar energy powered computer room, and is volunteering to train children of Chongwe Rural children in computer literacy.
Ms. Phiri narrated how a couple from Sweden proposed the idea of the Solar Control Room Energy and donated resources, augmented to by contributions by ABESU Women Housing Cooperative (AWHC).
ABESU Women Housing Cooperative (AWHC) has been facilitated by Chongwe Rural Head Woman of Violet Mshetela, providing land to 200 women who built 160 houses, a Shiala Primary School, named after Head Woman.
Shiala Primary School has been up-graded from community school to primary school and ABESU Women Housing Cooperative (AWHC) use Solar Energy in their grocery shops, health center and residential houses.
Phiri applied for hydro electricity from ZESCO to overcome challenges faced during the rainy season when the Solar batteries get drained.
And Abesu group-member Jenipher Banda cited increasing numbers of unemployed youths resorting to alcoholism and early marriages as teething woes.
