Newhills Church

As part of Newhills’ Christian Aid week, we gathered on Monday evening to listen to Jenny Featherstone speak of her life and work in Zambia. Jenny has been a mission partner in Kitwe, in the Copperbelt province since 2007, and she is jointly funded by the Methodist church and the Church of Scotland. She is partnered with Kirkcaldy Presbytery but came up to Aberdeen for two days to visit me, as we’d become friends when I spent 9 weeks in Zambia in 2007.

The evening began with a slide show of pictures of Zambia, from small children playing with makeshift toys to one of a large crocodile. This was accompanied by a CD of traditional Zambian music sung by the youth choir of Buchi church in Kitwe.

Jenny began her talk with some statistics.

• Zambia has a population of 12 million,
• 40% of whom are below the age of 16years
• Around 15% are known to be HIV positive
• Life expectancy is 37-39 years.

She explained that due to AIDS as well as other diseases like malaria and TB, the adult population is being decimated, leaving elderly grandparents and young children.

Jenny showed the traditional ‘chitengi’ which is a strip of cloth used chiefly as a wrap around skirt, but which has many other uses. She bravely demonstrated how the women use a chitengi to carry their babies on their backs, using her laptop bag as her ‘baby’. Much laughter ensued.

She spoke of her work teaching social work and psycho-social counselling in the theological college and of her work with two projects. These are both income generation projects for HIV positive widows and children.  Jenny explained how these women are extremely poor, have no position in society, yet their strong faith keeps them going and able to support each other.

Using donations of money Jenny had bought sewing machines, which the women use to make clothes to sell. She has also taught them to make candles, cards and tie dye fabrics. At one project she has already built an ‘insaka’, a traditional, round, thatched, open sided hut, where the women meet to work and chat. There are hopes to develop this further, into a small brick-built building with safe storage, a workshop, a shop to sell their wares and eventually a kitchen to make food and soya milk. The government tell women to stop breast-feeding their babies at 6 months, and many cannot afford to buy formula milk. The women are taught how to make soya milk from soya beans which are cheap, and the leftovers can be made into fritters to eat.

The other project is to build a safe play area for the children, many whose families cannot afford to send them to school. Jenny plans to have educational type play, giving the children somewhere safe to go, and games to build their self esteem.

The talk finished with photos of an orphanage Jenny supports, a bush wedding she attended and her small house.

The evening ended with a cup of tea and ‘fine pieces’ generously provided by the ladies of Heart to Heart. If anyone would like to know more about Zambia, or the work Jenny is doing, please contact me, Elspeth MacLean, probationer minister at Newhills Church.

If you wish to listen to Jenny’s talk, click here