The training equipped him with skills to improve his story capturing abilities using a special software tool called StoryMaker. It also provided him with insight in covering community stories such as service delivery issues and how he can use his skills to capture community voice and influence actions of duty bearers, demanding accountability.
Equipped with these skills Michael was quick to find an issue to test his new abilities. He discovered a waste management problem in Mwalibonena ward in Livingstone. The community had nowhere to dispose their waste and ended up piling their garbage on an undeveloped plot. This pile continued to grow for 6 years.
“It was a mountain of rubbish”, said Michael. “It posed so many health hazards for the people whose homes were close to the disposal site”, he continued. Having identifying this service delivery issue, Michael called the ward councillor expressing his concern about the pit. After interaction with this duty bearer, three days later, the Livingstone City Council came to the community and cleaned up the plot and collected pile of waste.
“The community is better off after the removal of this waste. There was no path for movement before the waste was collected; the odour was unbearable and the health risk was dire. It is such a relief that the garbage is gone”, said the ward councillor.
Michael's initiative and actions are commendable and what makes it more remarkable is that he is only one of the group that has participated in the ‘Speak Up Zambia!’ training. There has been another training since then which has seen all the trained youths eager to follow the example that Michael has set and even gone a step further. A fire has started in them – a fire to burn down bad service delivery by local authorities in Livingstone.
The ‘Speak Up Zambia!’ project is being implemented under the European Union Capacity Development Support Programme and is implemented by Free Press Unlimited, Alliance for Community Action and House of Consciousness with capacity development support from the Zambian Governance Foundation.
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