Some Facts About Zambia:
- 64% of the population living on $1 or less a day,
- Unemployment rates hover at more than seventy percent
- 30,000 children being born HIV-positive each year
- Of the population of 11 million, almost 10% or orphaned street kids.
The price of being peace makers
I was shocked to hear that Zambia is one of the few countries in the world to never go to War. Pastor George told me that when the country was founded it was founded by refugees from neighboring countries that were at war. Because of this, they built into their DNA that they would be a helping country. And they did just this. Early on in the history of the country, an immense amount of their national resources were spent on aid to other African countries that were at war. While this was a beautiful picture of generosity it also crippled their country for the future. They have invested very little in the way of infrastructure. This means that simple things such as emergency response (police force, hospitals), roads, tourism, etc are very behind in the times. This generosity has actually resulted in greater poverty in Zambia.