For Africa with love from Mabel and guild

Teenage mums in Zambia have been learning new skills including biscuit baking, card making and sewing thanks to a Lochaber woman.

Mabel Wallace spent a week on the Journeying Together project which supports 100 girls and their children.

She hopes the skills they shared with the young mothers will help them produce goods they can sell to support themselves.

Mrs Wallace, session clerk of Duncansburgh MacIntosh Parish Church, Fort William, is a member of the Church of Scotland Guild, which has raised £45,000 for the project.

It is run by the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) in Kanyama, a poverty-stricken township near the African nation's capital, Lusaka.

Mrs Wallace, 66, told the Lochaber Times: ‘It was wonderful to see the project in Zambia first-hand. It was an emotional rollercoaster of a journey.

‘We were given a great welcome by the young women who walked from 60 to 90 minutes away to get to the project where they are trained in nutrition, parenting and sex education.

‘They are resourceful and we worked alongside them, baking biscuits, making scrunchies and a few other things, which they can hopefully sell at markets.

‘I was part of a group of 10 from Scotland. We also taught them first aid and listened to their problems and ambitions. It was an inspiring experience and their singing was wonderful.'

Kanyama has a population of 365,000 people, of which 51 per cent are under 18. There are only five primary schools and one high school.

The project works to build confidence in the girls and challenge social injustice.

Training

The girls are given the opportunity to return to school to finish their education or provided with vocational training.

Mrs Wallace added: ‘It is making such a positive difference in their lives and throughout the week there were tears, laughter and joy.'

Karen Gillon, associate guild secretary, said UCZ is doing fantastic work to tackle the vicious cycle of poverty in Kanyama.

‘This is a project the guild is proud to support and we now better understand the lives of the girls and the challenges they face and the opportunities they are missing out on because society thinks they should leave school and their lives are over,' she said.

‘The project is helping ensure their lives are not over and they can be whatever they want to be with the right support and encouragement.'

A hundred girls and their children in a Zambian township near the country’s capital Lusaka had smiles and a warm welcome for Mabel Wallace, right, session clerk of Duncansburgh MacIntosh Parish Church, Fort William, and Anne MacAskill of Dunvegan, Skye.

Mabel chats with some of the teenage girls taking part in the Journeying Together project.

Mabel with one of the girls and her children.