As the TST began examining where to situate the first cluster in a developing world country, their attention was drawn to Zambia both because of the level of poverty in that country, but also because there was a sizeable population of Brothers who could
As the TST began examining where to situate the first cluster in a developing world country, their attention was drawn to Zambia both because of the level of poverty in that country, but also because there was a sizeable population of Brothers who could potentially become part of the first cluster.
Zambia’s population is about fourteen million people. Of these 51% (7,140,000) are females while 6,860,000 are males. The females (women) are in majority and most of the population is youthful.
Though statistically the proportion of population living in extreme poverty in percentage terms has been reducing from 58% in 2000 to 51% in 2010 and the gap ratio between incidences of poverty and depth of poverty has been reducing in both rural and urban areas (Zambia Millennium development goals progress report 2012), people still continue experiencing hardships and reduced access to means of livelihood. This is due to several reasons among them inefficient available resources in the agriculture sector hindering rural economic infrastructure and development of other rural programs; historical expenditure bias patterns in favour of the urban areas and inadequate essential vocational skills which constrain productive engagement and deployment of people in wage employment and self-employment. The TST saw, therefore, that Zambia was a country that would potentially benefit from an increased presence of the Christian Brothers.
Why Western Province?
At an assembly of the Christian Brothers in 2014, the question of where to situate the first cluster was raised, and various locations were suggested. A sizeable number of Brothers suggested Western Province, and the TST reflected on this view, did some research in collaboration with the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection, and hired an independent researcher to study the economic and social situation there.
Western Province has a total population of 903,074, with a total number of households being 