KALILANAMA

Kalilanama is the name of the resource village situated near Serenje town in the Central Province of Zambia.

The main street, Serenje town

Thirty miles North East of Serenje town along the Great North Road a small turning on the right leads to a dirt track. Following this for about fifteen miles you find Kalilanama. If you could continue in the same direction for about seventy miles more you would come to the Great Rift Valley and South Luangwa National Park.

The track to Kalilanama had to be cleared of small trees and overhanging branches and sections of it graded so that vehicles could reach the resource village.

Above is one of the tiny settlements which Pilgrim Salt in Community is working with, about six miles from Kalilanama. Most of these little villages are a mile or so apart, with narrow footpaths leading from one to the next. When we arrived, it was deserted - the people had fled at our approach and were hiding in the surrounding bush. Many in the community are fearful of strangers, especially of white people.

In May 2012, the first building at Kalilanama, the meeting hut, was ready. Through the bush telegraph the community had heard that the Pilgrim team were coming to meet them, tell them all about the project and get feedback from them about their needs and priorities.

People appeared through the trees from all directions, and the atmosphere was one of excitement and anticipation. After discussions, the first priorities for the community were found to be for a hammer mill to grind grain and for a school for their children, as well as adult literacy for themselves.

The resource village (Kalilanama) started to take shape in May 2014 with huts for the project team to stay in when they come to work for a few days or weeks at a time. The boys here are from the community, keen to help build the school. They were not receiving any education at that time.

In April 2015 there was a meeting of the community, and here, amongst the trees, one of the village head men is giving people a pep talk about how they need to work and learn skills with the project team in order to make life better for themselves and their families. This was a real breakthrough, as some people were fearful and didn’t understand or trust that Pilgrim really wanted to help them.