AGM Report November 2017

Around 55 members attended the AGM on 18th November at the Zambia High Commission, and after the formal proceedings and a buffet lunch, Mathias Mbewe (Trustee, above) provided members with an update and overview of our projects in Zambia.

This was followed by two very interesting outside speakers: the Virtual Doctors is a unique service connecting remote health care workers in rural Zambia with a panel of volunteer medical specialists who give diagnosis and treatment advice on complex or unusual cases. Rural health centres are provided with a smartphone loaded with bespoke telemedicine software and the clinical officer uploads data to the cloud. A volunteer doctor in UK or Zambia reviews the file and recommends diagnostic and treatment advice within 24 hours. Huw Jones, who came to speak to us, came up with the concept and coverage is now in 29 rural health centres and 2 district hospitals.

Martin Zuch then introduced Mama Buci which produces raw honey. So far they have over 70,000 beehives which will produce over 400 tonnes this year and their local workshop in Zambia is building over 150 beehives a day, 5 days a week. Mama Buci produce a summer and winter honey and Martin brought some samples for us to try which were delicious. His success has enabled him to go some way to achieving other goals for the Zambian communities by improving the lives and education for the local children.

Once again we are very grateful to the High Commissioner for allowing us to use the High Commission for our AGM.