ITG Welcomes – Mulenga Mwamba

About Mulenga

ITG wouldn’t be what it is today without the dedication and hard work of our team members on the ground. We’d like to introduce you to Mulenga Mwamba – one of our incredible Volunteer Managers with African Impact – in Livingstone. We asked him if he would share his story with us.

Beginnings

I was born in a town called Monze in southern Zambia into a religious but fairly open minded family who have always been supportive. I have five brothers and one sister.

Whilst growing up, my family didn’t have the financial muscle to provide everything my siblings and I needed, however I never let my financial constraints get in the way of my goals. On the contrary, I have always been keen to learn new things and achieve good grades. As a result, I successfully managed to get into a good university – The Copperbelt University in Kitwe, Zambia – on a scholarship, where I obtained a Bachelor of Science in Forestry and a Certificate in Teaching. I, like most people, have always had big dreams and goals for the future and, with determination, hard work and the support of my family, I was able to achieve my biggest dream of going to college and making my family proud. It didn’t always occur to me that pursuing my education was my first achievement; but I’ve since realized that this has been my biggest success, which would not only pave way for my higher education and that of my nephews’, and nieces’ but also impact the lives of many people including, close friends and neighbours in my community.

My journey and experience with African Impact

I first joined African Impact back in 2013, working as a volunteer coordinator on a conservation project called Lion Encounter and was later promoted to the role of Volunteer and Community Projects Manager. In this capacity, I developed and managed projects designed to encourage support from communities, traditional leaders and government agencies. This involved working with local communities and rural schools in poverty alleviation by promoting the provision of quality education for all. In 2017 I left this role and joined the financial sector. However, working in a bank made me realize how much I loved and missed the community work I was doing with African Impact and when there was an opening for a Volunteer Manager at the Livingstone project after Covid, I applied and was very excited when I was offered the job and had the opportunity to return.

Working for an international organization like African Impact has exposed me to an environment with people of different beliefs and cultural backgrounds. This has tremendously helped me to develop excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to clearly convey information to others. I also enjoy the fact that I have a very good balance between by work and personal life. I sing in a choir at my local church and having time to be able to do what I love over the weekends is amazing. At times we go out for sundowners and drinks or dinner with the volunteers and staff and watch the sunset which is cool. I have a good working environment and I receive a lot of help and support from the rest of the team.

As well as supporting my personal growth, working at African Impact means I can help local communities by supporting schools through teaching, sports development and environmental projects. Seeing and hearing how happy and grateful people are after a day’s work is so fulfilling and rewarding to me as I wouldn’t be able to achieve that in my individual capacity. As a developing country, Zambia still lacks the manpower needed in different sectors of the economy, especially in the medical and education sector. Livingstone has greatly benefited from receiving volunteers through African Impact as they are able to supplement the efforts of the government and provide extra help in community schools and clinics. In some communities, people who don’t have the means to travel to the clinic can have African Impact’s medical volunteers visit them in their homes for home based care which is a great help to the community and the nation at large. In the community schools, there aren’t enough teaching staff available and the teaching volunteers come in to teach a class that would otherwise just sit and do nothing during a given class period. The help the volunteers render cannot be overemphasized.

What’s next?

I want to continue following a career in community and environmental studies and exploring both my academic and creative interests. I believe that the determination I have will only continue to grow stronger as I grow older and more mature.