Serenje

Serenje is a district in Zambia. There is also the town of Serenje lying just off the Great North Road and TAZARA Railway. The British, during the time that Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate, designated Serenje as a BOMA (British Overseas Military Administration). To this day, the locals refer to Serenje Town as the BOMA. Serenje has a railway station on the TAZARA railway. Serenje is approximately 191 km from Kapiri Mposhi on the Great North Road. Mkushi is the district west of Serenje. The Mulembo Falls lie near the town.

Overview

The inhabitants of Serenje district engage in subsistence agriculture. Though the area is blessed with rich soils and thick forests, economic development appears to have eluded this Zambian rural outpost.

Serenje is home to the Lala people whose primary language is ciLala. The Lala language, like most languages spoken on the Copperbelt and Central provinces of Zambia, is classified as belonging to the Bemba language group. The Lala people, like most ethnic groups in central and northern and northwestern parts of Zambia, are said to have descended from the Luba-Lunda Kingdom in present-day Congo DRC. Serenje district is constituted by a number of Chiefdoms. These are the chiefdoms of Muchinda, Muchinka, Chisomo, Serenje, Kabamba, Mailo, and Chibale.

See also

Since 2008 Tearfund and its partner the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) have been working in the area.

The aim is simple, to work through the local churches to provide practical assistance for those living with HIV and to be their advocates in the community and to local government. EFZ is a voluntary network of evangelical Christians in Zambia. Founded in 1964, it currently has a membership of over 130 churches and Christian organisations. It has been a partner of Tearfund for over 10 years, working on issues of gender, empowering women, evangelism, food security, advocacy and relief work. EFZ also partners the Serenje Pastors’ Fellowship, set up five years ago as a church-wide response to HIV and AIDS. Today it brings together 18 different denominations.

Together, kerith Community Church(www.kerith.co.uk), Tearfund(Tearfund.org) and EFZ are committing the next five years to tackle the problem of HIV in Serenje. This will mean that:

• 3,000 vulnerable children of school going ages will access education support

• 600 people living with HIV will have access to improved home and community based care through 100 well trained caregivers

• 1,000 small scale farmers will have access to improved farming techniques, crop knowledge and seed varieties resulting in household food and income sufficiency

• 120 leaders will be capacitated to initiate and sustain local development programmes.

• Railway stations in Zambia

External links

• MSN Map