Hilma Nakanduungile
Katima Mulilo
A group of 243 ‘Children of the Liberation Struggle’ from Simon Mutumba Mutumba Police Training Centre in Katima Mulilo took part in a cleaning campaign at Katima Mulilo Town on Tuesday.
The Head of the Youth Multipurpose Centre in Katima Mulilo, Siwiya Edward, said the struggle kids initiated the cleaning campaign as a way to show their appreciation to the Zambezi region for accommodating them during their four months skills training.
The skills training programme for the struggle kids started in February.
They divided themselves into groups and cleaned the central business district and other locations such as Choto, Cowboy, Macaravan and Soweto.
Mayor of Katima Mulilo Georgina Mwiya-Simataa praised the struggle kids for initiating a praiseworthy programme that would be appreciated by other youth.
“Today it is an honour for this town to have you volunteering yourselves to make sure that Katima Mulilo town is clean. I therefore thank you, together with your leaders, for allowing you to come and clean up the town,” the mayor said.
Furthermore, Mwiya-Simataa urged business people to emulate the good example set by the children of the liberation struggle and keep their premises clean.
She said Katima Mulilo is strategically located and there was a need to maintain hygiene at the town.
At the same occasion, the mayor revealed that the Town Council planned to enforce the law on street vendors and relocate them somewhere else.
They currently operated all over the town, which did not project a good image of the town. She further stressed that maintaining hygiene was the best way to prevent the spread of diseases.
Actofel Amutenya, one of the children of the liberation struggle, said they were normally labelled as being bad mannered or violent.
“We are not as problematic as people think. We are good young people, and not all of us behave violently as this depends on how you were brought up.
“Another thing is that our behaviour and actions mostly depend on how people treat us, and behave towards us,” Amutenya said.
Children of the liberation struggle completed the first phase of their course that entailed civic training earlier this year.
They will soon graduate from the second phase of their training in the fields of brick laying and plastering, plumbing and pipefitting, hospitality and tourism.
* Hilma Nakanduungile is an information officer in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) in the Zambezi Region