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Zambia   Why children in Zambia need your helpAlmost 90 per cent of people in Zambia live on less than $2 a day. Natural disasters - ranging from prolonged drought to floods causing widespread devastation - have resulted in regular food shortages, and one in five children is moderately or severely underweight. Life expectancy is extremely low, at just 37 years of age.
Malnutrition, limited immunisation programs and malaria also pose a huge threat to Zambian children, where almost 20 per cent of children die before they reach their fifth birthday. Government health services are limited and, in the more remote areas, children are forced to travel long distances to attend school. Over 40 per cent of the population have no access to an improved water source. Country factsZambia was called Northern Rhodesia until it achieved independence from Britain in 1964. As a land-locked country, its economy has been heavily reliant on mining - in particular, copper. Following a worldwide fall in copper prices during the 1970s, the country sunk into decline. In recent times, however, the government has granted licences to foreign-owned mining companies to explore the country's other resources, and new initiatives are in place to reduce the economy's reliance on agriculture and copper. The population is made up of nine major ethnic groups - Bemba, Kaonde, Lozi, Lunka, Luvale, Nkoya, Nyaja-Chewa, Tonga and Tumbuka, all of which are Bantu-speaking. Almost half the population reside in urban centres, with rural communities relying on subsistence farming.
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Underlying these
difficulties is the rising incidence of HIV/AIDS, leaving many
children orphaned and without any means of emotional or physical
support.
