Watch a movie about Kamutamba we created during the start-up of the project.

And look where we are now !

Since 2012 public hospitals in Zambia are no longer allowed to charge patients a fee for using hospital services. This is because the Government wants free medical health care to be available to all Zambians. The Government pays for all hospital personnel costs and provides the most  commonly used medication. 

This is a very positive development. However, hospitals, especially those located in rural areas, do not receive sufficient funds to cover all operational and running costs. The hospitals are not able  to cover all costs relating to building and equipment maintenance, transport, food (especially for the many malnourished children), bed linen, mosquito nets, or even all basic medication (as this medication is not sufficiently stocked in Governmental storage facilities, hospitals are forced to  purchase the medicine privately). 

Currently, hospitals in Zambia cover their shortages through NGO or Government donations. However, this assistance is insufficient and unreliable. To nevertheless ensure high quality medical care to poor and needy patients, St Theresa Mission Hospital started looking for more independent, sustainable, sources of income.

This resulted in the Kamutamba Project. This project has been set up upon the request of, and in close continuous collaboration with, the St Theresa Mission Hospital. Together with the hospital the Kamutamba project aims to develop or improve income generating activities (IGAs). These IGAs generate, as the name suggests, income to make medical services accessible to all Zambians. Currently, the Kamutamba project and the hospital have identified and work together  on three IGAs. The Kamutamba kiosk is operational, the Kamutamba guesthouse has been refurbished and is assisted to run profitably and ideas are being collected and researched to set up a Kamutamba farm, which includes growing vegetables as well as keeping chickens. 

The word Kamutamba means ‘Come and Watch this Place’ in Lamba, the local language.