Champions of Change
A youth movement I developed and mobilised to place young people at the centre of community problem-solving.
I have been drawn to public-interest work because I have never been comfortable with the idea that a person's dignity and well-being should entirely depend on their income, influence, education, social position or proximity to power.
Protection without dignity can become paternalism. Assistance without agency can create dependency. Advocacy without participation can reproduce the very exclusion it claims to challenge.
People have voices. The deeper problem is that power does not always listen. My responsibility, therefore, is not to replace their voice, but to help expand the space in which it can be heard, respected and acted upon.
For me, a voice is not only an asset. It is a responsibility. A path to justice.
Update from the Master Chimbala Ecosystem.
A youth movement I developed and mobilised to place young people at the centre of community problem-solving.
A community of speakers, trainers and communicators sharpening one another's craft and public voice.
Theatre as a school of confidence, expression and civic conversation for young performers.
A creative home for music, performance and cultural production rooted in Zambian identity.
Broadcast used deliberately as an instrument of encouragement, information and social change.
Learning, research and intercultural exchange across borders, cultures and disciplines.
A health-taxes awareness campaign on tobacco, alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages as public-health instruments.
Committee leadership, research and advocacy protecting children and communities from tobacco harm.
Reintegration, transformation and restoration of street kids to safety, school and wellbeing.
Community food gardens that turn idle land into nutrition, income and shared responsibility.
Equipping people to find, train and use their voice for their own advancement and their community's.
Recovery, counselling and reintegration for young people caught in substance dependency.
Strengthening households as the first institution of dignity, discipline and belonging.
Bringing books, reading spaces and study companions into rural and peri-urban communities.
A tree-planting and climate-stewardship drive mobilising schools, churches and communities.
Community mobilisation pairing physical participation with cessation messaging and tobacco-control advocacy.
A communication and public-speaking programme building confident, credible voices for civic and professional life.
An entrepreneurship reality show venture that equips people into business success.
I joined Champions of Change as a quiet volunteer who never spoke in meetings. Two years later I was chairing the very community committee that first invited me in.
Master Chimbala did not hand us a script. He taught us how to prepare, how to ask, and how to stand. When the consultation opened, we were ready.
I had been on the street since I was nine. Someone believed I could still be a student. I sat my exams last year.
The mentorship changed how I carry myself in a room. The first time I spoke without apologising for taking up space, everything about my work changed.
Our village had never had a library. Now the children read aloud to each other under the mango tree every Saturday.
I came in wanting to quit and stay quit. The marathon gave me a reason to keep moving, and a community that kept checking on me.

The price on the shelf is only the deposit. The rest of the bill is settled later — in hospital wards, in lost workdays, in road crashes and in households that never fully recover.

A health tax is not a punishment. It is a price correction — an honest attempt to make the cost of a harmful product reflect the harm it leaves behind.

Health is not only what happens in hospitals. It is what a country decides to make cheap, what it decides to make expensive, and what it chooses to protect.
Meaningful change is achieved through collaboration. Whether you would like to partner on a campaign, invite a speaking engagement, support a community initiative, collaborate on research or explore new opportunities, I would be delighted to connect.