After months of planning, we celebrated the official launch of the Mutima Project in grand style. Thanks to some brilliant team work and the creative efforts of a dedicated group, the venue echoed to the drum beats of Africa. It looked the part with a display of masks, photographs and artefacts showcasing Zambia. Posters and charts showed the surgical procedures and explained the need for it.
We had a range of exciting speakers on the evening who all brought a unique perspective to the importance of the project.
Speight’s Coast to Coast Founder, Robin Judkins, opened the evening talking about his brush with heart problems, his surgery and the recovery process. Robin is all energy and vibrancy, he lives life going one hundred miles an hour so for him to be felled by his heart really make him take stock of his life. He told the audience the experience allowed him to open up his creative side and he began painting. Within a year of his quintuple bypass operation he held an exhibition of his works.
Progressive Party leader Jim Anderton spoke about the commitment the government needs to make towards addressing poverty in countries such as Zambia where nearly 60% of the population live on less than a $1 a day. He called on New Zealand to get behind a new international Natural Resource Charter which sets out ‘best practice’ in countries with natural resources like oil (or copper in Zambia), so proceeds of those resources go to the poorest people and don’t disappear into the pockets of government officials.
Harsh Singh, who is heading the Mutima Project, gave a short rundown on the aims of the project and the mission statement of the Trust. Fundraising is a priority at this stage and he called on individuals and companies to support the project to ensure that it can go ahead.
A highlight of the evening was a live internet cross to Zambia where we had the opportunity to talk to the doctor overseeing the Zambian side of the project, Dr Emmanuel Makasa.
Dr Makasa brought a touch of reality to the evening because he said that while everyone was excited at the possibility of this life saving heart surgery, the medical community and patients had been let down so often before. He said promises were often made but rarely delivered upon.
To close the evening, the man behind the Mutima Project in Christchurch, Dr Munanga Mwandila shared the memory that set the ball rolling on this project. As a doctor working in the Kitwe Central Hospital in the Zambian city of Kitwe, he once sat with a young mother as she died simply because there were not the resources to make her well. An operation such as the ones the project will offer, would have set back on her feet and seen her return home to look after her 2 year daughter. A determination to make a difference and save lives in memory of her is behind Munanga’s commitment to this project.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house at the end of the evening and it was left to MC Gilbert Enoka to wrap up the proceedings and to encourage everyone to “pay it forward” – do good works for others to repay a good deed that has been done for you.
With the Mutima Project officially launched, the next stage is fundraising. If everyone brings to this the same passion and energy they brought to the launch, we shouldn’t have any problem raising the $500,000 we need for the first year.