Solar Lighting Donation

This was a nice letter received from the Anglican Church in Livingstone, and there’s a photo of the donation being made!

11th June 2014

Dear Mr. Chanter

RE: APPRECIATION

I hereby write to acknowledge receipt with great appreciation of the Solar Charging and Lighting
Kit that you bought and donated to through Mr. Mwamba one of the trainees that was trained by
us under the Lights For Learning Trainer of Trainers Solar Project.

We are happy to inform you that the above stated kit was on Friday 6th June 2014 donated to Lugwalo Basic School which is about 300 kms from Livingstone. The donation was greatly
appreciated by the school and they will independently write to you and acknowledge receipt of the same.
Thanks for partnering with us in making a difference in the community. We pray that God richly

blesses you and your business.

Yours sincerely

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Y. Chikoya
LIVINGSTONE ANGLICAN CHILDREN’S PROJECT
BOX 60092, LIVINGSTONE, Tel: 0213320694

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The Curio Experience!

Meet Kebby Chimunya (above), Livingstone businessman and Guest on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz, our weekly radio show airing at 20.30 hrs CAT every Sunday night on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. Kebby has a shop at number 41 Mukuni Park in the city, just a ten minute walk from the lodge, selling curios, carvings and other souvenirs to visitors. “I always tell our Guests they must haggle the prices with you when they visit your market!” I told Kebby at the top of the show, “do you give them a good deal?” “Always!” The unsurprising reply. “What’s your best selling item?” Milli Jam wondered and Kebby told listeners there is an angel made from sisal and banana leaves, in various different poses, selling at about ZK30 (US$5). Light in weight it is the most popular item with tourists. “Not wire warthogs or carved giraffes”! We laughed.

Milli Jam wondered how our Guest had first got involved in the souvenir business and Kebby explained that his elder brother had helped him make the breakthrough. Leaving Linda High School he had found it very hard to find employment and with his brother’s help he had now been involved in the curio business for about eight years. “How’s business?” We wondered. Kebby replied that the best months were from May to September but that business was very tough for the rest of the year. “Much the same as the lodges.” I commented, and then made the point – not for the first time on our show – that the city of Livingstone needs Zesco (Zambia’s electricity company which diverts the water above the Falls) to let the water go over Victoria Falls on the Zambian side for at least an hour a day, every day, during the dry season. A plea that will presumably fall on deaf ears – again!

The music on the show was great with latest tracks from Calvin Harris, Coldplay, and Ariana Grande. Jay and Milli Jam picked numbers from Mubby Roux ft Tommy D, Davido, Michael Jackson ft Justin Timberlake as well as Karasa. My pick of the week was D’Banj’s ‘Bother You’ which samples Lionel Richie’s ‘All Night Long’. Our oldie of the week was a Zambian track ‘Kedike’ by Chidinma. The prize we give to the first person to text us the name of the the artist was won, with lots of contestants mostly getting the answer wrong!

Kebby told listeners that he is married with one child. Music wise he loves the Gospel genre and mentioned Ambassadors of Christ and Exile as his favourite performers. On a more worldly basis he likes Westlife! He has enjoyed quite a few of the tourist activities available in Livingstone including the museum, sunset cruise and fishing. He has never bungee jumped. His favourite football team is Barcelona and when it comes to England – Liverpool. He told us that he gets visitors from all over the world to his shop, but especially many from USA, Canada and Italy.

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing in ten years’ time, this hard working, enterprising entrepreneur said that while he would like to still be in business for himself, he also wanted to undergo further education and training as a nurse.

We wished him the best of luck and thanked him for coming on the show.

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The Flavor of The Experience

Meet Emmanuel Dodia (above), aka DJ Flavor, Guest on the latest edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela, hence the headline! The Experience is our weekly Sunday night radio show airing on Zambezi 107.7 fm for an hour at 20.30 hrs CAT and is a lively mixture of music, and chat with our Guest of the week.

Emmanuel told listeners that as well as being one of Livingstone’s top club DJ’s at night, he has a full time day job with Zambia Electricity Supply Company (ZESCO), Zambia’s much maligned power company for whom he works as a Customer Care Officer. “How do you cope with the abuse?” I asked Emmanuel, sure that given the amount of load shedding to which the Zambian population is regularly subjected, abuse must be pretty frequent. “We’re trained!” Replied DJ Flavor, laughing. “Please tell your bosses to let the water go over the Falls for an hour or so every day during the next dry season.” I urged Emmanuel. Laughing again he replied: “Do you want more load shedding?” I replied by advising him not to laugh at such a serious matter and that I felt most Livingstone residents would take an hour or so of load shedding, in return for a daily flow of water over the Falls for a limited period of time!

Emmanuel told listeners that he had been a DJ for about four years, a protege of PJMasterz he had started playing at ‘da Fusion’ and doing road shows, before officially opening ‘Ayoba’ one of Livingstone’s liveliest, busiest night clubs right in the heart of the city. Currently Flavor was playing Limpo’s pub (opposite the civic centre) during the week, and at Taonga Safaris on the banks of the Zambezi at weekends. When Milli Jam asked what music he played for his audience he replied that it depended on what they wanted and that he believed in ‘customer care’ in both his occupations! His own personal taste in music was towards R&B and House with Kendrick Lamar and Nicki Minaj being his favourite artists.

The music on this week’s show was good. We opened with tracks from Fuse ODG and Hardwell featuring Matthew Koma. George dropped numbers from Salma Dodia (Emmanuel’s first cousin) and Slap Dee featuring Kantu. Milli Jam chose Kid Ink featuring Chris Brown as well as Katy Perry featuring Juicy J. Our oldie of the week was Jay Sean’s ‘War’ and the prize we give each week to the first person to text us telling us the name of the performing artist was quickly snapped up. My pick of the week was Magic’s ‘Rude’ – George loved it.

Emmanuel told listeners that he’s been married to his wife Ivy for about eighteen months and that they have a baby girl Amelia, just eight months old. He supports Arsenal (hooray said Milli Jam and I), all time favourite player Thierry Henry, current star Theo Walcott. Emmanuel also loves basketball although he no longer plays. He told us he had undergone a course in public relations at UNZA before taking up his appointment at Zesco.

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing ten years from now, Emmanuel said that he would like to be ‘grown up with his family’, adding up to more than just something in music, and holding down a good job. We wished him the best of luck.

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Lewis Simango

There was drama at the start of the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George ‘Kaufela’ da Soulchild, our weekly Sunday night radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station, as the studio was plunged into darkness by a power cut – not a particularly unusual occurrence in Livingstone. After some of us had been obliged to climb the six flights of stairs to get to work (no Zesco – no lifts), we were lucky that our Guest of the week – Lewis Simango (above) – is technically gifted and was well able to start up the studio’s stand by generator. We were lucky! Even so, the genset only operates the system and the transmission so for the first half of the show we did it in the dark!

Lewis told listeners that he is a part time presenter on 107.7 fm and a born again Christian. He has a show featuring gospel music every Sunday called 426. “Why that name?” I wondered. “Because the show airs from 14 – 18 hrs” Lewis replied. “Ah!” I said, feeling dull and knackered from climbing the stairs! Lewis explained that he mostly features gospel music on his show but that he also has a certain man of God from the church of ‘Lion of Judah’ who comes in to preach. “Do you think there’s too much religious broadcasting on this station?” Milli Jam asked. “Certainly not!” the unsurprising reply.

We don’t play gospel music on our show even though we also broadcast on Sundays. On this edition we featured tracks from Showtek, James Arthur, Zone Fam and Kaufela ft Mbototo. Milli Jam played Sean Paul and Bruno Mars. Our oldie of the week was Katie Melua’s ‘Closest Thing To Crazy’ but no-one won the prize. There was one forlorn text message saying ‘these oldies are so hard for us youth’! Seeing that the prize had been won for the previous three weeks running we  disputed this! My pick of the week was Ne-Yo featuring Future with ‘Luxurious’. “Everyone’s featuring Future’ said George. We closed with Sean Paul’s hit ‘Turn It Up’.

Lewis made us laugh when Milli Jam asked what sport he liked and his reply was ‘wrestling’. “Ah!” said Milli Jam “and who’s your favourite wrestler?”. “Well” said Lewis “despite my religion it’s The Undertaker”! Lewis professed no interest in UK soccer. Our Guest said his greatest influence in terms of his show was Jo Austin, and that he had been with 107.7 for almost a year. He loved broadcasting and had joined the station as a result of starting early as a member of the station’s fan club. He also revealed that he is a musician himself, soon hoping to release his first album. He is also an events manager with Livingstone Lighthouse, and so he makes ends meet. He is a single man, Lozi by tribe, “pure Lozi” he said. He had been educated at David Livingstone High School and was undertaking further studies by distance learning.

As the show came to an end, Lewis rushed off the shut down the generator and switch back on to mains power – technical indeed!

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Adrian Mvula – Technical Manager Zambezi 107.7 fm

“What’s the biggest challenge you face in your job” Milli Jam asked Adrian Mvula (above), when he appeared as a Guest on the latest edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela, last Sunday night. Adrian is technical manager at Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station which hosts our sponsored weekly Sunday night show. “Power cuts from Zesco” Adrian replied, with no hesitation. “That makes two of us” I commented. “What inspired you to train in technical management?” Milli Jam continued. “I’ve always been passionate about repairing things” said Adrian “bringing things back to life, so it was a natural career for me.”
Adrian told listeners that he’d been employed by Zambezi 107.7 fm for the past five years. He joined the station almost ‘by accident’ – he’d been stranded in Livingstone on the way to Namibia. The person with whom he’d been able to stay had a technical problem at 107.7 fm and asked if Adrian could help. He solved the issue for them and the then station manager – Chanda Mfula – told Adrian he was just the person they were looking for, so Adrian applied and was employed! He had two and a half years previous experience with Choice FM, one of Lusaka’s leading radio stations. Adrian explained that he’d completed his Grade 12 at Chongwe High School near Lusaka and thereafter had undertaken a one year six month course in telecommunication electronics at the Greenwood Institute, also in Lusaka.
The music on the show was good as usual. As well as music and chat, we also brief listeners on the latest news from the US and UK charts, as well as all the news from social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, the Chanters Lodge blog and Klout scores. George was happy that his Klout score had reached 61 that week – he has a lot of friends on Facebook – and I mean a lot! One of the highlights of the music on the show was Sade’s ‘Bullet Proof Love’ which was our ‘oldie of the week’. We give a prize of a dinner for two at Chanters Lodge to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing the oldie and although there was a delay while they thought, the prize was won. Other tracks were from Far East Movement featuring Justin Bieber, Rita Ora and Damien Junior Gong Marley. George’s local selection featured the latest from Petersen ‘Osanisiya’ (‘don’t leave me’ – apparently penned for his Swedish model girlfriend).

Adrian told listeners that he was married with a young daughter. He supports Chelsea and his favourite player is – predictably – Didier Drogba. Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing in ten years’ time, Mr Mvula said he would like to be the director of a technical company, and gave the example of Swithin Haangala who had started as a broadcaster with ZNBC but now owned his own big company – which includes 107.7 fm. We wished him the best of luck with his ambition.

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Sigrid Lofaldi on ‘The Experience’

We were back to the usual time on the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela last week. ‘The Experience’ is our weekly Sunday night radio show, normally airing between 20.30 and 21.30 every Sunday on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station, broadcasting 24/7 to Livingstone and the surrounding areas, as well as streaming live on the internet! (Links are on the station’s site and on the Chanters Lodge site too!) The previous week the show had been broadcast at an earlier time so that it did not clash with the final of the African Nations Cup, which of course Zambia had won, sparking off week long celebrations across the country!

The guest on our latest show was Sigrid Lofaldi, pictured above, a maths and science teacher from Trondheim in Norway, staying at Chanters Lodge and spending some time in Livingstone checking on the progress of a group of student teachers from University College, Trondheim, currently doing practical teachers training at Linda West Basic School. She told listeners that her students were happy, doing very well and that she was pleased with their progress. Milli Jam wondered whether this was Sigrid’s first visit to Zambia and in replying “no”, she explained to listeners that she herself had been a student teacher in Livingstone back in 2007, and had also taken a holiday in Zambia in 2009, so this was in fact her third visit.

The music on the show was excellent as usual. We opened with Kelly Clarkson’s number one hit in the USA ‘Stronger’ back to back with a new offering from Nicki Minaj titled ‘Young Forever’. George chose Danny’s ‘Ku na Kwa’ coupled with B-Flow and JK with ‘Chitemene System’. Both excellent tracks, Danny’s focusing on electricity outages suffered in Zambia and JK’s on an agricultural system applied to love life!! Milli Jam chose Ne-Yo’s ‘In Love With You’ coupled with ‘Mysterious Girl’ from Peter Andre featuring Shaggy. My ‘oldie of the week’ was ‘We Are The Champions’ from Queen (for the Zambian national team). We give a weekly prize to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing our oldie of the week – if they can – and eventually we had a winner. For a moment I thought I’d won the weekly contest! Our ‘pick of the week’ was DJ Fresh and Rita Ora’s ‘Hot Right Now’, closing with Emile Sande’s ‘Next To Me’ – informing listeners that Emile has a Zambian dad! Our show is always informative about the local and international pop scene.

Milli Jam wondered what the differences were between schools in Norway and those in Zambia and Sigrid replied that the major difference was that classes in Zambia were much larger – in fact almost twice as many students per class as in Norway. Milli Jam also wanted to know how the Norwegian weather compared to that of Zambia and our guest told listeners that when she’d left Norway earlier in the week it was -10C, windy, cold and blowing a snow storm! She loved Zambia’s sunny warmth – which did not surprise us! She also told listeners she was single, that she enjoyed cross country skiing and that her favourite music genre was Indie. She was enjoying the peaceful relaxed atmosphere at Chanters Lodge and thought the staff (Chanters Girls) were very nice. She told listeners that the following week she would be visiting Mongu in Western Province where there were also some of her students doing their practicals.

In ten years’ time Sigrid hoped she would still be teaching as she loved her job, wherever in the world she happened to be! “Great”! We said.

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The Kandilicius Experience

Meet Kandilicius (above) and that’s just her Twitter name! Try Kandy Israelyt as she’s known on Facebook or just plain Kandi M’hango her real name. Kandi was the Guest on the most recent edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with The Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George Kaufela da Soulchild! That’s our regular Sunday night radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm, airing between 20.30 and 21.30 hours and streaming live on the internet. A popular show it is too, partly because we give away a dinner for 2 at Chanters Lodge with drinks every week – a prize for the first listener to text us telling us the name of the artist singing our ‘oldie of the week’ – this week the answer was Lionel Richie and the response was great!


Kandi has been a part time presenter on 107.7 fm since March this year, at the moment co-presenting Drive Time, a daily Monday to Friday show. She has a great voice for radio and loves being involved. She has two sons Cholwe and Israelyt (hence her Facebook name) she told us. Milli Jam wanted to know how she’d become involved with the radio station in the first place and Kandi explained that she’d responded to an advert on air early in 2011, advising that the station was looking for new lady presenters – she’d applied and was hired!
 
  
Wearing another hat, Kandi explained to our audience that she was deeply involved with the Empowered By Light Foundation, an NGO, in Zambia to donate solar lighting within Shangombo District in Western Province. So far the organization had donated 5000 units of solar light, as well as laptops, throughout schools, clinics and homes in the district. The NGO had apparently chosen Shangombo having seen from the statistics that only 5% of schoolchildren there passed exams at Grade 9 level. They’d surmised that this was because students were unable to study at night due to no light so they set out to fix the problem. “Awesome” we said, and meant it!
 
 
The music on the show was great. We opened with Olly Murs and his smash UK hit ‘Dance With Me Tonight’ back to back with Kelly Rowland featuring The Waves and ‘Down For Whatever’. George chose Oga Family with ‘Ball Pen’ – a long and (in some peoples’ opinion boring) track! This was coupled with K’Millian’s ‘Kakabalika’ – anything but boring. Milli Jam chose ‘Perfect Party’ from Naughty By Nature ft Fat Joe back to back with Keith Sweat’s ‘To The Middle’. Our oldie of the week was Lionel Richie’s ‘Hello’. To close we played Taio Cruz’s ‘Shotcaller’ and Sean Kingston’s ‘Love Me’.
 
 
Kandi told listeners that in the past she’d been involved with Kara Counselling counselling AIDS orphans and for a brief time had also been involved with lodge management in Livingstone. She told interested listeners that she supports Manchester United and likes Wayne Rooney (just imagine!) She’s into R&B and in particular Chris Brown and is very proud of her Zambian roots in Lundazi in the Eastern Province of Zambia and of being Tumbuka by tribe. 10 years down the road she’d like to still be broadcasting and very much involved with bringing renewable energy to rural Zambia.
 
 
She told listeners she loves Zambia and we told her our listeners love her – which they do!








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Consumer Diaries

Here’s a good website for consumers in Zambia having a hard time at the moment! Consumer Diaries, written by Zambian consumers for Zambian consumers. The latest post involves the suspension of the air service permit for Zambezi Airlines by government – no great surprise there – they’ve been in a shambles for weeks with delayed and cancelled flights. Yesterday there were about 15 stranded travellers at Harry M Nkumbula International Airport in Livingstone, negotiating seats on other airlines flying to South Africa.
We hope Consumer Diaries will soon turn their attention to Zambia Breweries and the constant annual shortages of beer and soft drinks in Livingstone and other parts of Zambia through October and November – not alright in the nominated (should that be nominal?) ‘tourist capital’.
And what about Zesco? Most Zambian consumers thought that one of the first impacts of the new government would be restoration of constant power supplies – not so – even though the President did fire the Zesco MD nothing has changed there! Just as well we have a good stand by generator at Chanters Lodge!

“The Consumer Diaries is a Zambian consumer’s mouthpiece written strictly by consumers for other consumers. It contains a compilation of reviews and comparisons of consumer products and services based on reporting and results from consumers themselves. This is done in order to help people have an opportunity to rate product/service experiences that they have had, and also to investigate new products or services in order to make informed decisions.”

Wish them the best of luck!

The picture? A bottle of Zambia’s great Mosi beer – currently unavailable from distributors in Livingstone, Zambia.

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Andrew & Caroline Kashita


It was a first for us when Andrew and Caroline Kashita (pictured above) appeared on The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient ft George Soulchild, our regular Sunday night radio show that goes out on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm at 20.30 hrs for an hour. Why? Well, they were the first Guests ever to be asked back for a second show! Why? Because they’re great people and huge supporters of Chanters Lodge, and Andrew Kashita is a former Minister who will not keep quiet! “You’ve been in the newspapers a lot recently concerning the ERB” said Milli Jam after the introductions and the first two tracks “what’s that all about”.

“Energy Regulation Board?” queried Andrew, “let me tell you about it”! He then went on to tell us, and the listeners, exactly what he thought of the ERB who are supposed to reconcile energy providers and consumers over tariffs, but in Andrew’s opinion and most of the country, they’re simply not doing their job! They’ve given the green light to increases in the cost of petrol and diesel of at least 30% this year, and electricity prices have just gone up by another 30% as well. Mr Kashita wished that Zesco, our monopoly electricity supplier, would look into cutting their costs as hard as they look into increasing tariffs. “Lots of blokes standing around with their hands in their pockets watching other people do the job” he observed, correctly.

“How many ministerial positions have you held?” Milli Jam wanted to know. “Three” came back Andrew as quick as flash “and I was fired from every one”! He went on to tell listeners that he was variously Minister of Mines and Industry, Minister of Communications and Transport and Minister of Works and Supply. He didn’t mention, but it’s a fact, that he was one of the first overseas qualified Zambian Engineers immediately after independence. He did go on to tell listeners that he’d enjoyed his time as a civil servant more than when he was a Minister, as he found it more rewarding in terms of achievements. He was instrumental in, or involved with Zambia Airways; Lusaka International Airport; Tazara; Ndeni Oil Refinery; Zambia’s microwave system; the introduction of cell phones in the country and the dismantling of UBZ to allow for the privatization of the coach/bus industry in Zambia.

The music on the show went down well. Ace of Base “Mr Replay” represents a return to form for that particular band, while we opened as usual with Aggro Santos “Candy”. We featured my two tracks of the moment, ‘Dynamite’ by Taio Cruz and ‘DJ Got Me Falling In Love’ by Usher. Milli Jam featured Charice – ‘Pyramid’ (special request from Monica, one of the Chanters Girls) and Kelly Rowland’s ‘Forever and A Day’. George’s local numbers were ‘If It’s Love’ by Brothahood Crew ft Kaufela and Tsoya – ‘Katwayeko Umbi’ (‘Go look for someone else’, we were told was the translation’).

Caroline enjoyed talking about her family. She and Andrew will be married 30 years soon. They have a son and a daughter, son Steven is an aero-nautical engineer in America and daughter Nonde is studying at Reading University in UK. They have a grand-daughter Aisha, just 16 months old, whom they hope will soon come and live with them in Lusaka.

We gave away the usual dinner for two at Chanters Lodge which was quickly snapped up by an alert listener in answer to our simple question, and as usual we greeted Guests, family and staff alike! We had messages while we were on air from Swithin Haangala, owner of 107.7 fm and DJ Wildfire a former 107.7 fm DJ, now making a name for himself in South Africa. Great!

Luckily and surprisingly there was no message from Zesco!

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Solar Energy


With rapidly rising electricity costs in Zambia (this year will see more than a 50% rise) this, from CNN, is the future:

“In rural communities of Africa, where more than 95 percent of homes have no access to electricity, solar energy has the power to transform lives. Globally, 1.5 billion people, one quarter of the world’s population, live without electricity, according to a United Nations report.

Those who can afford any power at all spend large proportions of their income on kerosene for lamps or travel to larger towns to charge their batteries several times a week. Burning kerosene contributes to indoor air pollution, which is estimated to kill 1.6 million people each year. Kerosene lamps also lead to fires that cause severe burns and deaths.

Solar energy saves families money as well as allowing children to study in the evenings and giving families access to information through radio and television and mobile phone chargers. Lack of access to energy is a cause of poverty, not just a result of poverty. The light from a solar-powered bulb is also between 10 and 20 times brighter than from a kerosene lamp.

Among those bringing solar power to the world’s poor is Rural Energy Foundation, a Dutch non-profit organization. It has now helped 450,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa gain access to low-cost solar power. Rural Energy Foundation runs the SolarNow program, training independent retailers and technicians in nine countries to sell low-cost solar gadgets or home systems to people without electricity.

Last month, the organization was one of the international winners of the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy. Willem Nolens, director of Rural Energy Foundation, said: “Lack of access to energy, just as lack of clean drinking water, is a cause of poverty, not just a result of poverty.

“Gaining access to electricity can be really life-changing. People can increase their productivity, children can study, read books and watch television, which allows them to be connected to the world. “Whole villages can become self-sufficient once someone has a home solar system.” Rural Energy Foundation supports 250 independent local retailers in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal, Mozambique and Zambia.

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