The U.S. Ambassador to Zambia, Carmen Martinez, opened a new
library and donated several books to children at the community school of Terranova Coffee Farm in
Mazabuka, on July 2, 2007. The school received more than $25,000 from Woodward Academy, a private
school in Atlanta, Georgia, to build classrooms and the library.
The fund-raising efforts, spearheaded by math teacher Marguerite
Nunnally, are the latest in a series of efforts by Woodward faculty members and students to support
the Zambian school.
Shepherd M. Chilala, a seventh-grader wrote a heartfelt note to
Ms. Nunnally in September for previous shipments of books and supplies from Woodward. He stated:
"Now, because I know how to read and write, everything is just okay." Ms. Nunnally was accompanied
by Woodward faculty member George Dietz at the ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the official opening
of the library.
In her keynote remarks, Ambassador Martinez stressed the
importance of education and the role of libraries in expanding knowledge and opening doors to
opportunities. She added that as a student she spent a lot of time in libraries and encouraged
all the students to read books and take advantage of the library. She thanked Innocent Muluwe,
headmaster of the school, and the visiting teachers from Atlanta whose generous contributions and
support have given the Zambian schoolchildren easy access to information resources.
In April, the Ambassador toured the production fields and
processing facilities of Terranova Coffee Farm and accepted an invitation from the estate owner
Colin Street to commission the library that was under construction.
Terranova grows 250 hectares of coffee and supplies more than
100 tons of coffee to Starbucks every year. A portion of the coffee sale goes to maintaining the
school. The coffee farm also supports a local clinic and contributes to wildlife management in
the Lower Zambezi National Park and to Chikankata Hospital, one of the region's leading AIDS
research facilities.
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| US Ambassador to Zambia, Carmen Martinez, is shown coffee plants by Terranova farm owner, Collin Street. Photo: USAID/Zambia. |
She said the United States must continue working with African
people to eradicate malaria. "We have done it in the USA. Many people may not recall that not so
long ago, we had malaria in the USA but it is now gone," she said. She is optimistic that the
battle against malaria will be won. "Just imagine what a lot of difference it would make if there
was no malaria in Africa," she said, amid applause.
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