On October 13th, 2017, Mr. Hidenobu Sobashima, Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Zambia, visited Meheba Resettlement Scheme in North-Western Province to confirm the situation of the refugees and former refugees there and attended the opening ceremony of the local office of the Department of Resettlement, Office of the Vice President.

Meheba Resettlement Scheme was established in North-Western Province, about 700 km away from Lusaka. The total area of the Scheme is about 720 km2, almost the same as that of Tokyo Metropolis. There live more than 20 thousand refugees and former refugees there. On that occasion, the local office of the Department of Resettlement mandated to support the residents in the resettlement area, which had been built using the financial cooperation from the Japanese Government, was officially opened.

Also, the representatives from Japan, Zambia, and the UN, jointly visited selected places of Meheba Resettlement Scheme, to view a road and a well being developed with the support from Japan as well as the maintenance activity by a Japanese NGO “AAR Japan” for a public well, to meet a farmer and his family in the scheme, and to participate in a handover ceremony of Mobile Science Laboratory Kits to a school there from JICA.
 

To read the speech by Ambassador Sobashima at the opening ceremony, please click here.