|A Zamda newsletter is long overdue – we have lots of news to share so please open up and read on!

The Zambians are Coming! The Zambians are coming!

Zamda has welcomed over four hundred visitors to Sables, Sables Nua, Kangombe and Chileya over the last eighteen years. The visitors come, do great work and then leave. It often dawned on us that the traffic was all one-way, that Sables Nua youngsters never got a chance to travel in the opposite direction and so a dream was born – that representatives of Sables Nua would travel to Ireland, for a holiday, for an experience of a lifetime.

Now that dream has become a reality – the first, of many, we hope, visitors from Sables Nua will arrive in Ireland in late April for a two-week visit to Ireland.

With the help of Fr. Jude McKenna and support from Judo Ireland a judo club was started in SablesNua by Sergeant Gabriel “Gabby” Kunda, Zambia Police, former Zambian International Judo Player.

Judo Ireland sent some coaches, judokas and tatami (mats) to Kabwe to assist with the setting up of the club and Sensei Gabby travelled to Ireland. Judo Ireland invited Gabby to return and to bring his judokas with him.

Unfortunately, Covid-19 struck and Sensei Gabby died but the invitation still stood and on April 24 ,a team of 11 judokas and their coach will travel to Ireland.

This is made possible by the incredible generosity of donors and sponsors in Ireland, and beyond. Míle buíochas daoibh go léir.

* The group will visit schools, talk about Zambia and demonstrate judo.

* The group will visit judo clubs in Wexford, Cork, Clare and Dublin.

* Will visit historical sites.

* Will meet with officials of the Zambians in Ireland Association including Hitra Shakanungu, former Zambian International judoka now resident in Ireland.

* Will participate in a tournament – West Clare Open in Clare.

* Will participate in Coaching Course with Japanese Sensei Iura Sensei (8 Dan) in Dublin School of Judo.

* Will attend a number of sporting events including League of Ireland Soccer and Leinster Senior Hurling Championship.

We hope that this is only the first of such visits and plans are already afoot for a visit by some of our soccer players in the not too distant future!

NCBI’s LANs are designed to bring together people who are blind or vision impaired to advocate for meaningful change in their local communities. The groups meet once a month to discuss the range of campaigns that they are working on and all of these meetings take place online for utmost convenience. The five regional LANs are:

Midwest Region: Limerick, Clare, Tipperary   
South Region: Cork, Kerry, Waterford, Wexford  
North-East Region: Louth, Meath, Cavan, Monaghan  
West Region: Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo and Donegal  
East Region: Kildare, Dublin, Wicklow

In recent months, NCBI’s LANs have led and successfully completed campaigns and are involved in several ongoing campaigns. For example, the Midwest LAN engaged with the local libraries within their area to make them more inclusive for people who are blind or vision impaired. The North-East LAN is currently engaged with Tidy Towns with a view to including more accessibility requirements within the initiative into the future. Members from across the LANs are also regular contributors to NCBI’s national public awareness campaigns e.g. the annual Clear Our Paths campaign and in 2022 members appeared across several media platforms to speak about their experiences. Full training and support is provided to LAN members.

We also have two LANs that have a specialised focus, which are also open to anyone who is blind and vision impaired across Ireland. These are:

Local Advocacy Network on Access 
Local Advocacy Network on Employment

We encourage anyone who is blind or vision impaired across Ireland, who is also interested in improving services, events or activities for those living with sight loss in their area to reach out to NCBI for more information. You can do this by contacting or by calling the NCBI Info Line on 1800 911 250. More information about the LANs is also available on our dedicated “Become an Advocate” webpage.