MUNALI PF member of parliament Professor Nkandu Luo has challenged young people in the country to work hard and stop blaming government for whatever they do not have.

And Prof Luo says the empowerment money she invested from 2011 when she became an area member of parliament in Munali has not born any fruit.

Speaking when she launched the Munali 5000 Family Empowerment System in Chongwe, Saturday, Prof Luo, who is also Livestock and Fisheries Minister, said young people should shift their minds from the way they think and do things differently.

She said the Munali 5000 Family Empowerment System was a great initiative that would empower the youths of Munali Constituency.

“I want to first of all thank Fr Lupupa, who is the patron of this great initiative in Zambia and also the chairman general, and also Fr Phiri who is also the patron for this project. Why am I saying thank you? It’s because this project started like a dream. I remember the long hours we sat at my house to discuss this initiative of the Munali 5000 Family Empowerment System and you know when you put in something in discussion and on paper it looks great, but if you haven’t implemented it, you don’t see how good that is. For me, this is the beginning of the revolution in Zambia. This is the beginning of the shift from the way we think in Zambia and the way we do things,” Prof Luo said.

“Unfortunately, when I compare when I was growing up and what is obtaining now, I sometimes wonder if I am in a different planet or I am still in Zambia. Because when we were growing, we worked hard for whatever we had. As a young girl, I came from a relatively well to do family because my parents were teachers but my father taught us to do things during holidays. We didn’t wait for him to give us pocket money. We did little assignments here and there that earned us pocket money. We worked for the pocket money but at the moment, what some young people say is that when is government going to do things for us? Where is government? Everything is blamed on government and this is why for me, when we sat to discuss this project, I fell for it because I knew that this can be a greater way of doing things differently in the Country.”

She further said as member of parliament for Munali, she was happy that the area was moving forward in terms of development for the youths.

“As Member of Parliament for Munali, I am extremely pleased that we are moving forward and I want to contrast Munali in 2011 when I became an MP. I have tried to calculate the money that I have put in Munali for empowerment which has never born any fruit but in the last one year, I think we can see that the empowerment programme in our Constituency is bearing a lot of fruits. What even made me happy is to visit New Mtendere and find that the teachers had the whole big pond of fish and they invited me and I hope I can also entice her Honour the Vice-President to come and see our first harvest of fish in Munali. So Munali is now an example of what youths can do for themselves. Munali now is the mother of goats. Munali now is the mother of goats, tomatoes and vegetables,” Prof Luo said.

She has since invited youths in her constituency to join the Munali 5000 Family Empowerment Project, saying it would change their lives.

“I would like to invite all those youths that we left on the streets to come and join the Munali 5000 family and maybe we need now to talk to our youths in Churches to come and join the Munali 5000 family because this is going to change the lives and Munali will never be the

same. What we just need is to partner with more people, especially the people with land so that we do more things and do great things for the people of Munali,” said Prof Luo.

And Kalumbila Multipurpose Cooperative Society chairman general Chilekwa Mambwe said he was happy that the Munali 5000 Family Empowerment System had been launched.