Policy Monitoring and Research Centre (PMRC) executive director Bernadette Deka says despite being a single mum, she is not lonely because she knows God is preparing someone to be her husband.

And Deka says it is challenging to work under the Esther Lungu Foundation because of the weight of expectation from the people.

Asked if she felt lonely sometimes because she was not married on Millennium Radio’s Sunday Personality Chat, Deka said loneliness was part of the journey.

“I think that is part of the journey. I have my son who is six, I am not lonely, and if I had to get married it means there should be someone who is waiting for a marriage to happen or who is being prepared to be a husband. So, you just don’t wake up and marry and meet someone today, tomorrow you get married. So, for me, there is no that kind of loneliness in my life. I am not with the father of my child, but I am definitely marrying a man that was put in my life for a purpose designed by God,” Deka said.

And Deka said it was challenging to work under the Esther Lungu Foundation because there were too many expectations from the people against one source of finance.

“It is exciting but at the same time challenging because there are so many needs and expectations by the general citizenry, there is this pressure that is exerted especially on the First Lady herself as a mother. And she has a heart; it is such an honour to work with a mother who has such a heart. Other than just being a mother, she has got special credentials, which she carries within herself. The love for humanity, the love to see that person who is suffering from something, the underprivileged person to at least better their lives and help them out, the disabled, the hopeless child who has been forced into a marriage because they lack ABCD or finances, the abused woman, an old-aged man who does not have shelter,” Deka said.

“So you can imagine with our numbers of poverty and Zambia still recording a high number of people living under abject poverty. And so the needs are too many against this person who has come out in the open to say I am openly helping out. But then can she? Not even the government has managed to change the country just like that 50 plus years down the line. Not even a government with partnerships with other governments has managed to turn the country around just like that. The pressure is real and I feel it as I also have a small hand in helping her out as a trustee in her foundation.”

Deka also shared her ambitions for the future.

“The position that I aim to have all the time is that influential position to be able to make serious changes in Zambia’s lifestyle, governance, development; influencing development, influencing change in people’s lives, influencing the general well-being, influencing the change of the country from a developing country into a developed country without leaving anyone behind if I can borrow this aspiration of the vision 2020,” said Deka.