SPEECH BY THE MHT PATRON, HON. DORA SILIYA AT MHT PAGEANT
2nd July, 2022.
The Chairman of MHT and Madame,
Special Invited Guests of MHT,
The Board of MHT and the MD,
Members of MHT,
The MHT Beauty Pageant participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Tonight is a momentous occasion! It is a culmination of a long journey, going back over 30 years ago when My Home Town (MHT) Founder, Mr James Ndambo, realised that the words of Mahatma Ghandi rang true: we have to make the change we want to see in our families, communities, towns, countries and the world. He began to support family members so that he was not the only one reaching for the sky today. Over the years, this support has been extended to many other people including many of us in this room tonight. Someone once said, you cannot stop an idea whose time has come.
After years of an idea in practice, in 2009, Chairman James Ndambo formalised the MHT organisation. Like many of us, he has travelled the world and met many important people. He is also successful by any standard. However, he realised very quickly that one is not an island and that our life is connected to all the people we have met along the way, who end up connecting us to even people we have never met. This is the reason we are all here tonight and so beautifully dressed. I said earlier, you cannot stop an idea whose time has come.
For the many who have met the Chairman, Mr Ndambo, we have learnt the following:
Small talk does not get big things done.
Strength is not whom you beat down but whom you lift up.
Kindness is more attractive than being cruel.
People will never stop talking, soar and leave them behind.
And that smiling is free.
Chairman Ndambo began MHT as a platform to initially connect with family members. Later, it was expanded as an initiative of like minds interested in business mentoring and wealth creation. Mr Ndambo believes that each one of us has to explore and exploit every business opportunity.
His view is that, this is the only way people will be less dependent and assist the government and country to develop and enhance the quality of life of citizens.
Since MHT inception, the business network has grown through Africa, UK, USA, Europe, Dubai and Latin America. You really can’t stop an idea whose time has come. On behalf of MHT and as Patron, we thank all those who took it upon themselves to spread MHT to the many countries in the world, especially Mr Ndambo’s family members.
One of the core objectives of MHT is to grow local businesses. This is why, we are all in Choma tonight. These business supporting activities have been held in different parts of the country, such as in 2020 when similar events were held on the Copper belt, Eastern and Lusaka Provinces. The main aim is to ignite money circulation through procurement of goods and services by local residents and visitors, who are you and I, in all our home towns, which translates into the whole of Zambia.
This initiative has become even more urgent post pandemic when many of us lost loved ones and businesses. And we all realised we cannot depend on anyone even in the tourism sector, except on ourselves as Zambians.
In the last week, there have been a flurry of activities in Choma and extending as far as Livingstone.
We have all come to MHT Choma, to attend the second MHT beauty show, but more importantly we have also come to support the businesses in Choma. You will recall that the first MHT beauty show was in 2011. However, we were taken aback with negativity that come from some corners at that time. Clearly, they were just ignorant about our organisation. Nevertheless, the show was successful and winner of that beauty pageant, Nandi Nkowani, has flown in from Europe where she now resides. Indeed you cannot stop an idea whose time has come.
The work of MHT is anchored on the big belief that first, you can’t share poverty and secondly that wealth creation must always involve a process of supporting the community, our home towns. We are aware that there are various NGOS doing various activities. However, MHT found its niche in supporting initiatives that unlock human potential so that we are better off than when we began. Over the years, MHT has supported business ideas with great commercial value, thereby standing in the gap for missing investment funds. Travel to other countries such as Dubai in 2021, to interact with business over there, has also been an MHT trademark aimed at exposing our Members to international business ideas and standards.
MHT is always looking out for exceptional students who have been supported to universities, both locally and abroad. The Chairman and all of us at MHT believe that it is better to teach a man how to fish than to feed him. I have personally been a beneficiary of some of this student support in the 90s, while I was studying at the University of Cambridge in the UK.
In the medical field, a number of Zambians have been supported with health care, especially in India, where we currently have patients in Kerela. You truly, cannot stop an idea whose time has come.
Recently, lot of people have been asking me about who Mr James Ndambo is. Who is he indeed?
He is Zambian born, a South African citizen and a very progressive African. He is an accomplished businessman. He is a global citizen and a champion of building bridges across every difference. And I have witnessed this first hand. They also ask me, what is MHT? Simply, it is exactly as in the words of President Kennedy: it is not what the country can do for you, but what can you do for your country.
Each one of us has the capacity to do something: to create wealth, jobs, to support our schools, clinics, churches, orphanages, youth groups etc. It just takes one person with an idea.
As the French poet, Victor Hugo said, you cannot stop an idea whose time has come. MHT is an idea that is worth trying wherever your home town maybe.
Thank you for joining us tonight.
Thankyou our viewers.