President of Zambia Levy Mwanawasa suffered a heartattack during a meeting with the African Union in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt on June 29 and has since been treated in hospital in Paris. We regret to inform you that Mwanawasa passed on at 10.30 this morning. Vice president Rupiah Banda expressed his “immense grief and deep sorrow” later that day in a broadcast on ZNBZ. As a result of todays trogic incident, Rupiah Banda will be the acting president up until the next election which will be held within three months in accordance to the Zambian constitution.

During autumn break (Oct 24 – Nov 1), representatives of The Chiparamba Foundation will travel to Zambia to explore the Victoria Falls, go boating on Zambezi River and take part in a safari in South Luangwa national park. The trip ends with a visit to Lusaka. Board memebers Kent Sander, Mikael Santoft, Dan Allbäck, Lennart Bäckman and Dan Allbäck, wil make the trip together with Chipa Family members Björn Branth and Lars Nordin accompanied by wives and children.

At a board meeting on Aug 13, founders Klas Björkhagen, Lennart Bäckman and Dan Allbäck decided on a change in the board’s members. New board member Amanda Ekman was welcomed as Lars Erlandson’s replacement since Erlandson’s asked to be relieved of his duty as the foundations head of finances. The foundation would like to extend it’s deepest gratitude to Lars who has served the foundation since it’s start in 2004.

Former Swedish minister of Justice Thomas Bodström has been arranging an annual football tournament on Fårö for the last couple of years. This year Mr Bodström decided to donate all the money from the tournament to The Chiparamba Foundation. We are honoured and very thankful!

Chiparamba Great Eagles participated this year in Gothia Cup in the Boys 16 division. After the opening round Chiparamba had beaten Umeå IF, Georgian team Vake-WIT and Beirut FAC from Lebanon while not having a single goal scored against them. Unfortunately Chiparamba was eliminated in the 1/64 finals when they lost to the Ugandan team Kampala Kids. To Chiparamba’s defense (although totally unnecessary) it turned out that 9 players of the Chiparamba team were only 14 years old.

Lars Nordin of the Chipa Family represents the Chiparamba Foundation in Halmstad. The highly determined Mr Nordin has decided to arrange Kick Aids Out at Halmstads Högskola on Sept 20 and has already gotten Plura Jonsson (Chipa Family) & Eldkvarn to agree to the gig, which makes us very pleased to say the least.

Klas Björkhagen, CEO of the advertising firm Brandreality, was asked to join the panel at Global Reporting’s debate on April 25th together with entrepreneur Maja Brisvall. The topic, ”Is it possible to save the world and make money at the same time?” spurred a lively debate between the panel and the audience. During the debate, thoughts concerning social entrepreneurship and charity were compared to the more traditional means of aid to challenged countries.

Board members Klas Björkhagen and Kent Sander teamed up with Chipa Family member Lars Nordin and travelled to Lusaka on april 18-21. The main goal of the trip was to look at properties of land in hope to find a suitable place for building a school, activity house and football fields. This served to be quite a challenge since available properties in central Lusaka is hard to find. This issue was discussed with Rupiah Banda, president of Chiparamba Great Eagles and vice president of Zambia, early in the morning on the day of foundation’s representatives’ return trip to Sweden.