{"id":166576,"date":"2024-05-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=166576"},"modified":"2024-05-03T20:30:23","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T20:30:23","slug":"north-carolina-guard-welcomes-new-zambian-state-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=166576","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina Guard Welcomes New Zambian State Partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Maj. Gen. Todd Hunt, the adjutant general of North Carolina, joins Kristi Jones, chief of staff for the North Carolina governor\u2019s office; the Honorable Ambrose Lwizhi Lufuma, member of Parliament, minister of defence, Republic of Zambia; and Honorable Jack Mwiimbu, SC, member of Parliament, minister of home affairs and internal security for a State Partnership Program signing ceremony in Livingstone, Zambia, April 26, 2024. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Bridget Pittman-Blackwell)
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LIVINGSTONE, Zambia – North Carolina sent a delegation, including the National Guard, over 7,000 miles to the Republic of Zambia in April to officially begin their partnership with the African nation under the State Partnership Program.<\/p>\n

The delegation included Kristi Jones, chief of staff of the governor\u2019s office; members of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services; 19 members of the North Carolina Army and Air National Guard; and Richard Bonanno, associate dean for North Carolina State\u2019s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.<\/p>\n

After the long flight, the team touched down in Johannesburg and made their way to the Republic of Zambia. There they joined Linnisa Wahid, the charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires for the U.S. Embassy, Republic of Zambia; Eddie Buffaloe, the secretary for the North Carolina Department of Public Safety; Army Lt. Gen. John Brennan, deputy commander, U.S. Army Africa Command; and Army Maj. Gen. Todd Hunt, the adjutant general of North Carolina.<\/p>\n

After getting acclimated, the leaders met with members of the Republic of Zambia\u2019s Army, Air Force, Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough we are here to mark the official start of the state partnership between us (NCNG and Zambia), we have been working together for years already,\u201d Hunt said.<\/p>\n

The two groups discussed the needs of the Zambian people and ways the state government and the NCNG could assist. The Zambian leaders shared their best practices and lessons learned over the years.<\/p>\n

Many of Zambia\u2019s 20 million people work in agriculture. North Carolina produces tobacco and potatoes, which are Zambia\u2019s main exports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are more than excited to have Zambia as our state partners,\u201d said Buffaloe. \u201cThis opportunity opens doors for both groups to share our cultures, our knowledge of the world, our military capabilities, and to improve upon our democratic ways of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The partnership could not have come at a better time, as Zambia is experiencing the worst drought in over 40 years. The country has massive bodies of water and shares Victoria Falls, the largest set of waterfalls in the world, with Zimbabwe. However, the Zambian people lack the resources to access and use the water from these waterways to irrigate farmland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe State Partnership Program between my country and North Carolina is one that I hope helps with ensuring food security for our people,\u201d said Norman Chipakupaku, permanent secretary for Zambia\u2019s Ministry of Defence. \u201cWe must learn to use our natural resources to help with our food insecurities. We feel if we work with North Carolina and Malawi, we can learn to use our water and land to be the food basket for all of South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

On April 26, Hunt joined the Honorable Ambrose Lwizhi Lufuma, the Republic of Zambia\u2019s member of Parliament, minister of defence; the Honorable Jack Mwiimbu, SC member of Parliament, minister of home affairs and internal security; and approximately 250 guests for the State Partnership Program letter of intent signing ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need the building of the relationships between North Carolina, Zambia and Malawi to be a historical one,\u201d said Chipakupaku.<\/p>\n

Malawi and North Carolina are also partners in the Department of Defense National Guard Bureau program, which has grown over more than 30 years to include 106 partner nations.<\/p>\n

For more National Guard news<\/a><\/p>\n

National Guard Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

National Guard X<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maj. Gen. Todd Hunt, the adjutant general of North Carolina, joins Kristi Jones, chief of staff for the North Carolina governor\u2019s office; the Honorable Ambrose Lwizhi Lufuma, member of Parliament, minister of defence, Republic of Zambia; and Honorable Jack Mwiimbu, SC, member of Parliament, minister of home affairs and internal security for a State Partnership […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166578,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=166576"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166579,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166576\/revisions\/166579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/166578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=166576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=166576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=166576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}