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Chinyingi

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Geography of Asia

   The Chinyingi suspension bridge
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   The Chinyingi suspension bridge

   Chinyingi is a Capuchin mission and hospital in the sparsely populated
   North-Western Province of Zambia, on the west bank of the Zambezi
   River. An estimated 500 people live within a seven kilometer radius of
   the Chinyingi mission. The mission's hospital, Chinyingi Mission
   Hospital, serves the local community with a 52-bed hospital and several
   health outreach programs, providing everything from first aid to
   services for victims of AIDS, which affects some 25% of Zambia's
   population. The mission also operates a school.

   In the 1970s, a Capuchin brother named Crispin Baleri constructed a
   simple suspension bridge over the Zambezi. Baleri was inspired by the
   tragic death of four locals, who drowned in the Zambezi while trying to
   ferry a sick person to the hospital for care. He solicited donations of
   material from the copper mines of Zambia's Copperbelt, and employed
   local unskilled labor to construct the bridge, which despite Baleri's
   lack of training or expertise, proved sturdy and reliable and still
   spans the river as of 2005. The bridge Baleri constructed is one of
   only five crossings along the 2,574 kilometer length of the Zambezi. Of
   the five, the Chinyingi crossing is closest to the river's source. A
   pontoon bridge was later constructed underneath it to allow vehicles to
   cross.

   Chinyingi's elevation above sea level is 1,100 meters.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinyingi"
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