The City of Hutto sent a three-person delegation to the Southern African nation of Zambia Saturday as part of a campaign to create a sister-city relationship with the Zambian city of Chililabombwe.
Hutto City Manager Ed Broussard, City Planner Will Guerin and Kyle Sears, pastor of Resonate Community Church in Hutto, left for a nine-day trip and will return on Memorial Day. Sears said nearly three full days will be spent traveling, allowing the group to spend about six days in Chililabombwe.
The City of Hutto has allocated $10,000 to cover expenses for the trip.
The group will meet with representatives of the federal government of Zambia, including the Minister of the Interior, Sears said. They will also meet with local representatives of the city government, schools and the business community in Chililabombwe.
The idea to form a sister-city relationship with a city in Africa came from Sears.
“I’d had the idea that we as a community could somehow partner with a community in Africa to have a means of investing in them and helping out with the global concerns of malaria and AIDS, stuff like that,” he said.
Sears said he began developing his idea last year.
“I’d heard about communities doing something similar,” he said. “It sparked my interest.”
The city’s name means “place of the croaking frog,” but it was another native animal that got the attention of Sears and Hutto City officials.
“I thought it would be fun for Hutto to find a place in Africa with a hippo population,” Sears said. “Chililabombwe is known for its hippo pools.”
Though the hippos of Chililabombwe are what first got Sears’ attention, he said there is more to the trip than promoting Hutto’s mascot.
“The hippos caught my eye,” he said. “There are lots of opportunities for business development on Hutto’s behalf.”
The African city was formerly named Bancroft. Its population is approximately 93,000. The main economic activity there is copper mining.
Sears said he hopes the trip will initiate an official relationship with Sister Cities International, a nonprofit organization that seeks to “build global cooperation at the municipal level, promote cultural understanding and stimulate economic development” by connecting U.S. and international communities, according to the organization’s Web site.
Sears said the city is paying for a third of the cost of his ticket, while his church will cover most of his other costs, though he said spreading religion is not the aim of his trip.
The partnership is “just a means of helping people,” he said. “I can do that without proselytizing.”
Both Broussard and Guerin are using money in the city budget to cover their expenses, but not everyone in Hutto is convinced the trip is worth the money.
“I think the whole idea is foolish right now,” said Marion Wallace, retiree and resident of Hutto. “I fail to comprehend how this is going to benefit Hutto monetarily.
“The focus with Hutto needs to be with the citizens, the homeowners, and the people of Hutto, not in Africa,” she said. “To me it’s charity. It’s just not benefiting Hutto.”
Broussard said the trip is worth the expense because it will give the Hutto name wider recognition outside the Austin area.
Sears said it might have another positive effect on the community as well.
“By building a sense of community around this project, people will get more involved,” he said.
The community can follow the delegation’s trip at www.huttozambia.com, a running Web log of the trip.
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