Macha Mission

Macha Mission is a mission station in the Choma District of the Southern Province of Zambia. While it started out as a place to convert the local population to Christianity, it has grown into a community centre with a church, five schools, a hospital and a malaria research centre.

Macha Mission began as a Christian mission station in 1906. Hannah Frances Davidson, an American missionary from the Brethren in Christ church, travelled there from Matopo Mission in Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe). She was accompanied by two African helpers and Ada Engle, another missionary. Davidson and her companions subsequently embarked on the task of converting local Tonga and Ila peoples to Christianity. They established a school, a church, and eventually a clinic.

The mission became the anchor for later Brethren in Christ mission work in Southern Zambia with missionaries expanding to Sikalongo and to Choma. The mission continues to function currently. It has grown considerably and now includes a hospital, a nursing school, two secondary schools and two primary schools. A malaria research centre has also been established. The Malaria Institute at Macha (MIAM) collaborates with Johns Hopkins University to do continuing research in malaria and related diseases.