Zambia, Africa
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Report Date: August 8, 2017
Key people:Charles and Janet Chibali
The community of Kaishe continues to use the Skills Centre as the hub of the area and many community activities are being held there. They have started holding counselling sessions at the centre as well which have shown some success in people changing mindsets.
Health Clinic
The local health clinic for under 5 year olds is now being held at the Skills Centre as it is the only place suitable to hold such a clinic in Kaishe.
Every month the nurse and clinic officers come to help administer vaccinations and general medical care to the young children in the area. This has helped significantly as previously they had to walk many kilometers to the nearest clinic.
Preschool
For every primary school the government has decreed that there should now be a preschool so the role has increased to 57 children coming each weekday morning. They are still seeing real benefits of this class with the children having a basic level of literacy and learning before they reach Grade 1.
The Skills Centre recently managed to arrange to take the preschool children to the nearby Kasanka park where the children saw wildlife and a waterfall for the first time.
Carpentry
The Kaishe area is still seeing the benefits of the carpentry skills that were taught, with the standard of housing being higher. Many people are asking if they are going to restart the program at the centre and Charles is requesting that. We discussed that if they are so interested then they 
could budget for the costs of the courses and come up with a fee that people can pay that would ensure all costs are covered.
Farming
This year 25 people enrolled in the Foundations for Farming course but only 15 people completed the course due to distractions such as funerals. There are four other farmers who were trained previously who have also used the new methods this year.
Some of their yields seem excessive, i.e. over 10 tons is a very exceptional crop, but it does seem that those trying a smaller portion of land are able to really use all the methods well, such as mulching, weeding, using compost, which shows them the methods do work very well. Overall they have achieved a great result considering the traditional methods of farming normally only yield around 1 ton per hectare. It is great to see some progress and uptake here in the area after 8 years of trying to train people!
Charles himself had an average year due to being sick over the growing season. Even so he still got 5 bags from 25x25m which is 4 ton per hectare. He has now been chosen by the government agricultural officers to become a certified seed grower, which will give him a great income earning opportunity if he keeps up the quality of farming and gets signed off. It will mean the seed he produces for maize, soybeans and groundnuts will be able to be sold at a set price for certified seed.
Nutrition Programme
They have continued to run nutrition programs at the Skills Centre teaching about the use of soybeans in particular.
A story from this is Charles himself. At the last conference Bright Hope World held he came to us to ask for reimbursement for some food he had purchased on his journey to the place. This time for the conference held at GLO he decided to make the soybean pancakes and bring them along with him so he did not have to purchase anything.
Church Based Leadership Training from Samfya Bible School
The locals are enjoying this training and Charles has found that people are now more open to helping in the Skills Centre. There are many different denominations that are being taught together. They held the first year graduation at the Skills Centre. There is one more year on the course to run.
Emmanuel and Frances
On the farm that is now owned by the Skills Centre they grew a field of Impwa (a small local eggplant). The two workers on the farm, Emmanuel and Frances, were working in the ½ lima field and they wanted Charles to buy D compound fertilizer to help the plants grow. For a long time Charles refused but he finally said ok, and they applied it but nothing happened to the plants. Charles then gave them some of his compost to be placed by the plants and within two weeks the results became obvious. They harvested a big crop, sold some and used the rest to help feed the young ones at the preschool.
The point of this story is how the results changed the minds of Emmanuel and Frances and now they are very interested in making compost and using Foundation for Farming methods.
Many people are now starting to look at Foundations for Farming with interest.
Unfortunately there are some people who are opposed to this partnership and they are becoming more difficult and even using witchcraft against the leaders here.
1) Pray for God's protection
2) Pray the community continues changing and participating in sustainable farming and development of the area
3) Pray for the continued working of the Lord in the area
We met with Charles at the Bright Hope World Partners Conference held at GLO, Ndola. Unfortunately Janet was not able to make it due to family commitments. Charles was pretty down and discouraged when he arrived but after spending time with other partners he went away very encouraged to carry on the work that God has set before him.
The photos are from his personal camera.
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