---

Zambia, Africa

ZAM32 - Heart and Hands

---

Report Date: November 11, 2025

Update from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator

The first training and initial microloan programme has concluded. We chatted with Anthony and Milly via WhatsApp to gain an understanding of how the programmes went.

Recent Events

Business Training

In conjunction with Life Trust, the youth school that Anthony works for, they held a 5-day long training course run by OM Zambia. The course is called Epic Solutions Training and is aimed to help people understand business and how that can help their families. Six ladies were selected from the Heart and Hands group to be funded to participate in the training. They joined another 18 participants from Life Trust Schools, a mixture of students and parents. 

The women found the training challenging, looking at concepts such as savings, that they have never had, bookkeeping, how to find markets, how to supply the markets with the appropriate volume of goods and how to separate business capital from their own personal home expenses.

After completion of the training, the six ladies were given a loan of 200ZMK (US$9.00)that they were to use to run a basic business for two weeks. They were then to return that capital with a 10ZMK interest payment. Some ladies baked fritas, some sold charcoal, some did hair extensions. The pilot was a large success as all the ladies managed to repay the microloan at the end of the two weeks. The best result was the lady who baked fritas, who managed to make a profit of 410ZMK for her to keep above the loaned amount.  

The success is due to the follow ups and meetings where the ladies were able to come and discuss issues with Milly, such as the frita lady starting off baking too many, and not being able to sell them all, so a lesson in meeting market demand.

The next phase is to give larger loans of 2,000ZMK (US$90) once a business plan has been presented, based on the learning from the pilot programme.

Family

Anthony's health has not been great. He has some issues with rising heart rates and dizziness and continues to undergo hospital tests as he is getting better. Milly is pregnant with their third child due in March 2026. 

 

Personal Stories

Lydia lives at home with her husband and three children. They had some bad experiences trying to make their family home and have ended up with a two-room house, but only one room has an iron roof on it, the other is just a temporary tent. With the rainy season coming in November, they are not feeling very secure.

Lydia used the 200ZMK loan to buy charcoal in bulk, repackaging it in smaller lots and selling in the local market. She found this business good as there was no pressure to have to sell the goods in one day, as the charcoal will not perish like other goods.

Lydia's husband is a transporter, being at the markets and offering services to transport customers' goods around Kabwe. His main difficulty is access to an iron wheelbarrow which will help his business to expand and enable him to carry many more goods for people. Anthony is looking into seeing if they can provide them with the funds as a loan, to hopefully enable him to make the funds to complete the iron roofing on the house. 

Ideas for the Future

The group is also considering a cooperative to make funds together, which will be able to help them when family issues and health issues arise. They are investigating the purchase of a peanut butter machine, as they have a market at the Life Trust school who feeds the children each day with peanut butter sandwiches. They have also found some shop keepers who are willing to sell the jars of peanut butter.