Key person: Doris Nkausu
Doris’ health has not been good for the past three months, but she is improving now. Her family has been under pressure with the passing of Doris’ sister’s husband, and the other sister has had a stroke. Grace, Doris’ mother, also had Covid and it affected her very badly for over three weeks in September 2021, but she is returning back to normal now.
Doris has three people helping her with the programmes of farming and orphan encouragement:
Jennifer Kawanda
Lacks Jaka
Chama Chilima
There are nine orphans remaining in the current programme, with five in grade 12 and four in grade 9. These remaining orphans have been struggling at school and are all repeating exams through a programme called GCE which has proved a bit expensive.
Some of the orphans who have finished with the programme have not done well. Four of the girls have gotten pregnant and have entered early marriages. Doris still has a heart for them and visits them to encourage them.
Others have done well, with many of the boys who have finished having found work with Chinese construction companies as the nearby border to the Congo has opened up.
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Last season there was a problem in the district with rains. The first rains came in early November, meaning the farmers planted on time. But then there was no rain for three weeks, and a lot of the small seedlings shrivelled up and died. They replanted, but by then it was late causing a drop in yield.
However, with the use of mulch in the field that they planted for the orphans, Doris still yielded 23 x 50kg bags per lima (50m x 50m) which is a great result of just under 5 ton per hectare. There has been a good market for selling the maize as well, with the Congolese coming across the border to buy bags at 250 ZMK (US$15). If they can store the maize until November when there is a shortage, the price has been going as high as 500 ZMK (US$30) per bag. They also grew a field of soyabean to create some cash, which they have harvested but not yet sold.
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Doris attended the Foundations for Farming refresher course at GLO bible college in March and found it very encouraging. The main thing she learnt about was crop rotation, where she wants to diversify from maize into soyabeans and cassava especially. Making compost and the use of manure teas is also important to replace the use of expensive fertilizers.
The farming training course Doris planned to run this year is still to take place due to her health issues. Her son Chisenga is coming back from college in August, and they will run the course then.
Overall, through the years Doris and the Patience Child Care programme have now trained over 100 families in the area in farming. Doris says these ones who have been trained cannot now say they are in poverty as the farming is providing them with something to live on.
Currently the chicken run has been put on hold. The funds that were sent remain in the bank account as Doris saw the market was “a bit tricky”. They are waiting to decide what to do with the funds, and make sure they are investing in a profitable income generation activity that will allow them to start helping some orphans sustainably.
The last payment for the orphan programme was in November 2021 and no further funds will be sent for this. We will look to continue to fund farming trainings in the future as they are requested. Doris also wants to go and visit Chaba (ZAM16) to learn more about growing cassava from Peter Bobo and she will request some funds for transport costs at some stage.
The income generation funds for the chickens remain in the bank account. Currently they are investigating setting up a mobile money business that is a phone-based banking system where they get fees for transfers, deposits, and withdrawals of funds. They are also looking at renovating some of the extra buildings they have as rentals because the Congo border opening has meant more people are coming across to Zambia.