Key person: Oliver Mulenga
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We visited Oliver at his plot in Kalulushi on Saturday morning for the orphan’s programme.
Currently Oliver has paused making blocks as he had some staffing issues, and the block machine has become old and needs replacement. His aim is to purchase a new machine and restart making very good quality blocks. In the meantime, the main income is renting out the rooms as houses, and renting out the classroom he has built to teachers who give pupils extra lessons throughout the week.
He is still active within churches in the area, continuing to preach and minister to several congregations, although not at CMML churches.
He has started a garden at his house where he wants to create income and demonstrate how people can have a garden at smaller plots where they can at least produce something to consume and sell.
Currently the programme has 25 orphans who come each Saturday for bible teaching, extra lessons and lunch. The budget doesn’t cover helping with any school requirements.
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Oliver selected the orphans after talking with the local schools regarding who needed help. Oliver does not know many of the guardians of these children.
We encouraged him to get to know the guardians and see if any help can be given to them to empower their local businesses as Kalulushi is an urban area. Instead of giving a handout for school requirements, help families to help themselves.
Currently there is only one teacher who comes to help with the extra lessons as the amount Oliver pays them (50ZMK or US$2.50) each Saturday is too little.
Last year Oliver selected two men from the Kafuba area (where a pastor called Sebastian has worked with Oliver's support for over 15 years), to go to the Foundations for Farming training at GLO bible college. These men are both leaders in the community, being headman or section leaders. The area is about 50km away from Kalulushi.
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Their names are Boyd Mokola and Morgan Besa. We met with them at Olivers to discuss how things are progressing. At the training they really appreciated learning about organic compost and minimum tillage. Digging potholes, they found easier work than digging ridges, and learning to correctly space the plants has helped.
Both men planted 2 lima (100m x 50m) of maize. They used blanket mulch and made compost piles. No lime was available, so they used wood ash as substitute. No fertilizer was used as it was too expensive. They are expecting a good harvest and will let us know the results in June/July.
Edwin from GLO has visited the men twice to help and encourage them with the methods, and this follow-up is key to help them learn the method.
They discussed the possibility of growing soyabeans to help with the soil and crop rotations, but they will need some capital to invest in seeds, inoculant and lime. They are to make a proposal where at harvest they will then keep some aside for future planting and helping another farmer as well.
The aim is to learn first and then be able to teach others in the area. The community has been very interested in their fields, especially as the crops look better than everyone else’s. In fact, when they started, Boyd's wife refused, saying “this is nothing and won't work” but now she has seen the methods as being good. Before harvesting these headmen will call the local villagers to see what the yield is like, to further engage people's interest.
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Stephen is 15 years old and is in grade 8. He wants to finish school and become a doctor so that he can help people in the future.
He lives with his grandmother who works as a maid six days per week for a local family. He wants to do well at school so he can get a god job and give his grandmother some things to appreciate her for all she has done for him in his life.
He found out about the programme through his local school who sent him along to meet with Oliver. He started the programme in grade one.
Some of the issues he faces as a young man in Kalulushi is how to find some piece work for himself to earn money to buy his own school requirements. Peer pressure from other youth to smoke, drink and be part of gangs is an issue in the community and he has a friend who joined a gang and no longer goes to school.
He attends the Catholic church and is involved in the youth programmes where they study the bible and play some games.
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Noah is 17 years old and is in grade eight. He wants to go to school to learn how to respect elders, get educated and become something in the future. He wants to change his life and start working so he can give back to the people who have helped him. He would like to become an engineer and learn how to build things. He likes to figure out how certain machines work.
Noah lives with his grandmother, who supports them by buying and selling groundnuts and avocados in the local markets.
He found out about the orphan programme through his local school who said if your parents are too poor, fill out a form and we will see what we can do.
Noah goes to the New Covenant Church and attends the youth group where they teach them about how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS, help them to have a good life and play some sports.
Noah loves football and plays at school. His favourite position is being a striker to score all the goals.
Mary is 15 years old and is in grade six. She has been involved in this programme for seven years. She has benefited from this programme by the tutoring which has taught her how to read. She comes each Saturday for tutoring and lunch.
Her mother works as a maid for some of the houses in the area. She lives with four other people at home and her mother is the only one working to support her and her siblings. She would love to finish school and become a nurse so that she can then support her household.
Mary enjoys school and has two teachers for around 75 students. She plays on the school football team.
Eunice is 15 years old and is in grade 9. She loves that Zambia is a peaceful country and she hopes that this will continue. She loves going to school especially for English and Science and being with her friends. Eunice is concerned that children can’t always go to school if their parents don’t work, she sees that as one of Zambia’s biggest problems.
Eunice lives with her father and brother who are carpenters. They work on contracts given to them by people. She helps at home with the cooking and sweeping.
We are awaiting a proposal regarding the farming training and soyabean inputs.
Oliver is to meet with the guardians and assess if any of them have small businesses that could be empowered through micro-loans.
Oliver still has in mind to start a private school, but we have discouraged that idea as the numbers do not stack up and he has no experience in running a school.
The general budget is to remain the same until the farming and micro-loan proposals come through.