Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitators Following Visit

Key people: Stephen Daka, Rosemary Daka

We stayed at the Daka’s house in the village for two nights. Many of Rosemary's children and grandchildren were there, with Moses, Gift and Stephen. It was good to meet Moses for the first time, a very energetic and committed man, who has big plans for his future. He has qualified as a nurse and is waiting for placement into a hospital. In the meantime, he is managing the Chipata area in a sim card and internet business.

Rosemary is still doing ok, although her legs are causing her pain, which is fixed by medication daily. She keeps moving by going to the field most days for farming.

Stephen spends most of his time at his mum’s house, as he is farming and looking after the fishpond. His wife and two children are in Chipata where he goes once per week. They have a small grocery shop selling jiggys, eggs, charcoal and other food stuffs. Stephen is now an elder at the local village CMML church.

Recent Events

Orphans Programme

There are currently 17 orphans on the programme, with nine in primary school and eight in secondary school. Since the programme started there have been over 30 who have completed school and have gone on to employment. Many have become teachers, mainly because that is the cheapest career path to fund after school.

They are paying for boarding fees, uniforms, shoes and books. Every term the orphans come for the distribution of school requirements, have a meal, get encouragement to stay in school and work hard, and are taught the word of God. Sometimes there is pressure when they see what they think is the good life in the village of their friends who are drinking and smoking and having early marriages. 

The funds sent in terms two and three are causing some struggles and there is a request to increase these amounts due to costs rising.

Rosemary discussed their plan to restart having a field for the orphans’ programme. They would give an area of their own farm for the orphans who are in the area to come each weekend for a few hours to work. This gives them the chance to be with the orphans and encourage them in life on a more regular basis. Then the harvest of the field can go to the orphan’s families. They would like to be able to provide a small lunch with this programme as well.  

Farming Programme

There are eight families that have been empowered with the soyabean microloans from Bright Hope World to participate in the Share Africa Zambia company programme. As they are new participants, they are considered grain growers not seed growers so there is no definite price determined until harvest, but they expect 10ZMK per kilo.

The families were selected based on Stephen knowing them, as church members and faithful people who will repay the loans. Three of the eight are guardians of orphans on the programme.

Each family was given 12.5kg of Kafue seed and 500mls of weed killer spray. The loan is worth 575ZMK. For repayment they will bring a total of 75kg of grain, potentially worth 750ZMK.

With the seed grain gathered for loan repayments, 600kg in total, the partnership plans to increase the seed loan to 25kg per family and increase the number of families to 16 next season. So 400kg of the seed will be stored and 200kg will be sold to give the funds to purchase the weed killer.

The families are very happy with this programme, as it has given them a chance for a cash crop and will help this year as many have not planted maize due to lack of fertilizer. 

The families will record the yields they get to see how well they have farmed and will let us know. 

Fishpond

Last year Bright Hope funded a fishpond to be constructed and stocked with fingerlings to make income for the project. The pond has been constructed and 2,000 fingerlings have been added. These were non sexed meaning there are males and females who will reproduce, so potentially there won't be a need to buy more fingerlings. The fish is tilapia and they are fed twice per day.

The fish are currently two months old, and the first harvest will be in six months. A number 2 net will be placed into the pond, and the fish forced to the area where the net is. The bigger fish will be caught, and the remaining will be able to swim through the net.

The harvest will then happen approximately every two months, or when they see that the fish are big enough. Stephen says there will be no problem to sell the fish as there is no competition close by, and people have to travel to town to buy at present.

The biggest concern is security, especially just before the time of harvest, as people may come at night to steal. Stephen will build a small hut at this time next to the pond to stay at night-time and keep the thieves away.

Stephen requests the funding of the fish net, which is about 1,700mk (US$100).

The plan is to show others in the community about fishponds. Stephen wants to dig another pond next to the current one to expand the operation.

Personal Stories

Abraham Phiri

(Photo is from 2019 when we last interviewed Abraham)

Abraham is one of the orphans who finished Grade 12 in 2011 and then went on to do a teacher's training course. He funded most of his teachers training by farming.

After finishing his training, he was waiting to be deployed by the government, so he continued to farm. His first crop was tomatoes, from which he secured 8,000ZMK (US$430) profit. This he reinvested into maize and soyabean crops. After harvest he ended up with a profit of 22,000ZMK (US$1,200) which he then used to purchase his own motorbike.

Finally in 2022 Abraham was deployed as a teacher and started teaching at secondary school.

This year, when the big floods in Malawi happened, the storm also came across the Chipata area, although it was mainly wind and less rain. The wind destroyed the iron roof of the CMML brethren church in the village, which has been a big problem. Everyone was very astounded when Abraham came to the church and donated 19,500ZMK to buy all the materials needed to fix the roof. No one had seen a church member be so generous. The members provided the labour and now the church roof is fixed.

Abraham told the church that God has been so faithful to me with my schooling requirements and the farming that I needed to be faithful with my resources when I see a need in His kingdom.

Current Issues and Challenges

Transport Issues

The motor bike that was purchased for the late Lonard in 2001, and was fixed three years ago, is getting tired. It still goes but is giving many problems. There is a request to provide Stephen with a new bike to help with transport of various school requirements, farming inputs and the fish.  He is interested in this being a loan.

Comments

It has been great to see Stephen and Rosemary having many ideas about how to further mentor the children in the programme, and move towards sustainability with the fishponds.

We will look to add US$200 to the April and August payments to help with the rising costs. Once the fish are harvested, they can top this up with the profits from that as well.

We will receive a proposal for the orphan’s field for the 2023-24 season.