Report from BHW Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Key Person: Barnabus Mwelwa

I drove to Barnabus' house to have discussions with him and Titus Kasongo. After lunch was provided, we drove to the CORAC farm which is 12km out of town and visited three beneficiaries along the way.

Recent Events

Education Programme

There are 32 children on the scholarship programme, with 11 in primary school and 21 in secondary school.

The government has changed the school curriculum so that there is now Form 1 to 6 at secondary school. They have added science to the early forms. They also give students assignments that now require research on either computers or mobile phones, but not many families can afford this. They are at a loss as to what to do to help. 

Cassava Trading Programme

There are 18 members in the first group who are still trading in cassava. They have purchased 22,000zmk (US$945) of cassava from Luapula province and have distributed this to the members, with all the amounts recorded. They are about to go and use the remaining capital of 16,000zmk (US$690) to go and purchase more cassava to distribute.

On average, cassava traders are making a profit of 100zmk per 1,000zmk of cassava brought and sold, a margin of 10%. The 38,000zmk total will then be repaid by the members to be used for the following season. 

The second group of traders, who started with fish trading and had a big failure, are still trying to trade in cassava until they get the capital back up to 38,500zmk (US$1,655). Currently they have purchased 25,000zmk of cassava and sold this for 30,072. They are about to go and purchase more cassava with these funds. 

Farming

After training, there were 11 beneficiaries in the farming programme who were each given a 25m x 25m plot plus some D compound and Urea fertilizer. The total loan value per beneficiary was between 905zmk to 1045zmk. They had some issues with mulching, because the neighbouring fields had been burning, and these fires had cut across to the CORAC farm.

The results were a bit mixed, and a big factor was Barnabus being away busy attending to his son who was unwell, so he was not able to supervise the farmers when they were at the field.

The best result was a farmer who harvested 6 bags (4.8 ton per ha equivalent), and the worst was 3 bags (2.4 ton per ha equivalent). On average the yield was just over 3 ton per ha equivalent. Barnabus did say that he thought there was probably more harvested as the people started to harvest early, and he was not around to capture the data.

Memory Kansoma got the best yield. The difference was her commitment to the field, keeping it well weeded and always being there to see what was happening.

The farmers will repay their loans by 15 August. Some will sell some bags and others will use their small businesses to fund the repayment.

In 2024 they tried to drill a bore hole at the farm to give them some water especially in the dry season for vegetables and making compost. Sadly, even though it was surveyed and they drilled to 60m, no water was found. A big loss.

Welfare Programme

There are currently 27 people on the welfare programme. Last year they gave out 25,000zmk (US$1,075) in cash with 200zmk given out per month from July 2024 to March 2025. These funds were really needed by especially the older people in the community who have very little support to live.

As an extra in 2024, due to the national drought, CORAC was funded 44,000zmk (US$1,890) to purchase maize as food security for people. They purchased a total of 5 ton of maize grain. Each month from July 2024 to March 2025 they distributed 30kg to the most vulnerable people in the community. Titus Kasongo walked a lot of miles to distribute these food packs, and it gave him a lot of time to talk ad encourage these people in their faith.

Cassava

In 2024 funds were given to source some early maturing cassava plants that only take one year to mature, versus the 3 years of the current local variety. Cassava is a very drought resistant crop and good for food security.

They purchased some sticks from the Bright Hope World partner in Chaba (ZAM16) and planted an area 50m x 50m using the correct 1m spacing. The challenges were that they planted late in January, some moles have come, and people have been stealing some leaves for relish. But the crop is there, and they hope to harvest some tubers at the end of next rain season. 

This crop will also provide the seed sticks for a much larger plot. Eventually they hope to include this crop in the FFF training and start a loan programme with the seed sticks that is repaid by providing more seed sticks.

Titus Kasongo

Titus was married to Eudises in 2002. They have six children with two finishing grade 12 this year. He has been on the board of CORAC for 6 years, but in the last year he has really stepped up to help Barnabus in the voluntary work for “Gods Kingdom”. He visits beneficiaries.

He attends Christian Brethren church and is an elder there.

He supports his family through farming but does not use the Foundations for Farming methods as he has not been trained in them yet. Last season he got 45 bags from 1 ha, which is about 2.5 ton.

When we were out with him visiting the beneficiaries, he has a very gentle and caring heart for them, and obviously they like him very much. 

Personal Stories

Katherine Nachilongo

Katherine is part of the Foundations for Farming group who are given ¼ lima at the CORAC farm and a loan for the inputs. Her husband passed away in 2022, and she is left to try and support her five children. Her eldest child, Blessing, who is in Form 1 is supported into school by CORAC, but she really struggles to support the other four. Cephas is 14 years old in Form 1, Emmanuel is 12 in grade 7, Alex is 10 and in Grade 5, and Rosemary is 8 in grade 2.

The house is very basic, and she is complaining about only having a sheet for the door as they feel unsecure at nights especially.

While we were there the neighbours’ children came in, and she was very kind and warm to them.

The farming did not go so well for her as she and her children were very sick with malaria in the growing season. She harvested 3 bags of maize, which is not enough to last them the year. She runs a business making scones to sell on the side of the road. She makes 50 scones every day. 10 are used by the children when they go to school, and 40 are sold. They are sold for 3zmk each giving an income of 120zmk (US$5.15) per day, but after taking costs off she knows the profit is 15zmk per day. She makes sure that she keeps the 240zmk capital required to buy more ingredient aside, otherwise they will have no funds at all.

The children help to sell the scones on the side of the road when they are not in school. She says the main market she has is to “illegal miners”. She would like to have more capital to make more scones to sell.

Around her house she has pieces of land where they try to grow some sweet potato, cassava and vegetables.

Nelson Muleba

Nelson lives with his daughter, currently in her own house but she wants him to build his own structure on the property as the house is very small. When we arrived, Nelson was trying to sweep some dirt into the few bricks that he had lying around to build a foundation. He has started to build this alone, and says the main thing is that it is “close to the toilet”.

The local church he goes to had offered to come and help build the structure but so far no one has come. He was going to get to church yesterday to remind them, but then he realised that it was actually Monday, not Sunday.

We asked him how old he was. He tried to find his National Registration Card in his pockets but couldn’t. He then commented that “we used to have no idea of birthdays and ages, it’s just you Muzungu’s (white people) that brought us that problem. He was on the government social cash transfer system, where they are meant to send 400zmk per month, but all they brought him was a blanket.

When he got married his wife was a believer and a Christian. He himself was a drunk and just used to beat her. But after some time seeing the way she lived her life, he decided that he would believe as well, so followed her to church where he met Jesus his saviour.

He supported his family through farming, growing rice, ground nuts, beans and maize. He was a good farmer.

He is currently on the aged welfare programme for CORAC where last year he received some cash of 200zmk per month and some maize grain of 30kg per month. That helped him stay alive another year.

Just the sweetest, funniest guy.

Chola Kayamba

Chola's husband passed away in 2000 when she lived in Samfya. They have five children; four still live in Samfya and one lives near to here in Chingola town.

She has been living with her two grandsons, but Francis (26 years) just got married and has left. Paul (21 years) is living with her now and was off packing and carting sand to town to sell to construction companies.

She supports herself by growing a vegetable garden in the wet season and buying vegetables off farmers who have access to water in the dry season. She walks with the produce to town and sells by going door to door to regular customers. When buying she pays 100zmk for an established bed, that she then harvests herself. She sells that amount of produce for around 150zmk with a profit of 50zmk. She does this once per week.

She is a member of the farming group for CORAC and was given ¼ lima to farm plus a loan for the inputs. She harvested 3 bags of maize this year, about 3 ton to the hectare. 

Partnership's Influence within the Community

Barnabus says that they are getting many people coming to them for help, which is a sign that others in the community are saying that they are benefiting from the programmes.

Ideas for the Future

They are concerned about the household income and want to see how they can help the community lift from the average of 1,500zmk per month (US$65) to 3,000zmk per month (US$130) through:
• Chicken rearing
• FFF training for kitchen gardens near people’s houses
• Expansion of the new cassava variety once they get enough seed sticks from the farm plot

Chicken Rearing 

One idea that people keep bringing is to raise some broiler chickens in groups. They have been discussing that if some people can get together a group, make sure they have experience of the project, a place to rear the birds and people put in a fee that is used, then there could be a loan given to fund a 100-bird programme.

It takes 7 weeks for the birds to mature for sale. After one or two rounds they would repay the capital to invest in another group.

Gardens 

Many of the people in the more rural outskirts do have small parcels of land. They are wanting to look at training FFF more in vegetable production to help people increase yields. Along with some possible small grants to supply some vegetable seeds.

Comments

As always, Barnabus keeps immaculate records and receipts to show accountability. Other than possibly adding the chicken rearing proposal, the budget is to remain the same.

Barnabus is such a good guy, and it was really good to see Titus stepping up and helping him.