Report by BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Key people: Peter Chomba & Judas Chomba

We didn't visit Chaba this year but met with Peter and Judas at the Bright Hope World Partner Conference at GLO in Ndola early August 2017.

Recent Events

Farming Training

They undertook a further training session last year adding 20 maize farmers, 20 rice farmers, 20 cassava growers and 10 business micro-loans to the training. 

In total there are now:
- 115 maize farmers
- 105 rice farmers
- 50 cassava farmers
- 42 business micro-loans
A total of 312 families impacted by the programs in this community!  

Repayment of all the loans has been going as well as ever. The yields for all these farmers are currently being collated and Peter will email the results through when the job is done. They are seeing that there has been a very good crop this year, in fact farmers are saying “hunger is no longer an issue”. Some early results have shown around 15 to 20 bags per ½ lima (6 to 8 ton per hectare). 

The cassava program is going very well. With the new methods and the new varieties they are seeing big tubers within a year which has meant so much to this community. The loan is very easy as well as farmers are given cassava sticks to plant, then as they harvest they repay with sticks for the next trainees. (First photo is cassava harvested after two years in the ground. Second photo is using Foundation for Farming methods harvested after one year. Big difference!!)

This year they are requesting to train another 20 people in each area. We are happy with this but have also suggested they undertake a training review for current farmers that have been trained.

This year we discussed a desire for the micro-loan program to be matured from the first farmers trained seven years ago. The thought is that they should now be in a position to save funds for their inputs so Chaba Christian Care Group should set up a saving program in the partnership. Peter and Judas are not sure how this will work. They are delaying telling the early farmers until they have repaid their loans, then they will discuss this. They will look at options and stress to the people that they have to become mature in this issue to allow for other people in the community who are trained to get new loans.

The main issue people have is that it is hard for them to keep money for farming inputs throughout the year so having access to a loan helps very much with this problem. We will see how this issue is resolved. 

Education Program

There are now only 15 pupils left in the education program in Grade 11 and 12. 2018 will be the last year this will run, meaning they all will have completed Grade 12. 

The guardians are okay with this due to the increased yields and micro-loans that they have got through the various programs meaning they can now afford to help with the orphans themselves. 

Bible Extension Program

Peter is the lecturer from Samfya Bible School who goes to Chaba for 5-6 days every month to help facilitate the Bible extension program. This first year they are working through the book “Knowing and Doing”. The second year will be more focused on specific ministries.

At first they aimed for CMML churches but others were very interested so they opened it up to other denominations. There are now five different denominations represented but the majority are from CMML.

Four past Samfya Bible School students are in the Chaba area and are being used to help with all the teaching. Judas is one of these ex-students.

Peter says the response has been very good to this program, people are enjoying it and learning about the love of God. 

Personal Stories

Judas - micro-loan program

Judas took out a 5,000 ZMK (US$500) loan to help re-establish his chicken business that he had a calamity in late last year. He brought the money back to us at GLO and told us that the business went very well  and has enabled him to pay for his son to go to college.

He has now put in a request for funds to purchase a boat to help with transport of chicks. This is where he has the most issues with his business, i.e. many of the chicks are dying during transport from Samyfa to Chaba on the boat ride. If he has his own boat this will help with the problem, and also give him another business of transporting people across the lake.

Partnership's Influence within the Community

The following are some paragraphs from Peter's report that he wrote to us: 

Like Paul when he wrote to the Thessalonians saying “For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before God”, we have run out of words to thank God enough for what Bright Hope World has done for us. How can we thank you our dear partners for all that has been done. 

Through our program some orphans have completed school, college and are working. Guardians are being helped in their day to day affairs as their standard of living has improved. They are able to fend for their families. Businesses are going well for most of our clients such that more are asking to be helped. 

Letter from guardian:
We would like to thank Bright Hope World for their initiative to bring to us this wonderful program Foundations for Farming. Since this program started hunger is no more a talk of the day. People have enough to feed their families. The only people who are starving or struggling with hunger are those who are still planting cassava using traditional methods. For us who are using the new method we are very happy because food is in abundance. Bravo brothers, you have helped us a lot. Wishing you God's blessings. 

Ideas for the Future

Rice co-op proposal

Now that the farmers in the area have increased their yields and are providing food for their families, there is a need to start a program to help them with selling produce in a bigger way. CCCG has put forward a proposal starting with the rice growers. There has been a large increase in the amount of rice grown in the area due to training in better methods and the rice mill that was installed in 2011.

The plan would be to buy unshelled rice from farmers. This would require transport, as in bicycles, to go and get the rice from farmers in 50kg sacks. This needs to happen soon after harvest when there is plenty of rice around and the price isn't too high. Once purchased they will process the rice by shelling it through the CCCG rice mill, meaning they will only then need to transport the shelled rice (about 50% volume of the unshelled).

They would then transport this to Samfya where Peter would control the selling of the produce. They say the market is there, with hospitals and bible colleges in Samfya and Mansa, and they can even sell in the Copperbelt.  Current farmers who take 15 x 50kg bags of rice to Samfya are finished selling them in one to two weeks.

Prayer and Praise Points

1) Continue to pray for Judas' health which has been a bit up and down
2) Pray for the potential starting of a savings program for the farmers to mature off the micro-loan program
3) Pray for the rice buying project