During their IRM assignment, Rients and Margaret had been instrumental in starting up the project: meeting with local staff, setting up beneficiary committees, confirming identified beneficiaries, finding contractors for the food and seed which would be distributed, along with many other details. 
As we had wanted to stay home for Christmas, we asked World Renew if we could head to Zambia after the 25th. They honored this request and we found flights for December 30th. After spending Old Year’s Eve in Holland with George’s cousins during our nine-hour layover, and spending New Years in the air over Africa, we landed in Livingstone, Zambia – the tourist destination for those who want to visit Victoria Falls and surrounding game parks. It is hard to believe that we have been here in Zambia for almost three weeks.
The project location is two hours from Livingstone in the district of Mwandi with the IRM house/office located near Mwandi town. World Renew’s partner the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) operates an active church, a hospital and HIV clinic, a school and Orphans and Vulnerable Children Center, a farm which supplies food for the school students, and housing for the many employees and their families in a complex that is now over 100 years old. We are staying in a very comfortable volunteer guest house which overlooks the Zambezi River – the one that goes over the Victoria Falls. From here we can see the boundary between Zambia and Namibia. Matilda Okech, World Renew’s Regional Disaster Response Coordinator, flew with us from Nairobi and was with us for our first ten days to introduce us to the staff, the community and the January food distribution. We really appreciated Matilda’s wisdom, knowledge and wit!
In response to a threatening crisis, World Renew along with the Canada Foodgrains Bank is working with UCZ to help 2,500 vulnerable farming families.
The disaster that occurred in south Zambia is a severe drought where about 85% of crops failed due to lack of rains. Large areas of South Zambia has sandy soil and lies in a rain shadow, downwind from the Kalahari desert in adjoining Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. The population here is dependent upon the yearly rains which usually come from November through February but these past two years the rains have been erratic and scarce.
In response to a threatening crisis, World Renew along with the Canada Foodgrains Bank is working with UCZ to help 2,500 vulnerable farming families. Each family is receiving half rations of food and seed to tide them over until the next expected harvest in April.
The project also provides breakfast porridge for over 1,000 students in nine schools identified by the government as those most forgotten and needy. The hope is that students will continue to go to school as they will receive a meal to sustain them on their often long (up to 12 km) walk to school.
Each school PTA (Parent Teacher Association) and staff along with the students has also received seed and agricultural expert training to assist them in the formation of SPUs (School Production Units) or large gardens where the crops will be planted following Conservation Farming Techniques. There are also plans to dig a borehole or well at each school so that they have a water source for the gardens and for the students. If a successful harvest is realized, the produce can be used to continue to feed the students.
Arriving in Mwandi on Saturday evening, we barely had time to unpack before Monday morning’s food distribution – the first of five days of distributions to 11 villages. We were pleased with the hard work of each village’s committee to ensure the trucks were unloaded and the food arranged in piles that served ten households; with each household receiving two 25 kg bags of maize flour, one liter of vegetable oil and 10 kg of dried peas (the ten households divide the 50 kg bag of beans). Each beneficiary had a ration card which was signed by the beneficiary and a member of the committee.
For some beneficiaries it was a long walk to the distribution center and then back with the provisions – some carrying the food, some using ox or donkey carts, some used bicycles, a few hired cabs, and if you lived by the river, a dugout canoe. There was lots of singing and gratitude for the food they were given.
You know you are in Zambia when:
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The river that runs beside the place you are staying has crocodiles and hippopotamus
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The hippos can keep you up at night with their loud grunting
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Drumming can be heard each evening from 8 to 10 coming from the island across the river – to scare off wild animals as they care for the large herd of cattle that is grazing on it or scare cattle thieves?
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Zambians clap and bow when they greet each other followed by a three way hand shake
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You have guava and mangos growing in your yard
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You live with mosquitoes, scorpions, lots and lots of ants (shades of Sri Lanka), millipedes and other insects. You need to remember your traveling cologne –DEET
A Story of Renewed Hope
Silumesil Muba and Mary Muva from the nearby village of Simungama, Zambia are part of the Mwandi Drought Response. The family had come to the United Church of Zambia hospital compound to ask for food for their triplets. Their farm had experienced two years of drought conditions and although they had planted in hopes for a harvest the rains had not come. The dry winds that blow off the nearby deserts did not provide sufficient precipitation for a sufficient harvest to support their large family.
Silumesil and Mary had four children (three girls and a boy) when Mary became pregnant again. One cannot imagine their surprise when Mary delivered three healthy baby girls. Giving birth to a set of healthy triplets is a very uncommon occurrence and the family had to make some sudden adjustments. They both had the worry of feeding seven young children along with all the care that goes into such an active household besides the regular household and agricultural demands. The parents were committed to sending their children to school but when the school year began, Mary’s work tripled as she had no other ‘hands’ to help her with the triplets: Lunza, Miyaze and Kacana.
Funds that Silumesil had set aside to purchase fishing equipment was used to provide for the family’s needs and when these funds were depleted, Silumesil and Mary took the children to the hospital where they received milk for the triplets. When this program was discontinued after five months, they were referred to the Drought Response Project.
Silumesil clearly loves his young girls and his anxiety showed on his face as he spoke of his fear that the seeds he had planted would not grow as the rains had not yet come. “It is now in the hands of God,” he said and is very grateful for the food he has received. Suddenly a smile broke out over the faces of both father and mother as baby Kacana stood up and began to dance in time to the music quietly floating over the field.
Blessings,