---

Zambia, Africa

ZAM17 - Patience Child Care

• View report dated: April 4, 2015

• View report dated: August 8, 2016

• View report dated: August 22, 2017

• View report dated: May 15, 2018

• View report dated: March 29, 2019

• View report dated: August 8, 2020

• View report dated: June 30, 2021

• View report dated: August 13, 2022

• View report dated: May 13, 2023

• View report dated: September 26, 2023

• View report dated: May 14, 2024

• View report dated: June 17, 2024

---

Report Date: July 15, 2025

Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Key Person: Doris

I met with the family at the house and walked around the property. The family is doing well. Of the nine children of the departed Lemon and very much alive Grace, Doris, Lydia, Maureen, Grace and Olly are living on the family property. Dorcus is nursing, Sarah is teaching, Raymond lives in the nearby village of Sakanya and Miriam lives in Solwezi. There is a total of 22 grandchildren.

Recent Events

Farming Training

In March they trained another 15 ladies in Foundations for Farming along with many of the previous trainees who “came to hang around” as Doris says. They have more or less given up on training men, as they seem not to be as serious about it as the ladies who work very hard to be able to look after their families.

They have made follow-up visits to some of the farmers who are close enough for them to walk to. The harvest is looking very good, and they will collate the yield information as people finish harvesting. Grace has finished her harvest and yielded 10 bags from ½ lima (4 tonne per hectare).

They still have an "orphans’ field" where some orphans in the community come to help plant, weed and harvest. Then they are able to use the produce to help families in need. (photo above right is Doris with maize from this field)

Jennifer, who we met in 2024 in the drought season, has picked her cobs but not yet shelled them (photo right). She is very happy as she will have enough food this year. Last year she survived by only eating one meal per day at supper time and relied on the gifts of well-wishers.

Doris estimates that since they have been training farmers with her father Lemon back in 2011, they will have trained over 300 families in the community. Not all have done well, but some have.

The cassava sticks that they obtained from Peter Bobo in Chaba (ZAM16) have been planted as a nursery. They are currently two years old because of the drought last year. This season they will plant out correctly at 1 metre spacings and hope to harvest good tubers the following year. They will sell as fresh cassava as the local people in this area do not like cassava mealy meal. If it goes well, they will look to start a training and loan programme with the seed sticks to multiply in the area. 

Discipleship Programme

This year is the third group of women who have been coming to be mentored in the book “Knowing and Doing”. Doris says this is having a big impact on the people in their daily lives as they learn how to let God show them the best ways to look after their families, children, husbands, finances and church community life. 

20 ladies come for the meetings every two weeks. 

Business Loans

The 20 people who received business loans (grant given of US$1,200 in total) last year have really struggled in business due to the increasing price for goods. The margins that they have been able to pass onto customers are very small, so they have struggled.

Doris decided to give them a year’s grace period, so they will be promising to repay all this year. So far people have been keeping that promise and have repaid. Once the funds are in, Doris will find another group of 20 people to help empower their businesses.

Drought Season Relief and Food Supply

Last year Bright Hope World gave them US$1,100 to help with fertilizer inputs and to purchase some bags of mealy meal to feed the farmers well during the planting season. They purchased 30 bags of mealy meal at 450zmk each and distributed to 36 farmers. 

Along with the fertilizer distribution it really helped people get through a tough period and set them up for a good harvest this season. 

 

Personal Stories

Progress, who was an orphan we interviewed somewhere back around 2007 when he was six years old, dropped in to see us. His mum is still alive, just his father had passed away when he was young. He has a twin brother called Prosper. 

He is currently still chasing his dream to become a professional footballer, training five days per week with the Ndola National League team. To help support his family he works in the fields with his mum and brother, using the Foundations for Farming methods.

 

Partnership's Influence within the Community

People have been very thankful for the trainings in discipleship and farming. Increased yields this season have really helped the farmers.

Some of the orphans that used to be helped have done very well, some are married, some have jobs or run their own shop stalls. When Doris sees them, they come running to give her a small drink or something of appreciation for the help they have received. 

 

Ideas for the Future

They are going to continue with the farming, discipleship programme, and business loans. 

It would be useful for Doris to be retrained in Foundations for Farming to make sure she is up to date with the methods and we will look to fund Doris and one other person for a refresher farming training course at Mukushi Foundation for Farming Centre.