Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit 

Key people: Faides Chiyesu and Evans Doigy

Recent Events

Faides

Since the passing of Jeremiah in 2016 Faides has now started to “come up a bit”. She has been living back in Kamatipa since December 2018 and has really been helped by the people around her. It was great to see her living with Jeremiah's sister’s family in a house only a few meters from Evans' place.

She has planted a lot of crops to sustain her this year, 2.5 limas (a lima is 50m x 50m) of maize, groundnuts and sweet potato. A lot of work for a widow, especially as she also arranged and helped plant another lima of maize and 1.5 limas of sweet potatoes for the orphans field. The crops look very good, even if not Foundations for Farming methods. 

She has also continued to do tailoring - sewing goods and selling them. She wants to sew uniforms for the local people next year as all throughout December 2018 they came to her wanting to have uniforms but she had not sewn them. ZANGI is also going to buy some materials and get Faides to make uniforms for the children in their programmes, which will be a reduced price but will also give Faides some more income.

She still goes back to Chingola periodically to live at the rented house with other members of her family that she is looking after as well, but eventually wants to live at Kamatipa full time. 

Orphans Programme

Currently there are 11 orphans on the program:
Grade 2  -  1
Grade 6  -  1
Grade 7  -  3
Grade 9  -  4
Grade 11  -  1
Grade 12  -  1

One student sat Grade 12 exams last year and passed. Able Chikwayi did well and is now doing piece work in Kalulushi.

Three from last year failed Grade 9 and there has been a new government policy that those who fail Grade 9 have to go back and start at Grade 6. The question was asked what to do with these orphans and discussion was around the reason they have failed and making a decision based on each case. If some have been trying but failing they have decided that they can start back at Grade 6 but each year they must met a standard or they will be dropped. These three will therefore be added back into the program.

The orphans continue to come to Evans place and visit with Faides as well, and they have been spending time with them out in the field on the 2.5 limas planted with maize and sweet potato.

There are many more orphans whose guardians have been coming to the group crying for help, particularly in January when schools are about to open.

We met with the mother of Willie Wayla, an orphan that we met back in 2011 (see November 2011 report). She told us that Willie, who has been living away from Kamatipa for some time, has just completed Grade 12 with very good marks. 

Pig Farming Income Generation

For both Lulamba (ZAM10c) and Kamatipa the group purchased two female pigs (300ZMK each) to help with raising funds for the programs. Evans has a lot of experience with pigs so these two pigs are kept along with his own personal ones.

They had litters of 8 and 10 but then swine flu struck and some escaped to be eaten by other people from the local village, so 16 were lost. Of the four remaining three of them are pregnant again.

Since then they have been making a much better and bigger place for the pigs although are still to put up a brick structure to be able to have them separated according to age.

Based on selling the pigs once they are 18 months old they envisage making a profit of around 590ZMK per pig (US$50).  

Personal Stories

Leonard Kapenda

We met Leonard Kapenda at Kamatipa village and he ran up to up to welcome us. I didn’t recognize him at first but he was one of the orphans on the Kamatipa program who completed Grade 12 in 2014. He is also the one who came to visit Faides after Jeremiah passed away to give a financial gift.

After passing his exams he moved to Lusaka to work for a Chinese company making animal stock feeds. He lived on the compound where he worked, and earnt an average wage for very hard work. While in Lusaka he liked the big city and was able to keep himself straight because his older brother was there and part of a church so he keep going.

Last year the company closed as business was slow so he decided the best thing to do was to come back to Kamatipa and start farming on his family's land. He really loves farming but this year realized he has to be there. He was still in process of shifting from Lusaka in December and had to get some of his siblings to plant the field of 2 limas of soybeans but unfortunately they didn’t do a good job. He is very interested in Foundations for Farming and he and Faides are planning to plant a small plot together next season to try and help increase yields.

He is now married with one small child. They are still working to build a house on his plot of land.

Leonard has a passion to help the orphans still in Kamatipa because he knows what it is like to grow up without parents. He loves football and is wanting to start a club as a means to get the orphans and others together to start mentoring them on life. He has a friend Stephen who wants to help in this.

Faides and Rebecca are very keen for this young man to be involved in the partnership.

Plans for the Future

Faides is very busy and our only concern is her capacity, but that is very big! We will leave the current program at 11 orphans plus the extra three for this year and see how it progresses for next year.

Last year we dropped the budget from US$2,500 to $1,250 due to a reduction in the number of orphans and the lack of information coming out of Kamatipa. I have asked them to give me a revised budget for the current orphans on the program before September 2019.

Comments

I have to say that it felt just a bit like God's kingdom here today. To see Faides, a widow, being included so much in the community, to talk to orphans who went thru the program many years ago thriving, and to see so much production from the land….. well what else could it be.