Seeds for Life in Zambia

While people in many countries are tackling obseity, other countries are suffering from hunger. The Seeds for Life project provides schools with an opportunity to create sustainable feeding programs. The project is helping children in a number of rural areas of Zambia to have a nutritional meal, while attending school.

Due to the recent drought The Butterfly Tree is sourcing alternative crops to that of maize, which is rain dependent. Sorghum is being introduced as an alternative. It provides a rich source of energy, is drought tolerant and environmentally friendly. In addition beans are grown to provide a rich source of protein.

Whereas we in the west throw away some vegetable leaves and stalks, in rural areas of Zambia, every part of the vegetable is eaten. For example pumpkin leaves, which we never see when buying a pumpkin, are high in clacium and also  a good source of vitamins, as well as iron.

Local people have depended on these types of food supplies for decades, but sadly poverty and the added burden of drought, leaves families unable to suffice the appetites of growing children. This is where your donation has really helped. By donating just a small amount to our Seeds for Life project, school pupils can benefit from a meal, which helps to improve their concentration and performance.

Due to the lack of rain some school had failed crops, but the ones that left the planting until later in the season have produced healthy crops. The school bore holes provides a regular source of irrigation, unless there is a nearby stream.

As always working in Zambia is challenging, but seeing children eating heartily is both a humbling and rewarding experience. We have bought extra bags of maize for families, such as Wingrey Mulonzya's family, who had no food when I last visited Zambia. They were living off local fruits. Wingrey has lost both his parents. His older brother, who is married and has two young children, has to provide for everyone. To further help this family we are now sponsoring Wingrey's education. 

We aim to provide additional schools with seeds in time for the the next planting. 

Over one third of Zambia’s 15.5 million population do no have access to safe clean drinking water and 25% of all schools to not have a safe supply of water. 

For many of us the constant rainy days this winter have become tiresome. The ground is saturated, which restricts us being able to play sport, do the gardening or hang out the washing. Imagine what it would be like if you had no fresh water to drink, no rain to irrigate the crops and no streams to wash your clothes in.

While some areas of the globe are experiencing excessive rain and flooding caused by El Niño many countries in Eastern and Southern Africa are suffering from drought. Zambia is no exception. Though substantial rain has helped parts of the nation, areas between Zimba to Livingstone, in Southern Province, have been hit for the second consecutive year. The Chiefdoms where we work are in this region.

Reports are coming in of dry streams, failed crops and food shortages. Children are drinking from shallow wells. At River View School, which is close to the Zambezi River, water is generally pumped from the river using an electric pump, but when there is no electricity, water has to be drawn from the river. Last week, a fourteen year old boy had a narrow escape. As he was drawing the water a friend noticed a crocodile heading towards him and thankfully alerted the boy in time!

We have successfully installed a number of bore holes and Indian hand pumps in schools, clinics and rural communities. This facility not only provides safe drinking water, but also a source of irrigation for school gardens to create sustainable feeding programs. As maize is rain dependent we have introduced sorghum seeds for schools, the crop requires less water, along with vegetable seeds. This has helped tremendously as all the maize crops in the area have failed. Sorghum provides a nutritional alternative to maize.

Our priority over the next few months will be to source funds to provide more remote schools and clinics with bore holes, and to donate extra seeds to to help alleviate hunger.

Links:

• Food Projects in Zambia