Seeds for Life in Zambia

Not a drop of rain has fallen on the parched Zambian terrain since April. Streams are dry, rivers are low and shallow wells are empty.October is the time to start thinking about planting before the onset of the rainy season in November.

Food is in short supply, the stored maize is rapidly dimishing and children are hungry. Many children have to walk ten miles a day to get to school, leaving home at 4am to arrive for lessons at 7am, often on an empty stomach. The World Food Program is supposed to supply morning porridge for evey school, but this is intermittent and often a whole term is missed out.

Providing seeds for school and rural communities is a way in which groups and individuals can have their own garden to grow food and become sustainable. Donations from the Seeds for Life project have enabled this to happen in remote areas of Zambia. The Butterfly Tree has helped twelve schools,  but many more need you support.

If a school has a maize field and a vegetable garden, and the yield is good, not only is there is sufficient food for the children to have a daily meal, anything surplus to their requirements can be sold to the community. The extra money is used to buy additional supplies and help with the running costs of the school. Some schools with the profits they made this year were able to hire transport so that the pupils could participate in the District's Sports Competition.

The poverty levels in these remote village communities are very high, there is a great deal of unemployment and a number of households are headed by women.

Please help us to provide further support to these vulnerable children, many of them orphaned due to the HIV and AIDS pandemic. A small donation could buy a packet of seeds or a bag of fertilizer and help to alleviate hunger. 

Links:

• Seeds for Schools

November to April is the rainy season in Zambia and this is the time when communities grow maize to be harvested in April. The maize is left to dry on the stems, collected, then stored for the winter months. Hunger amongst school children is always an issue in remote villages, where children have to walk up to ten miles each way to get to school. Often they have only one meal per day.

The Butterfly Tree has initiated feeding programs in eleven rural schools by providing them with seeds and fertilizer before the rainy season. This enables each school to provide food for children, as the World Food Program contributions are intermittent and far two often the schools receive it only during one term.

This year the yield was not as good as expected, but enough to provide maize for vulnerable and orphaned children. Vegetables can be grown during the dry season so long as there is a nearby source of water. The Butterfly Tree has ensured that all the schools have a well for safe drinking water and to use for irrigation.

The schools are situated in the Chiefdoms of Mukuni, Muskotwane, Sikute and Nyawa in the Kazungula District. During a recent visit I inspected the yield at some of the schools and it was a pleasure to see children receiving some food. Local women cook the maize and make it into n'shima, akin to mashed potato, and serve with beans and vegetables.

Any surplus maize will be sold to the communities and profits will be used to purchase seeds and fertilizer for the forthcoming year.

Links:

• The Butterfly Tree Newsletter - May 2014