Seeds for Life in Zambia

Global warming is certainly influencing Zambia. Compared to other Continents Africa has the lowest amount of global greenhouse gas emissions, less than 4% per cent, but like everywhere the weather patterns are changing.

November to April is the rainy season in Zambia. December is the month when the crops are planted, then from late December steady rainfall should continue until April. However, this was not the case this season. After the maize, sorghum and millet had been planted not a drop of rain fell in January. Most of the crops perished.

For those communities that planted late another hazard effected the crops - an unprecedented amount of rain fell throughout February and March, making the land water-logged, and crops suffered. However, all is not lost as we held back the donations to schools as the weather was so unpredictable. Though the schools will not be able to grow maize this year, as the crop is rain dependent, they can grow vegetables. All the schools we support have boreholes, this can be used for watering the vegetables.

Providing a source of water in schools and communities is vital, most especially so that children can drink clean water. I am delighted to announce this month we will be installing three boreholes. Firstly, in Luzila, a community in the Secuke Chiefdom that draws water from a swamp in the wet season, during the dry season the people must walk over two miles to share a school borehole.

Two further boreholes have been donated to schools, one at Nakawa pre-school where the young children must walk half a mile to share another school's bore. The other is for Muyunda Community School, which is in a very remote area of Ninawa Chiefdom. There is no source of fresh drinking water, therefore the children must draw water from a polluted stream. This causes diarrohoeal disease, which can be fatal in infants.

This project helps to provide feeding programmes in schools and safe drinking water to some of the poorest people on the planet.

The rainy season in Zambia start in late November and finishes in early April. Globally weather patterns are changing, and Zambia is no exception.

December is the prime planting season for staple crops such as maize and millet when communities gather together to sow their crops. December saw very little rain in the Southern Province where the schools we support are located. January was completely 'dry' no rain fell in the area. As a result, sadly crops withered.

The drought persisted until mid-February and then Southern Zambia experienced unprecedented rains. Instead of raining for a couple of hours before the sun bursts through the clouds, the rain has been persistent. Day and night heavy rains have fallen, resulting in severe flooding, with many villages being cut off. 

The good news is that The Butterfly Tree withheld donating seeds and fertilizer to the schools we support after hearing of the lack of rain in December. Instead we will discuss with the Head Teachers of each school how best we can offer support.

We ensure that all the schools have bore holes, which means that they can grow vegetables as water is easily accessible. The World Food Program supplies maize for a morning porridge at rural schools, and our support enables the local cooks to provide a sustainable feeding programme at lunchtime.

We will closely monitor the situation and hope that the rains finish in early April so that we can access the remote areas in Mukuni and Nyawa Chiefdom of Zambia.