Seeds for Life in Zambia

'CLIMATE CHANGE HAS BROUGHT PARTS OF ZAMBIA TO THE BRINK OF FAMINE' - reported by the BBC January 3rd, 2020

Last month one of our Zambian volunteers was asked to accompany a BBC reporter to act as a translator. The renowned broadcaster was doing a feature on climate change in Zambia and first wanted to visit Dundumwezi, a poor community in the Kazungula District, which we recently started supporting.

Known to be the poorest community in the District, the people of Dundumwezi have been suffering from the affects of the severe drought in Southern, Western, parts of the Eastern Provinces of Zambia. The area is close to the southern gate of Kafue National Park where rivers and streams have become dry.

This has resulted in people walking 10 kilometres to draw water from one of the three boreholes we installed in community schools in 2018. In October last year we engaged a drilling company to dry three boreholes in Dundumwezi and neighbouring villages, but they were all dry. However, We recently engaged a geologist to site water, resulting in locations where water can be sourced. 

The demand for boreholes this past few months has been exceptional. We are pleased to report that the following schools and communities now have access to safe drinking water:

• Bunsanga health post - built by The Butterfly Tree in 2019
• Senkobo Village 
• Siamkomo Village
• Siazibola Village
• Chilable Community School

We have now installed over 30 boreholes with a further 6 planned in the coming weeks. Three for Dunduwezi, Cilebe and Mubuya community schools, Malimba junior school one one for Simonga Health Post, one for a women's beekeeping project in Muyunda and one for a village near Singwamba.

The Butterfly Tree is continuing to provide emegency relief to people suffering from hunger. 2.3 million people are affected, and in some areas, famine is apparent. Prior to, and during the Christmas period our amazing volunteers in Zambia continued to distribute food to remote areas, making sure that all the orphans we support had food.

We have given out over 10,000 bags of maize, each 25kg bag will last a family of four for one month. The need far exceeds what a relatively small organisation is capable of providing. However, we are in communication with the bigger NGO's who finally started providing emergency relief in early December. Even they cannot reach everyone therfore our aim is to support the remotest communities that get missed out.

The rains have now started, it will be a few months before communities can harvest their crops, but at least they have hope. We are looking into improved ways of farming and food supplies, encouraging people to grow less rain-dependent crops as climate change is certainly causing the change in weather patterns.

A huge thanks to everyone who has helped us to provided much needed water and food for these humble people.

Links:

• BBC New Report on Zambia