Food Security for Hungry Families in Zambia

Two years ago we began our project "Delivering Food to Hungry Families in Zambia". After getting our community through the initial crisis, we began to focus on more long range, sustainable solutions to poverty-based food insecurity. We started a communal farm, and have changed our GlobalGiving Project title to "Food Security for Hungry Families in Zambia" to reflect our new direction.

A year ago, the Communal Farm was just the seed of an idea. That seed has germinated and grown. We acquired land, it has been cleared, a well has been dug, and crops have been planted. 

Now we must take the next step. To move forward there are several things that we want to accomplish:

1. Create a vegetable garden ($1,000). The farmers need seeds, fertilizer and fencing.
2. Purchase a farm vehicle ($5,000 - $6,000). We need a van to transport the workers from town out to the farm. It will save the exhorbitant cost of a daily hired car, and will soon be needed to bring produce to market. And if there is ever an emergency on the land, a vehicle could mean the difference between life and death.
3. Start raising goats ($2,000). Diversity is the key, and we are all keen to balance the flora with fauna on this farm. If we acquire 25 goats, we should be able to start selling goats in less than a year. With proper management, we can expect a sustainable, profit-making business.
4. Install a solar submersible water pump system ($9,600). The irrigation system we already have in place serves one portion of the land. We were hoping that the rains would sufficiently care for our crops planted on the other parts of the land, but global warming said no. There’s a very good chance that this will also be the case in the coming years, so the more underground water sources we can tap, the more prepared we will be to have successful crops despite the weather. Plants, animals - everything in farming is dependent on water, so the greater our access, the greater our rewards.

We feel that all these objectives are important, and would like to approach them simultaneously. They will be funded in part by the proceeds of our next GlobalGiving campaign, “Little by Little” to be launched April 4, 2022. For 5 days, from Monday, 4/4 - Friday, 4/8/22, GlobalGiving will match your donation up to $50 at 50%. That means a $10 donation becomes $15, a $50 donation becomes $75. This is a great time to help this Communal Farm to expand, thrive and succeed.

Please visit the AACDP website for a more detailed report.

Links:

• AACDP web site