News from Zambia

News from Zambia

Mele, Zambia Office Manager, told us that currently we are experiencing a drought in Zambia and unusually high temperatures of up to 35 degrees Celsius.

The rainy season is usually from November to March but we had a late onset of rains and right now it has not rained for weeks, crops are drying in the fields. People, like Rosemary, are worried that food prices, which are already high, might skyrocket.

Meet Rosemary

Rosemary (in the photo above) lives with her family in Mitwe (north of Zambia). She lives on the front line of the climate crisis where the erratic weather conditions effect what she is able to grow and therefore how she can feed her family. Rosemary told us that when it rains too much, their soil is washed away, along with their crops. When there’s intense sun, the seedlings are burnt up.

She has been working alongside ZRDF for three years now. In that time, she has been learning to improve the quality of her soil through composting, tree planting and water harvesting. She’s also been learning about which crops are best to grow in the different weather conditions that she experiences.

Rosemary now farms soybeans, maize, sunflowers, guavas, bananas and mangoes to mention just a few. And she loves to share the fruits with her family!

In addition to all of this, Rosemary has become a bee keeper. She sells the honey and bees wax for both nutritional and medicinal purposes. And as you know, bees will help to pollinate the crops all around the neighbourhood, so bees are great for the environment, as well as her family!

Life is still a challenge for Rosemary, but she now has the tools to fight the climate crisis and provide for her family despite the economic crisis. She told Mele that she is pleased that ZRDF has helped empower the women of her community with the training they have been given, enabling her to be able to provide for her family’s needs.

“I want my children to be educated, finish their schooling, and live happy lives. I hope to live a good life in the future, with the blessing of God, so that I can lead a modern life that will allow others to realise that I am a real human being while also providing for my kids so they can be independent and eat anything they want.”

Please pray:

• Please pray for a good harvest and good health for the all the communities where we work in Zambia.

• Thank God that farmers, like Rosemary, are learning new techniques to grow food on their land so that they can feed their families, despite the economic and climate challenges they are facing.