Partnering with World Vision

Michael Kraft (TTL'09) on August 15th, 2009

A couple of weeks ago, several youth sponsored by World Vision were here at the college learning about sustainable farming.  They were only here a week, so there was a lot of ground for them to cover.  Their program included both theoretical instruction in the classroom and practical demonstrations outdoors.

In the classroom with Mr. Samba

In the same field where the pastors had been working earlier, Mr. Samba showed them how to transplant onions.

Mr. Samba demonstrating onion transplanting

Since I had been busy, I didn’t get a chance to catch up with them until near the end of their stay.  The practical instruction for that day was a bit hurried since there was a lot of material to cover.  In the course of a couple of hours, Mr. Samba demonstrated how to plant a banana tree from a shoot, how to plant a lemon tree, and how to create an organic compost pile.

Harvesting a banana shoot

Cleaning the banana shoot

Trimming away dead leaves to promote healthy growth

Digging the hole

Planting the banana shoot

Filling an earthen basin with water

Note that the entire focus of the training was to show the students ways they could improve their livelihoods through the most inexpensive means possible.  He told them that to get the banana shoot, they should ask someone in their village if they could harvest one from an existing banana plant.  He encouraged them to create organic compost heaps from readily available materials like kitchen waste.

Removing lemon seeds

Planting the lemon seeds

Regarding compost heaps, Samba told them how to create a simple micro-biotic culture that would dramatically speed up the time it would take to break down the material in the compost heap.

Starting a compost heap

Adding ash to the heap

Adding water to the heap

Finishing up the compost heap

Since the instruction was necessarily hurried, Mr. Samba spent a good deal of time that evening writing up all of the steps required to accomplish the day’s tasks, with special attention on those items he didn’t get a chance to demonstrate fully.

This kind of partnership allows Chipembi Farm College to reach more people in the community than it otherwise could.  Mr. Samba is looking forward to more colaborative work with World Vision in the future.

Tags: Collaboration, Michael Kraft, sustainability, World Vision, Zambia