Last year in Zambia, the price of food skyrocketed. Hunger was a reality, with many eating just one meal a day. The women of the AACDP community, who have children with disabilities at the Mama Bakhita Cheshire Home, dreamed of having a communal farm to raise their own food.
Thanks to your generosity, we were able to purchase 20 acres of farmland, sink a well and buy a pump. To complete this totally sustainable system, the farm needs a solar-powered irrigation system.
Sydney Mwamba, our general manager in Livingstone, has organized everything so far and estimates that we can get the system built for a total of $4,500. That will cover the cost of a cistern, pipes, electric cables, a control box, and solar panel stands, as well as two experts to assemble it all. When it’s completed, the planting can begin.
Growing food is a fundamental of village culture, from which they all come. Families will till and fertilize their own plots and construct fences of local materials. Eventually they will build traditional huts for tools and storage, but right now the time has come to plant. If we can raise the sum for the irrigation system quickly, there will be time to get it installed before the rainy season. To take advantage of the natural growing cycle they must get seedlings in the ground by then; to prepare the soil and start the seeds beforehand, they must have water.
These women, like many people in the world today, believe that starting communal farms is one of the most sensible solutions for worldwide hunger. Please help this community create the infrastructure they need for sustainable food security, and end their fear of being unable to feed their families. They are so ready.
“We want to start planting. It’s almost the rainy season and we can’t wait to start growing food so we can feed our families.” - Exhilda Kamonyo, Zambezi Doll Co. Chairwoman