Help build our Abundance Training Center in Zambia, Africa
I invite you to join me in supporting the efforts of Save the Creation Zambia (SCZ) and the Abundance Training Center (ATC). It is just getting started and needs a lot of help. In fact, the project was born during my 2019 trip to Zambia to teach in the rural villages there.
I will return to Zambia in the spring of 2021. I will need help achieving all goals. In addition to teaching I hope to equip workers with tools and infrastructure to help the project thrive.
How the Project Started
In January of 2019, I traveled to Zambia as part of my ongoing support of literacy efforts in Africa over the last 20 years. While there, I traveled with Doctor Christopher Kapembwa and Pastor Kenneth Mate, the director of the Baptist Adult Literacy Ministry of Zambia. I had explained to Pastor Mate previously that I had started farming and discussed my agricultural experiences with him by email. He invited me to come. I took him to meet Dr. Christopher Kapembwa, the founding President of the Zambian Institute of Agriculture in Ndola, Zambia. When those men met they bonded very strongly. Dr. Christopher offered to take his personal car to drive us around the Southern Province teaching in the villages for three weeks. As the three of us traveled together, we were inspired to form a company called Save the Creation Zambia and conceived a vision of building the Abundance Training Center near Livingston in Southern Zambia. The Lion Tribe has donated land for this Center.
My roll as the Emeritus Director of Save the Creation Zambia Ltd. is to raise funds to build the Abundance Training Center and develop suitable training materials. Many of those will be in place for my teaching in the field in 2021.
Agriculture Challenges in Zambia
Save the Creation Zambia and the Abundance Training Center are our efforts to address dire needs in the villages of the Southern Province of Zambia. The region’s arid climate and susceptibility to drought contribute to widespread starvation. In fact, starvation and diseases resulting from malnutrition are a significant cause of death in Zambia. Specifically protein-energy malnutrition is listed as the fourth most common cause of death, and 99% of deaths caused by this type of malnutrition are child deaths.This means the mother’s health is too poor to provide good milk.The child does not thrive, and dies, or survives stunted in some way.
For most of the year, the Southern Province experiences limited rainfall with a rainy season that lasts only five months. For seven months of the year, very little rain falls in the region and producing crops is difficult without considerable investments in irrigation. It costs thousands of dollars to drill a well.
Another challenge to regional agriculture is the fact that corn has been the primary and almost sole crop produced by farmers. Corn alone does not meet the nutritional needs of the population. The government encourages farmers to grow corn to be used for international trade. However, producing only corn forces the people to buy much of their food rather than producing it themselves. This makes the people highly sensitive to changes in food prices.
Njabalombe Baptist Church, Tonga Tribe, Zambia Saturday Afternoon Class. Chief Headman Daniel in pink boots on front row. Seven Churches represented; Nine pastors, four headmen.
Problems also exist in the way agriculture has historically been practiced in the Southern Province. Farmers continue the same harmful and sometimes counter-productive practices that have been in place for centuries. Illiteracy is widespread and opportunities are not available for agricultural education. This has created a situation where slash and burn practices are still used that lead to deforestation and loss of fertility in the soil.
Since 2002, Zambia has been experiencing a series of severe droughts that is causing malnutrition and starvation. People in Zambia must purchase food they need because they are not growing it themselves. At the same time, the drought has driven up the price of food and made it difficult for people to meet their nutritional needs.
Our Approach
We find that international development efforts in Zambia and other African nations often fail because the indigenous people themselves are not given enough control. We’d like to change this. The Abundance Training Center will train local people in agricultural production, but indigenous people will take leadership roles and work with foreign experts as consultants on farming projects and not as directors or leaders.
Among the goals of our efforts are the creation of five model farms: a vegetable produce farm, a cut flower farm, a Moringa tree farm, grass feed livestock farm, and a medicinal herb farm. These farms are going to focus more on nutrition and the health of the community than profit. However, we also intend that each farm becomes self sustaining. Markets nearby will purchase the high quality produce and enable each center to sustain itself.
What We Need Funds For
In June 2019 the Chief Mukuni of the Toka-Leya Tribe made a conditional land grant of about 30 acres near Livingstone and also near the Tribal Center. Work has begun as the land had been prepared for growing. First structures are built and two full time worker families are now living on site.
We are just beginning. The first grow beds are established and cover crops planted to begin soil improvement. Other beds and fields are planted to help support the workers on site. My task is to create the model grow beds, explaining the why and how so these first workers can do and teach the volunteers who come to work and train. Eagerness is among the people because the promise of Abundance has captured attention.
But no water is there or toilets, and the Director’s home is not built, and the fields are partially in production. All awaits our help to get this work going as a model.
I already had been sending $100 per month to Zambia for many years. Now others are joining to create a mighty stream of help.
Please join me in supporting good men and women who seek to bring abundance to the villages, the families, the young mothers, and the babies.
Your help is needed. We must drill wells, build structures, establish training examples and processes that show and tell excellent ways of achieving abundance on the land there and at the farms of the villagers.
Several projects loom. Our Director, Kenneth Mate, to have an automobile. After he sells his home in the city he will move his family to the village while his home is being built at the Abundance Training Center. We need a well, solar panels, and a good kitchen so life is easier for our workers.
We have set it up for you to donate through PayPal. You may choose to purchase any one of the items or just give. And when you go to PayPal it is set up to allow you to send recurring donations. At the end of the year we give a receipt for tax deduction through Shepherds Church.
I am paying for the travel expenses. I need your help taking tools, acquiring a vehicle, drilling the well, building new structures, buying seed and animals.
At Siambelele Baptist church we met under a tree. When I finished teaching and sat down this little girl detached herself from feeding and tottled over and stretched up her arms. All the women smiled when I took her on my lap. A favorite moment of my trip.
- Food for Workers: Groups come from local churches to work. We must feed them. $1 provides 2 meals. When I am there we will make meals for many who come for a day of work and teaching.
- 2 Jab planters $120 each for larger seeds like corn, peas and beans.
- Good Seed for cover crop $100
- Roofing for Buildings- $500
- Well, Pump, and Water Storage– $4,500–$5,500
- Irrigation Supplies-$1000 including supply network, drip irrigation, and a tower for water pressure
- Solar Panels and Battery for water pump and charging devices- $2,500
- Wiring for Electrical network $300
- Outhouse Construction- approximately $100 and our plan calls for 4 in the first 5 years.
- Yurt Style Tents to House First Full or part Time Workers- $2,400
- Vehicle for Executive Director: used Toyota Land Cruiser $12,000
- Seed storage, vegetable processing buildings, $3,500
How to Help
Click the button below to make a donation to the effort through Paypal. If you prefer, you can make a donation via check written out to Shepherd’s Church by mailing it to the address below. Feel free to contact us if you have questions on donating. Donations sent by check made out to Shepherd’s Church are tax deductible. We have not worked out the non-profit for Zambia. Maybe by 2020 that can be a reality. Many of us do not care about deductions. We care about people, about the babies, and starvation bothers us a lot. It does me.
When you donate I will send you a small thank you gift. If the gift is large it will be a nice memento to remind you to pray for the people you are giving to help. Thank you for reading this far! Thank you for caring!
Bring Forth Urban Farm
5512 Hawthorne Avenue
Richmond, VA 23227
100% of funds donated to the effort go directly to the purchase of the supplies listed above other than a small fee for making a Western Union transfer.
Below is a gallery of photos from my 2019 trip to Zambia. Check it out and visit our website for the Save the Creation Zambia and Abundance Training Center project (under construction) if you’d like to learn more about our efforts.
