Stephen Martin: Writing from Lusaka, Zambia

SCIAF's Africa Project Officer writes from Lusaka, Zambia

On Tuesday the 13th of March I arrived back in Zambia’s capital Lusaka for the final leg of my visit. Lusaka is a lively, bustling town with areas of wealth surrounded by shanty-towns known euphemistically as “compounds”.

Fr Dario of Lilanda shanty-town had approached SCIAF for support for their community school, and I had the privilege of spending a morning learning about all the work that is being done by their parish in this “compound”.

People move to the urban areas in search of work and for a better life but work is scarce and often they end up in overcrowded slum areas, desperately poor and struggling to meet their basic needs.

The parish runs a homecare outreach programme using seventy volunteers to visit 300 AIDS sufferers. The parish also runs a community school for children whose parents’ can’t afford the costs of uniforms, books etc. In Zambia education is free but hidden costs mount up preventing children being sent to school.

The school sits on 8 hectares of land that the parish “rents” to poor families to allow them to grow some food. The school has an exception that allows the children to attend school without having to wear a uniform.

I asked Fr Dario what difference a small grant from SCIAF would make and he replied

“A small grant would allow us to invest in our teachers, to give them some training and allow us to keep them working in the school”.

He explained that because the teachers are basically volunteers, as soon as they get a paid opportunity they have to take it in order to support their own families.

Kasisi Agricultural Training College (KATC) is located on the outskirts of Lusaka and is run by a Canadian Jesuit Brother, Br Paul Desmarais sj. SCIAF supports the centre as it trains rural farmers in organic and conservation farming. Br Paul arrived in Zambia over twenty years ago and for years tried to get the Western high input – high output system of farming to work in the Zambian context.

After years of trying he finally conceded that this way of farming just wasn’t suitable or appropriate to Zambia and was “converted” to an organic approach to farming. He has become a tireless advocate for organic farming in Zambia and has consistently demonstrated that organic farming reduces food insecurity, increases farm income and is environmentally sustainable.

My background is in agriculture and I love visiting KATC as it reminds me of the huge potential that Africa has to feed its people and to bring food security to all.

At KATC they trial cash crops such as organic cotton, turmeric and beans. They plant trees and rotate their crops to improve the soils fertility. Basically they are promoting a traditional African farming system that sustained generations until the ubiquitous maize was introduced and encouraged.

It will take time to convince everyone that Zambia’s farming future lies in returning to traditional techniques and farm the way their great grandparents farmed.

Stephen Martin,
Africa Project Officer,
March 2007

(all photographs by Stephen Martin)