As you probably remember we moved our greenhouses to PAF Center a while ago. This turned out to be very convenient for everyone.
Now we decided to try again with a vegetable garden. So we are now planting our veggies and fixing the shade net to our garden. This has been long in the making and is bearing fruit as all materials are available.
transporting these poles for 15km to build our new shade netting
Our PAF kids helping unload the poles
PAF wired 😉
Our PAF members working hand in hand
Setting up the new shade netting
But don’t think all this has been easy. We used some of the money that PAF raised through donations and the annual fees of our supporting members to buy what was missing. But getting the materials from A to B to Chinkonono was a bit of a struggle. Some of those huge poles had to travel for more than 15km on an ox cart. Hard work.
We are using this project to educate members on effective vegetable farming and flower gardening. Kids and youths from Chinkonono can come to PAF Center and learn how to plant and take care of different types of seedlings and also when and how to harvest and re-plant.
planting veggies
Those little guys are getting a new shelter at PAF Center now
Our PAF Youth learns how to grow and water plants
Also the garden will be used as a means to raise funds by selling our products at PAF Market. We are planting cabbage, onions, sugar loaf, tomatoes and many other vegetables suitable for the climate and which can be consumed by local people.
Long time, long time. I know it has been quiet on here. But PAF did not stand still. We were working on a few projects. We have been moving our greenhouses to the PAF Center and we are currently building latrines there.
Also you might have been wondering what we are using the money for that has been donated and that we raise through our supporting members all over the world. Well…our newest “baby” in Chinkonono is a Diesel-powered hammer mill. You can’t imagine what an event it was for people in the village when the mill arrived by truck late at night 😉
There it is…our hammer mill
unloading in the dark…man, this thing is heavy
Our staple food in Zambia is Nsima, a thick maize meal porridge. Before it is nsima the maize has to be milled. A 25kg bag of factory milled maize meal costs 65 kwacha (about 7,50 USD) in town. The villagers can’t access this and can’t afford it. So as PAF we didn’t want to be left out.
Hence we bought a hammer mill to mill the village maize and give PAF an income. The maize meal commonly known as hammer mill is a Diesel-propelled machine comprising of two parts, namely the engine and the mill. The engine drives the mill and the hammers strike and crush the maize grains into powder. This powder is our highly treasured mealie meal, which we use to cook the thick porridge and Nsima.
We bought a 20 horsepower machine at 16,500 kwacha (about 1,900 USD). That might sound like a lot of money. But doing the easy math it will be worth it and make life much easier. There was no hammer mill in the village or anywhere close by. Hence woman had to walk to other, far away villages to have their maize milled. Each 15kg of maize will be milled at 5 kwacha. Our target is to raise 250 kwacha (about 29 USD) each day.
Our PAF members and their new “baby” 😉
The guys doing the test run
That way it is much more convenient for the women because no more walking far distances. Also milling it in the village is cost effective and makes it much easier for us to enjoy our beloved nsima.
I bet you want to see the mill running, don’t you? Check that:
From the proceeds we will be able to raise money to build our library and conference hall, meet running logistics and sponsor one or two kids. The milling will also provide employment for one boy and will shorten walking distances for everyone.
But of course you can’t have that mill just standing around like that. Even in Chinkonono that is not possible. That’s why we decided to construct a building to house the mill. And what can I say…our PAF members have been working hard and are almost done with it now:
…getting there
Constructing the mill house
almost done…good job!
So you see…things are moving for Chinkonono and PAF. Thank you so much to our supporting members and donors all over the world! You guys really make a change in people’s lives! 🙂
Lloyd just sent an update on that young man. Not only his he growing bigger and stronger. He is doing very good. He has broken off from being a streetkid and attends school regularly now, thanks to the donations of Stan. Obdu now can fluently read.
No wonder his smile is so smug nowadays 😉
Lloyd and Obdu
Shy smiles…Obdu is on a good way
If you feel you want to support a kid’s education as well and help a family pay school fees, please contact us about our sponsorship programme!
You guys probably know that we do have our greenhouse and plantations. Right? Right. Up till the end of 2016 those places were located close to Lloyd’s house as to always have someone to watch over them and make sure our plants and belongings are safe.
Now that we started PAF Community Center the idea came up that it makes sense to move our greenhouse and fields and plantations to the Center grounds.
And guess what? That is exactly what we have been doing in the past weeks. Moving the greenhouse is one thing. But clearing the space for new fields and plantations and preparing those for the new planting season is another.
We moved the plantations over to PAF center
Working this dry and hard soil is a tough job. Everyone helped with that.
Tough days…
preparing the fields for planting season
Hard work getting the new PAF plantations and fields ready for planting
So basically our “garden” has now moved close to PAF center. And to make sure all is safe we had to fence the greenhouse and grounds as well.
Fencing the new plantations at PAF Center
As soon as we have solved the issue of securing our belongings at PAF Center we will also move the water tank and pipes and set them up there for irrigation purposes. But for now those remain close to Lloyd’s house to keep them safe.
And now that planting season started we can grow our plants at our PAF grounds. Pretty cool, huh?
Wonder what we will be planting here…seeds are ready.
So lets just say that things have been moving in Chinkonono 😉
Education is a universal human right and books play an important part in attaining it. Books are scarse in Zambian schools. Usually the “pupil to book ratio” is 1 to 4, so one book for 4 kids…This is worse in homes as village homes never stock books.
To provide books for kids PAF has come up with a plan for a village library. Our library room will be ready very soon as furniture is being made. Thanks to good-hearted people out there we sometimes recieve books for our kids.
This time our friends from Australia have donated books to stock up the library. Thanks to Guama School, Liane Hornig and all who have donated books. Twalumba! 🙂 You brought a lot of smiles to the village and our kids!
Thanks so much!
The books cover all aspects of life relevant to kids all over the world. We received books for entertainment and education. All aspects of learning have been catered for, such as subjects like History, Geography, Science and Crafts…but also a lot of story books.
Books for the library
So when you visit PAF library be assured that you will find adventures of Alice in Wonderland and books on how to grow potatoes or how to sew a shirt.
Future PAF gardeners 😉
Happy faces all over 🙂
so many educational books for our PAF library
Awesome! 🙂
Apart from kids books our library has novels ranging from wild west adventures to The Book Thief.
A lot of books are still needed and our humble appeal from our well wishers is to continue helping us. Thank you so much!
As you all know the main objective of PAF is to promote household food security in Chinkonono and the surrounding villages.
It is in this vein that PAF, with the intention of supplementing members’ effort in securing household food security, embarked on a seed and fertiliser support programme. Eleven members who where willing to take part applied and were given 4.000 Kwacha (roughly 400 Euros) from the PAF bank account. This money was paid to the Ministry of Agriculture under FISP (Fertiliser Support Programme). This is a national programme in which farming inputs are subsidised at fifty percent to enable peasant farmers access farming inputs.
So many bags of fertilizers 🙂
Unloading the good stuff 😉
Happy ladies 🙂
Each of the eleven members got three and half bags of fertiliser and one bag of seeds. Hence each of the beneficiaries are able to grow a hectare of maize. The expected harvest for each beneficiary is 75 to 80 bags of maize. Each of these beneficiaries will pay back 400 Kwacha to the project in May. That way we can already raise the money to attend in programme again end of 2017.
Due to this project plus very good rains Chinkonono village is gearing for a bumper harvest. People will have food to eat and the extra will be sold for soap and salt.
We are really loving without borders thanks to all those who contributed to the success of this fertiliser project by contributions and donations.
People these days go crazy about healthy and organic food or superfood. All that for the “western world” is very expensive while in places like Chinkonono it is so easy to get.
One of our coordinators, Wesley (Lloyd’s brother), has sent some pics and info about one of the village’s favourite snacks: Vinkubala…caterpillars.
Lots of yummy colourful caterpillars…a healthy snack
What? Yeah..caterpillars. What sounds like the most stereotype thing to say about Africa is actually a very, very healthy part of PAF members’ diet.
In Chinkonono those caterpillars are called Vinkubala. Wesley set out to catch them to bring home a surprise for his family for New Years Day.
As you can see the kids went crazy about them.
Digging in
Those caterpillars can be found in some trees in the field around December and January. It is mostly a popular relish or snack around Southern Region.
Vinkubala provide the body with a lot of proteins, vitamines and many more nutrients. That is why during the 2 months people try to eat as many as they can. They are a valuable and important addition to the regular diet. Even the Zambian government recommends eating caterpillars.
As you can imagine, thinking of caterpillars, most kids at first are a bit hesitant and even scream when they see or touch them for the first time. But on the other hand they are more than eager to have them.
Kids just love them 😉
Do we really need spoons?
How to eat vinkubala, you ask? Well…obviously you put them in a dish and kids will try sort out the biggest ones for themselves first. 😉 Then you have to get the outer shell off and remove the insides. Apply some salt, let them sit there for a few hours or a day. Then they are ready to be fried or cooked. You can add any ingredients you see fit.
