As we wrap up September, we have now received reports from 115 of our pastor partners in Zambia and recorded nearly 3,200 families impacted with a portion of maize so they can have food with their meals. We also saw in last week's update the transformation created by our 27th clean water project - the tenth in nine months this year. We have a few more reports to accumulate, and we are working to plan for the October feeding and water effort. Today's cover photo was taken this week in another one of the communities with whom we have just begun a relationship. Food on the table for our struggling brothers and sisters. This IS love. And that IS our mission.
We met again as a group via WhatsApp video this week to discuss the upcoming training effort. Tracy does such a great job of insisting our team in Zambia make decisions and own the process ahead. And the team is working hard to be ready to go in just a few weeks! One of those efforts is the accumulation of trainees. During the week I was able to consolidate 1,040 names in the training rolls for two of our trainers. If you have been following, you know that is just over 10% of our goal. Maybe half of those names are currently on the vulnerable rolls in one of our church communities
But there has been an interesting twist to the hopes for provision of inputs for the vulnerable being trained. We are trying to follow as best as we can the government program that may allow us to do more with less this growing season. If we understand it correctly, the program expects participants to register for a voucher at the cost of 400 Zambian kwacha each. The voucher then can be used at a local participating vendor of seed, fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides. If our understanding is correct, our part may be to provide our vulnerable constituents who would otherwise struggle to even come up with the registration with that k400. At today's exchange rate, that is around $17. That means for every $17,000 we can provide; we can register 1,000 growers. The biggest part we have ever had in the provision of inputs was two years ago when we raised $100,000 to do the entire provision ourselves and were only able to help 1,000 growers. Again, this is all unfolding in real time, so I am hopeful we are understanding it correctly, but the opportunity to improve the lives of SO MANY of our Zambian brothers and sisters is VERY exciting. If our 50% vulnerable ratio of the training holds true for the other 90% of the people we train, and we train around 5,000 of the 7,600 or so households identified in the communities where we are currently partnering, we could provide inputs for ALL 5,000 for around $85,000. So far, we have around $18,000 collected for this work, so let me break it down a little bit so our readers might consider participating:
1) A donation of $170 would provide inputs for 10 Zambian growers.
2) A donation of $1,700 would provide inputs for 100 Zambian growers.
3) A donation of $5,000 would provide inputs 294 Zambian growers.
AND, with Tracy and our fifteen Zambian trainers showing ALL 10,000 growers the techniques that seemed so successful in Petauke last growing season, this effort could really be transformational for the many rural communities that are participating.
Please consider your own surplus as I consider mine.
A quick look to the future: last year we had ONE trainer (Tracy) and he gave in depth training to 21 growers in one place; this year we are planning to have 15 of those growers transfer the most important parts of that training to 10,000 growers in seven geographical areas. As they do this, they are tasked with identifying LEADERS from within the 31 training plots who will become NEXT YEAR's trainers. It is a little overwhelming for me to even imagine where this effort goes down the road. Thanks Tracy!!!
And thanks to all who are yet to consider their own financial status as of today and determine to partner with us for the current year's effort.
