Education Zambia Project #57993

Tiko program: Preventing hunger and malnutrition

by Tikondane Community Centre

Project Report | Jan 27, 2025
Report No. 6 Overview: the success of the project

By Elke Kroeger-Radcliffe | Voluntary Director

Celebrations at Tiko around vegetable rings

Current situation: Climate change is hard on the Katete farmers. The last report described a dramatic situation resulting from the lack of water, so we upgraded our goal and asked for more help to deepen wells, dig new wells, drill new boreholes, and connect households to the regional water supply which then stopped delivering but continued sending bills! We did as much as we could, spending some 2000 Dollars, half of which we provided. We want the farmers to know that they are on their own now.

We can’t thank you enough. The goal has not yet been reached but the rains have come, and one can't dig wells anymore. A promising start was followed by a lull and many seeds were lost but since then the rains have been regular. What a relief! At our last meeting we found with the village farmers were still happy with the project, even though early in in the are dry season many vegetable rings dried out, but they are not complaining.

From now on we think the 42 households in 32 villages will continue their success. Two of them have started selling their produce, which is exactly what we hoped for. We already market our TIKO ORGANIC FERTILIZER, but must improve quality control, before increasing production.

In future some pocket money will be given to those children who manage to motivate some neighbours to start the TIKO SURVIVAL PROJECT. We as Tiko will do the next step and ask GLOBAL GIVING for a new survival project to teach the TIKO production system to school children. ‘Greya’ primary school is keen to have us and a first enquiry with the ministry of education had the official absolutely delighted about the idea.

We very much hope that you will continue to help us teach the young people in Katete district where people are farmers and as neither the weather nor the political situation are likely to improve, we feel we need to make the new generation aware of new ways to fight climate change, while producing a balanced diet as cheaply as possible. People need to change their mind-set to generate a more prosperous future for themselves and more business spirit for their children to succeed.

Links:

Permalink

Sep 27, 2024
Report No. 5 - project goal funded and increased

By Elke Kroeger-Radcliffe | Voluntary Director

Labelled vegetable rings

Overview: Three months ago, our fourth report highlighted significant progress in traditional villages. Out of 32 village health workers trained in 2005 on balanced diets for AIDS patients, 300 households had adopted our survival package. However, this fourth report presents a more challenging picture due to a severe drought affecting Zambia, particularly the Eastern province.

Current Situation: The widespread drought has hindered the expansion of new structures, though existing vegetable rings, worm farms, pigeon and rabbit rearing, and clay stoves have been maintained. Anticipating the next rainy season in October, there is a high demand for outdoor kitchens to protect clay stoves.

Community Efforts:

Woodlots: Nearly all households have established woodlots to ensure future firewood supply, reducing reliance on costly firewood and combating deforestation.
Green Areas: In three remote villages, 16 to 20 households have started constructing vegetable rings or using maize sacks for planting, despite the challenging conditions.

Success Stories: The headman of 'Safari' village expressed gratitude for the Tiko Survival Package, highlighting its positive impact. An overseas photographer’s visit to these villages for the traditional Chewa ceremony, the Kulamba, showcased the community’s resilience and cultural richness.

Urgent Need for Water: Regular meetings have underscored the urgent need for water. With adequate water supply, villagers can grow vegetables and reduce hunger and malnutrition during the dry season. We are now encouraging the production of organic fertilizers for sale, leveraging our strategic location on the main road between Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Future Plans:

Demonstration Plots: We will establish maize demonstration plots in two schools in Katete and Chipata, promoting the use of organic fertilizers over expensive artificial ones.
Mindset Change: We aim to shift farmers’ perceptions towards sustainable agriculture, emphasizing the benefits of vegetable rings and organic fertilizers.

Funding Request: To support these initiatives, we are increasing our funding goal by $5,000, bringing the total to $14,300. This will help us provide water and support sustainable agriculture practices.

Budget Breakdown new donation options:

Pipe for borehole: $30
Cylinder for borehole: $280
Deepening of a well: $40
New borehole: $2,000

Update to the porject: Since the teaching part is now reduced to lessons in Tiko (see: Survival package for retrenched workers of Tiko - GlobalGiving), we are reducing some of the former donation options and add the "water options".

Conclusion: Your support is crucial in helping us provide water and promote sustainable agriculture, ensuring food security and improved livelihoods for these communities. Together, we can make a significant impact.

Classes at Tikondane

Gardens at Tiko to teach

Vegetable rings are now a common sight

The effeft of the drought on the crop harvest

Links:

Attachments:

CARE Report on drought situation in Zambia August (PDF)

6 Attachments

Permalink

Apr 30, 2024
Report No. 4 - project goals reached - further research ongoing

By Elke Kroeger-Radcliffe | Voluntary Director

Four vegetable rings done

It is our great pleasure to report a total success of this project – thank you all so very much! The sum of $7 800 has not quite been reached, but we – due to the excitement of the target population, have already spent some $ 9000 and have declared the end of the project. However, since these villagers come to Tiko once a fortnight, there will forever be requests for more help, but basically, they can continue on their own, as the items needed can mostly be made from materials, which tend to be available in the villages.

Here are the numbers: our students from 2007, i.e. the volunteers who wanted to learn about the care for AIDS patients were 37, but we have 84 households, more than double, who managed to set up all four activities, in 20 villages. 75 other households have only the clay stove and outdoor kitchen, 65 have set up a pigeon kraal, and 56 have started to breed rabbits, but 140 have vegetable rings, the heart of the matter and our hope of the future: we hope to all make organic compost, humus and Vermiliquid (= wurm urin or wormcast, which is used as fertilizer and pest control in one - tests are running), which go with building a vegetable ring, and aggregate these at Tiko and sell them to Lusaka or neighbouring countries.

If you consider that the survival package would cost $ 250, if we bought and brought every single thing to the villages, then you will be impressed thinking that there now is a value of 84 x 250 = $ 21 000, thanks to their acceptance of our ideas.

If you have followed what we were doing over the years, you may ask why they did not do these things much earlier, since our information was out there – 19 steps out of poverty for the subsistence farmer was written in 2014. But you see, we had to change a mind-set. People here in Katete are especially traditional, and you know about Aboriginal people in Australia or the Inuit in Canada, who have very different ways and are not so easy to join the Western type of development.

People are traditional, which means they believe in the past. Everything from the past is good, everything new is suspicious. And Zambians have had especially little contact with people from overseas, mainly because of malaria. But we must admit that it was not only our cleverness that made them change – the near tragic situation of the economy and the ills of agriculture at the moment made it quite clear that vegetable grown at home is a clever idea, when there is next to no maize, which is the only thing they call FOOD.

That they are truly living with their believes we can show you when you come – the ghost dance of the Nyao, the girl’s dance when they come of age, the Kulamba end of August when the chiefs of the 12 million Chewa in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia pay homage to their Paramount chief just ten km from Katete, Yet, you would not know that they firmly believe in witchcraft when you meet them, as friendly and as generous as they are. Come and join the Tiko family, even if for 3 days only, on the way to the arguably best game park of Africa, South Luangwa.

But mainkly, come and see how much your help changes lives of the people at Katete.

compost heap in the back of happy class

Creating the compost heap and sealing it

layering up the heap to a certain height

getting plant material to be composted in the heap

compost heap ingredients from Tiko program

a pigeon houset in a village from the Tiko program

a rabbit house with stone base against escapes

'worm farms' under which wormcast is collected

Links:

Permalink

1 2 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.