Our New Assignment: Zambia – Mwandi District

We are in Mwandi Village! Mwandi Village is situated on the Zambezi River in the Western Province of Zambia – 150km west of the town of Livingstone and the great Victoria Falls. It is a part of the country that touches Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Inhabited by the very traditional Lozi tribe, the village is the largest village in Mwandi District which has a population of approximately 40,000 people. The people in the village speak both Lozi and English, depending on the age group. Approximately 28% of the population has HIV and AIDS and life expectancy for men is 35 and women 39. Due to this high occurrence of HIV and AIDS there are around 1,500 orphans in the village. Women have an average of 7.5 children. The village is well known for its Mwandi Royal Establishment where Senior Chief Inyambo Yeta of the Lozi tribe resides. On Friday we met His Royal Highness! We will tell you more in a future blog.

Although our residence is in Mwandi village, the people whose needs World Renew seeks to address are subsistence farmers located throughout the district. Apart from some fishing, they depend almost totally on their crops for a living. Maize is the main staple that is grown throughout Zambia. Last year these farmers had a relatively good crop of maize following three years of drought. Their hope every year is to grow enough food to feed their families and sell some excess harvest to meet other needs. However, they are currently experiencing a significant recurrence of the El Niño weather conditions for the 2018 and 2019 growing season. Total rainfall from October 2018 to early February 2019 was well below average and preliminary analysis suggests that the rainfall totals may have been among the lowest in almost 40 years! In general, the low seasonal rainfall has resulted in poor germination and ongoing crop moisture stress and wilting of crops.

The spacing and amount of the rainfall has dashed the hopes for a successful harvest. Average temperatures have been 7C higher than normal due to a lack of cloud cover and the cooling effect that precipitation brings, overheating and drying out the soil. These adverse growing conditions have led to a very significant worry for these farmers. Will they be able to harvest enough food to feed their families?

Based on this situation, World Renew has asked us to write a proposal for food assistance. We arrived here in Mwandi on Monday for general orientation to our residence, the village, the culture and the politics. For four days we were blessed to have Ruairidh Waddell, the Country Consultant for World Renew as well as Matilda Okech, World Renew’s Regional Disaster Response Coordinator.

As we will be closely connected to the United Church of Zambia (UCZ), our local partner, we met with representatives to discuss some first steps. We also met with the District Commissioner and her staff and the indigenous leaders of Mwandi to inform them of the purpose of our presence and to solicit their support and assistance to gather information for the proposal. As well, this week, we collaborated on, designed and planned an extensive and essential needs-assessment survey as a basis for the proposal.

Upon arriving in Livingstone, we took a few days to recuperate from our long trip and were blessed to be able to witness the Victoria Falls. They were so much higher and wider than we could ever imagine. Even with the drought, there were massive amounts of water falling. Basically, they were indescribable. We hope the photos help to capture this.

We had been amply warned of the limited availability of groceries in Mwandi and therefore loaded up on groceries in Livingstone (It is a 3-hour drive to get groceries!). As we had a long trip ahead of us, our driver came armed with two coolers. Upon arrival in Mwandi Village, we cheerfully stocked the freezer section of our fridge with a four-week supply of meat and frozen vegetables. Several hours later, the electricity went off. However, we are thankful to report that 12 hours later the power was restored and that our meat supply has survived!

While we fret about the spoiling of food in our refrigerator, we are humbled and daunted by the realization that many hungry households are anxiously waiting for a successful project proposal and its implementation. We depend on your prayers and God’s help to be successful.

More next week!