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Dear Friends of Makeni,
Below is a summary of the latest newsletter about the work of Makeni Ecumenical Centre, which you support so faithfully. You can read the full newsletter here.
Settlement Villages Water Provision
After months of delay, two windmills have been erected in Mwomboshi and Chisamba. The total cost of the purchase and installation of these two windmills was ~K72 million [US$15,700]. The next phase now is the erection and connection of towers and tanks. The cost of this stage will be about K15.6 million [US$3600] with the tanks being supplied from our own stock. Additionally, we have asked the community to help in the construction of reservoirs for storing surplus water to be used for crop watering, gardening, livestock watering and domestic use, as their contribution.
We are encouraging settlers to view these projects as their own and take care of them. This is the reason why we want them to get involved in the fitting of the tanks and the construction of the reservoirs. We feel that they will be able to sustain the project only if they are trained in the maintenance of boreholes, windmills and reservoirs. Once we are satisfied with performance of the first two windmills, we shall proceed with the purchase and installation of a further two.
We agree in principle that part of the investment into the next phase of the windmills project should be raised by the villagers themselves through serious loan recovery. Another way the community can contribute is by doing some of the physical work attached to installing wind-driven pumps. So far we have recovered about K10, 000,000 [US$2,200] from the villages. In Mwembeshi SV over 50 settlers out of 86 families have paid off all their loans.
Settlers’ Local Initiatives
For years, MEC has been encouraging settlers to lessen their dependency on MEC and to collaborate much more with local development agencies. As a result our settlers have sought the advice of and set up links with agencies like the Rural Investment Fund, the Programme against Malnutrition, the Agricultural Support Programme, the Kabulima Organic Farmers' Organisation, the Dunavant Cotton Agency, Cheetah Zambia (for paprika growing), Heifer International (for livestock), Care International (for conservation farming), the Zambia Social Investment Fund, the Conservation Farming Unit (in bee-keeping and cassava seed multiplication, and the Coffee Growers Association of Zambia). These initiatives are indicative that there have been large changes in the way settlers tackle their problems and strike out into new areas of farming.
Local Fund-raising
The Centre continues to work hard on getting local agencies to recognise the value and importance of our projects.
So, for example, recently US AID provided us with a grant of $10,727.30 for the HIV/AIDS workshops. This project has now been completed. By way of follow-up we are to send annual evaluation reports for the next three years. US AID has said it is very pleased with the way MEC set up and executed this project.
We have also received a grant of K80, 734,793 [US$ 17,000] from NGOCC through the Grant Management Unit. K30, 500,000 of this will be for the training of community-based VCTC Counsellors. K50, 234,793 will be for the running of the AIDS Orphanage Village.
Canadian Support Group
Dr Pierre G Dil and Mrs Lee Ann Dil have initiated a small non-profit group support group for MEC in Canada called "Zambia Health and Education Fund", which will enable them to solicit donations for MEC in Canada. We just got notification from the BC provincial government that the name registration has been accepted.
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