For many years, Hans Gotz worked as a development worker in Ecuador. In the late 1990s, he worked with Friends of Ecuador president Josh Busby on organic quinoa export to the United States. He’s now working in Zambia with Bread for the World on a community project and is seeking help to support community projects there. This is a guest post from Hans.
We urgently need water in the Chilobwe community in Kalulushi, Zambia, Africa.
- A borehole with a 55m liner costs 2300USD + hand pump 450USD + installation and materials about 200USD.
- In the second phase we would like to install a solar pump with batteries and an elevated tank.
Please let me tell you about that:
We have decided to finish my cycle of work as I started as a development worker, now with Bread for the World. For the past year we have been working with Adriana here in Zambia at the Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation (MEF), a very well-known institution in Zambia and Africa for its 65 years of training and capacity building in many different areas.
Due to the needs of the people (at the moment there is a terrible famine due to the worst drought in many decades) they have decided to expand the training to include sustainable, resilient agriculture. We have a training farm where 60 students are currently living and working. To implement this training and to develop the training farm, Bread for the World sent me (similar to my work with Escuelas Radiofonicas del Ecuador (ERPE).
MEF gave 117 families 3 hectares of land each, thinking they could improve their living conditions, but the people don’t know anything about farming, they burn to plant a little maize in monoculture and mainly cut down all the trees/bushes to make charcol for sale. Most of them only eat once a day, they have to walk long distances to fetch water, the school is far away.
This is my third line of action with MEF to help this community develop. We are training the young people on the farm, some friends from Germany are funding a trainer to live in the community, work with the people and build a model house with his wife and child. We have 3ha of community land where we have started to develop a community centre.
We have dug a 15m hand well but unfortunately it has dried up, digging deeper is too dangerous or requires a high investment in casing.
We did a technical study with experts and found another spot in the communal area where we should see abundant water, ideal for the borehole.
The community is very committed to the work, they have made more than 3000 bricks by hand for the trainer’s house, and they are working hard with him in the field, preparing for the planting of the new PFUMVUDZA or family plots system, because we must plant before 25.11.2024.
But we need water, we need the watering hole!
Please help us raise funds. A GoFundMe page has been set up here with the appeal for support. Please help if you can!
If you have questions about the project, feel free to reach out to Hans directly via email.
