When we started working with World Relief eight years ago in the
area of microenterprise development (MED), we were pretty well aware that we
were doing something that almost no one else in WR was doing. When we focused our efforts on the chicken project and then agriculture,
the people within microfinance were not sure at all about working with us.
Thus began the story that has an exciting new beginning today.
After reasonable and moderate success in Mozambique, I was
asked to oversee an agricultural program in Western Province, Zambia, now
called ZambiaWorks. Since 2007, we have been trying (and at times erring)
to find innovative ways for small farmers to use what they know plus new ways
of doing things, to earn income, where before their hard work only fed the
family part of the time. Today, that organization works with more
than 1,000 farmers and 4,000 borrowers, with plans for expansion.
Treadle pump. One pumps and another waters.
One group of farmers is giving back to the community by constructing this school.
As some of my work load reduced in Mozambique, I was asked
to start working with other WR countries in Africa. After two years of
visiting potential program sites, sitting on microfinance boards, and telling
people about Zambia, five of the countries were ready to move from where they were
to something new. But still when I only told them about a new way of
doing things, I got a lot of questions or puzzled looks. Time for a
vision trip.
Going through the process of getting a trip like this
approved, we identified 20 people or more people who might attend. Potentially
overwhelming. In the end we had 12, plus myself and that nearly did in
the restaurants and hotels we frequented. More than once, it took in
excess of two hours to prepare a meal for this crowd. And what a lively
crowd it was.
We looked at more than 12 different projects in three days,
drove more than 1,500 kilometers, with some individuals spending two overnights
on an airplane. In the end, we sat and talked first as small groups, then
as a whole on what we had learned and how we might apply it in the various
countries represented.
Now for the first dividends. One of my first E. Africa
assignments was to visit an agriculture project that had loaned $30,000 in a
pilot for agriculture. More than 1/3 was eventually written off and much
more expense was incurred managing the process. Needless to say, there
were a lot of “lessons learned.”
After the vision trip, I sat down with three of the trip
participants, plus one more and asked the country director, “since we want to
try and do an agriculture loan pilot again, what did you learn on the trip and
let’s see how that can help us build a successful agriculture loan
product.” The result was amazing.
Suddenly I began to hear what I had been trying to
communicate for two years coming out of the mouths of others. In 2.5
hours of discussion, we had a guideline, a schedule of activities, a timeline
of events and retroactive resolution from the board to run a pilot agriculture
project as soon as possible. One participant, who had never seen an ag
loan product he liked, (to be fair, none of the group had), was nearly running
circles around me with practical ideas as to how this could be done. What
a difference a trip and a team make. There was a clear feeling in the
room that this should work, what are we waiting for?
It is not that the work will be without challenges.
After all, this is Africa. But being Africa, there are also millions of
small farmers who need the opportunity to do more than barely survive doing the
only thing they know, agriculture. They need a chance to feed their
families, their communities. the continent and make a profit. What a
vision and what a blessing to be a part of it!
Teaching WR Rwanda volunteers how to do a kitchen garden with the Farming God's Way method.
