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Portable solar pump for small-scale farmers

Portable solar pump for small-scale farmers

The start In 2019 Jacana SMART Centre started to experiment with affordable direct current pumps . Four pumps were selected after a full year duration test. Solar pumps are powered by solar panels. (see: news post May 2021) The initial idea for a portable solar pump...

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Training organic pest management and fertilizer production

Training organic pest management and fertilizer production

Organic agro training High cost of farming inputs like fertilizer and pesticides, remain the biggest obstacle for African smallholder farmers to expand. Jacana through a project named ‘From auto pilot to Champion farmer’ sponsored by AFAS Foundation, conducted a...

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Small-scale Farmers exchange visit

Small-scale Farmers exchange visit

From the beginning of the implementation of the project “From autopilot to Champion Farmer” a lot has been done. Jacana has installed solar pumps for all farmers sponsored by AFAS. In this project, Jacana is guiding small-scale farmers step by step in expanding and...

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Water around the corner with your own rope pump

Water around the corner with your own rope pump

In large parts of the world, people do not give a second thought to where the water from the tap comes from. It is so taken for granted that there is access to water at any time of the day. Thankfully. Unfortunately, the reality for many people in other parts of the...

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Register now for Borehole siting training

Register now for Borehole siting training

It is a known fact that access to water plays a key role in development. Good located boreholes create access to ground water, reduce poverty and increase health. Drilling boreholes is a costly and risky business. High quality borehole siting can reduce that risk...

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Make your own compost

Make your own compost

There are several ways to make organic fertilizer, each with their pros and cons. Jacana has developed a training course in which different ways of making compost are taught. All ingredients are available in Zambia. On March 28, the first training was held for farmers...

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From helper to driller

From helper to driller

Since 2017, Jacana has trained several entrepreneurs in manual borehole drilling. There are currently 20 drillers active. When a driller receives an assignment to drill a borehole, his team consists of a fellow driller and two to four helpers. The driller in charge...

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SMART Entrepreneurs for rural entrepreneurs

SMART Entrepreneurs for rural entrepreneurs

Jacana focuses on small scale entrepreneurs; for example water for farmers, training and mentoring for beekeepers or chicken farmers and so on.Baseline Before Jacana starts a project in a new rural area, we like to know more about the people living in the area. We...

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2023, the year of the SMART-market

2023, the year of the SMART-market

The turn of the year invites us to reflect on the past, Jacana has just evaluated the last 7 years and, thanks to your help, has come to some wonderful conclusions. We started small with business training and guiding entrepreneurs. After the first year, we specialised...

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Making your own poultry feed

Making your own poultry feed

In a business training which Jacana conducted in May a female entrepreneur and two women groups wanted to expand into raising chickens, both laying hens and meat chickens. As always in a Jacana business training, they did a calculation of the cost of keeping chickens....

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Want to learn making of affordable greenhouse tunnels?

Want to learn making of affordable greenhouse tunnels?

Together with a professional and very experienced greenhouse builder https://www.haygrove.com/zm, we developed an affordable high quality tunnel and tested it. Now we are looking for small-scale entrepreneurs who can sell and build these tunnels as a business and in...

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Honey processing, clean and affordable

Honey processing, clean and affordable

Background information Jacana has trained and guided many local beekeepers in recent years. Some beekeepers had only 1 hive and others had more than 30 hives, a wide variety. What they all had in common was that they had hardly any knowledge of how to keep bees. That...

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SMARTechs now also in the North-Western province

SMARTechs now also in the North-Western province

DAPP has several projects all over Zambia. Recently, they started a project for water and sanitation in the north-western part of Zambia. For that project, DAPP called in the help of Jacana. One of the objectives of the project is to provide affordable water solutions...

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EMD Won 1st price

EMD Won 1st price

Eastern Manual Drilling cooperative (EMD) trained by Jacana SMART Center in Zambia won the 1st price yesterday at the provincial agro-show. EMD also presented them selves and won prices at the district agro-shows in Petauke, Chipata and Lundazi. Well done guys!

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Borehole siting by Frederick Phiri

Borehole siting by Frederick Phiri

Jacana has trained and guided many small-scale entrepreneurs in recent years with the aim of enabling them to expand their businesses. Frederick Phiri is one of these entrepreneurs. Frederick is 23 years old and lives in Chipata with his father, mother, 3 brothers and...

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Vanancy: Senior Agro Field Officer

Vanancy: Senior Agro Field Officer

  Position Senior Agro field officer Location Chipata, Zambia Starting date 1st September 2022 Deadline 21st August 2022 <<CLOSED>> Background: Jacana supports small-scale Zambian entrepreneurs in realizing their plans to grow. For more information...

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Free manual: Solar design & installation

Free manual: Solar design & installation

There are so many different types of solar equipment available at your local market, but does anybody in your neighborhood knows how to select the best combination? You will after studying this manual. The solar design and installation manual is designed for...

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Solar design and installation training

Solar design and installation training

Solar training For the past 5 years, Jacana has mainly focused on water for Zambia. We feel that we have made a significant impact in the eastern province of Zambia. By now, three SMART training centers have been established, more than 70,000 people got access to...

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New Year’s campain: Put Zambia in the spotlight

New Year’s campain: Put Zambia in the spotlight

Zambia is located just below the equator, not a bad place for solar energy.Many local shops offer a wide variety of solar products, but every retailer wants to sell what is in his or her store and wants to sell as much of it as possible. Our experience is that there...

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We are hiring

We are hiring

Position: Field officer  Apply before: 1 Jan 2022 passed! Closed Location: Petauke, Zambia   Background Jacana supports small Zambian entrepreneurs in realizing their plans to grow. Jacana has two departments one is focussing on general entrepreneurs and the other on...

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Gevraagd: Bestuurslid voor Stichting Jacana

Gevraagd: Bestuurslid voor Stichting Jacana

Stichting Jacana is een non-profit organisatie werkzaam in Zambia. THIS POSITION IS FILLED Jacana is in 2015 opgericht om kleine ondernemers in Zambia te ondersteunen in het uitbreiden van hun bedrijf, zodat de ondernemers betere leefomstandigheden voor hun gezin...

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Newly qualified SMART water entrepreneurs in Petauke

Newly qualified SMART water entrepreneurs in Petauke

After six months of hard work, the water entrepreneurs in Petauke have been trained and are now ready to drill boreholes and install pumps independently without supervision.The tools for manual drilling and the rope pumps are supplied by the trained welders and...

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By and for Zambian water entrepreneurs

By and for Zambian water entrepreneurs

Every now and then we are asked why trainers come from “far”. And by “far” we mean the Netherlands, USA, Tanzania and Malawi, among others. The reason for this is simple: we first need to train local trainers and they must have sufficient experience. When we started...

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Jacana SMART Centre Petauke started

Jacana SMART Centre Petauke started

Covid-19 restricted our training programmes, but risks have reduced and we are allowed to train again. Just in time for the Jacana SMART Centre in Petauke to kick-off. Over the past two months, a lot of hard work has gone into providing the office in Petauke (which is...

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Construction of Jacana Business Centre

Construction of Jacana Business Centre

After a year of hard work, Jacana Business Center is finally ready. With a team of 33 people, we worked on it for a year. Of course we had setbacks, but overall everything was achieved within the set goals. How it all started In 2016 Jacana moved from central Zambia...

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A new solar driven pump era has started

A new solar driven pump era has started

1. How much water do you need per day? and 2. What is the pressure your pump must deliver?   Each pump sales person should ask these questions. In most cases, your first estimated answer will be way off. As a result, the pump you are buying is too expensive. 1....

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Dutch water sector about Jacana SMART Centre

Dutch water sector about Jacana SMART Centre

As one of the COVID-19 responses the Jacana SMART Centre in Zambia took the initiative to provide water to Health Centres in Eastern Zambia. This initiative was supported by Wilde Ganzen and several other donors. The Dutch Water sector wrote an news article about this...

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2020-2021 Event.

2020-2021 Event.

2020 was a challenging year for all of us. Covid-19 has turned the whole world upside down. Fortunately, in Zambia, we have been less affected than expected. Why, is still a great mystery, but we hope that it will remain this way. This does not alter the fact that...

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We are hiring

We are hiring

Position: Field officer  Apply before: 15 Jan 2021 CLOSED Location: Chipata, Zambia   Background Jacana supports small-scale Zambian entrepreneurs in realizing their plans to grow. Jacana has two departments one is focussing on general entrepreneurs and the other on...

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Very affordable solar pumps

Very affordable solar pumps

Last year we were able to test some very affordable solar pumps. One of them was very good (€ 35). This year we are again testing a range of other solar pumps of similar design. The demand for affordable solar pumps is high and once again thanks to Marie-Stella-Maris...

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New Jacana Business Centre in the make

New Jacana Business Centre in the make

Why Jacana Business Centre? Just a quick refresher: why is Jacana building a Business Centre? In this centre we want to give small scale entrepreneurs a chance to expand their business with the help of Jacana. This can be in the provision of office and/or work space,...

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Trained more than 100 beekeepers

Trained more than 100 beekeepers

Thanks to funding through Transform International Canada, we trained 132 beekeepers in the past two months. Frank Leenen (PUM) has trained four local trainers in basic knowledge of beekeeping and Pious Nyirongo has taken on the business part. Jacana believes it is...

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Making borehole siting machines

Making borehole siting machines

You can imagine that the equipment for borehole siting (Vertical Electric Sounding or VES) has been used intensively in recent months. Not only within our own province for the clinics, but even beyond on a two day drive from Lundazi, 10 sites have been measured....

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Goal achieved “Water for health centres”.

Goal achieved “Water for health centres”.

We supplied water to all the clinics in Eastern Province, which had no water and where we could reach groundwater. This means that almost all clinics in Eastern Province have water. Unfortunately, a number of clinics have been built in places where we and even heavy...

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Agro trainers training Lundazi

Agro trainers training Lundazi

After postponing the training of agro-trainers due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Jacana finally reopened its doors on Monday June 22nd 2020, to its four highly motivated participants in organic farming. In the "Water for Lundazi and Chasefu" project sponsored by...

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Water for all Health centres in Eastern Zambia

Water for all Health centres in Eastern Zambia

The fact that most hospitals in Zambia do not have respirators is terrible at this time. But the fact that more than 10% of the health centres in Eastern Zambia, an area the size the Netherlands, has no water to wash hands, is a disaster. If not addressed, these...

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Jacana and EMD contribute against COVID-19

Jacana and EMD contribute against COVID-19

Unfortunately, the first people in Zambia tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. All kinds of measures have been announced by the President, one of them is washing hands and keeping a distance. This will be quite a challenge for Zambian people.Most Zambians buy their...

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Beekeeping train the trainer programme

Beekeeping train the trainer programme

Train the trainer Thanks to a donation from Transform International Canada, Jacana was able to develop a train the trainer course for beekeepers. With this new training we guide people who mostly "hunt" honey to professional beekeepers who can earn their living...

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Moses invented Super Slim Solar pump

Moses invented Super Slim Solar pump

All part are ​worldwide ​available in ​common hardware shops ​and shops that ​sell car ​parts. Cost about ​$100 including ​solar panel. The pump is ​ideal for very ​narrow tube ​wells, starting ​at 2" (50mm) ​casing and ​bigger. ​Suitable for ​wells that ​produce very...

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Building Jacana Business Centre

Building Jacana Business Centre

Happy new year for you and the people you care about. In 2020 Jacana will build a business centre in Zambia with the aim of creating opportunities for small scale entrepreneurs, so that they can grow economically and create better living conditions for themselves and...

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Cultivation of oyster mushrooms

Cultivation of oyster mushrooms

As an additional source of income, Adrinah wants to grow oyster mushrooms, this requires a lot of water. Jacana decided to organize a course on growing oyster mushrooms. Five other interested people had registered for this.Bernadette Phiri was asked to facilitate the...

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1 Year EMD and their visits to Finland

1 Year EMD and their visits to Finland

This month Eastern Manual Drilling (EMD, trained by Jacana SMART Centre Zambia) celebrates its first year of existence and what a year it was: EMD drilled 148 boreholes and provided almost 10,000 people with affordable access to water. EMD now buys pipes in bulk. Last...

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Electronic surveying to find best borehole location

Electronic surveying to find best borehole location

Our Jacana employees and drillers from Eastern Manual Drilling have recently been trained in the electronic surveying of soil structures with Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) and Horizontal Electrical Profiling (HEP). Randy Jones and Ray McKee from the USA revealed...

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SMART Centres at World Water Week 2019

SMART Centres at World Water Week 2019

This #WWWeek SMART Centres present "Water entrepreneurs" (25 Aug) + "Sanitation entrepreneurs" (28 Aug) and more @siwi_water talk to us at our both.Read more at: www.worldwaterweek.org

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Marie-Stella-Maris visits Jacana projects

Marie-Stella-Maris visits Jacana projects

Three very enthusiast team members and one of the founders and CEO from Marie-Stella-Maris from Amsterdam visited our projects in Zambia last mid-July.Marie-Stella-Maris funded a water project in Chipata district in 2018 and funds a three-year project in...

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Introducing EMAS Technologies in Zambia

Introducing EMAS Technologies in Zambia

Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Bert Pfleger member of the EMAS board (Germany). Together with Wolfgang Buchner, who is the founder of the EMAS training centre and has more than 40 years experience in the Self-supply, we traveled to Zambia last...

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Training entrepreneurs for water in Lundazi & Chasefu

Training entrepreneurs for water in Lundazi & Chasefu

In April & May 2019, a very enthusiast and assorted group of 4 welders and 8 drillers has been trained in Lundazi, Zambia. The 12 participants were selected in several steps from a pool of 45 candidates. After interviews and visits to workshops, we...

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Jacana opens a new office in Lundazi

Jacana opens a new office in Lundazi

We are starting a new three-year water project, sponsored by Marie-Stella-Maris, and a lot is involved. Basically it will be a copy-paste story and it should be easy with the experience we have gained in Chipata, but we can't get away with it that easily. The bridge...

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WaterAid and Jacana work together on SDG6.1

WaterAid and Jacana work together on SDG6.1

WaterAid Zambia and Jacana signed a Memorandum of Understanding for five years. Both parties foresee challenges realising Sustainable Development Goal 6.1 by 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all.The...

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And the Jobena Award 2018-2019 goes to…

And the Jobena Award 2018-2019 goes to…

To our great joy we can announce that Jacana has been chosen as the winner of the 2018/2019 Jobena Award.This is a huge recognition and boost for Jacana's work.Jobena Foundation was founded in 1996 with the aim of supporting cultural projects and...

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Tutorial manual drilling, SHIPO method

Tutorial manual drilling, SHIPO method

Learn manual borehole drilling in tutorial below. Jacana SMART Centre trains manual drillers of  boreholes. It’s very difficult to explain what is happening deep under the surface (40m).This tutorial is a combination of videos and animations and shows also...

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Twee voor de prijs van één!

Twee voor de prijs van één!

De Kerstman shop-t al Jaren online, zo ook dit jaar, gewoon in de winkel die hij gewend is. Echter dit jaar doet hij dat via deze link https://www.sponsorkliks.com/winkels.php?club=6138 zodat een gezin in Afrika ook van zijn gulle gift geniet.En het...

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Lieve Sinterklaas

Lieve Sinterklaas

Lieve Sinterklaas, Nog even snel een kado kopen?Zonder naar de winkel te lopen? Regel het hier on-lijn,zonder dat er extra kosten zijn. Steun de mensen op ' t Afrikaanse continent,terwijl u vriend en familie verwend. Het kado is op tijd,en een Zambiaans...

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Professionalization of manual drillers

Professionalization of manual drillers

Current Situation Over the past year Jacana supported the trained welders and drillers in expanding their business. It is time to view the current situation. There are 4 welders and 14 drillers actively engaged in producing pumps, drilling boreholes and...

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SMART symposium 13-16 Nov.

SMART symposium 13-16 Nov.

SMART symposium Simple, Market-based, Affordable, Repairable, Technologies. A practical approach to reach SDG 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8 November 13 to 16, 2018 in Mzuzu, Malawi SMART stands for Simple, Market-based, Affordable and Repairable...

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Next generation manual drillers in Khova ward

Next generation manual drillers in Khova ward

Although the first generation has just started, it seems like Khova ward in Zambia is already developing a new generation of manual drillers. Here under: the first generation trained and mentored in June 2018 by Jacana SMART Centre Zambia....

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Jacana SMART Centre at WEDC 2018

Jacana SMART Centre at WEDC 2018

What can we learn from this picture about sustainable development and reaching united nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Jacana SMART Centre Zambia presented “Boosting rural economies and creating sustainable water supplies for the most...

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Training manual drilling

Training manual drilling

Jacana has been able to organize a manual drilling training of three weeks thanks to funds from Marie Stella Maris and Stichting Haella,The training took place in the month of June. The trainers were Elias Muzumala from SMART Centre CCAP, Malawi and Laban Kaduma from...

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Vacancy: Field officer at Jacana

Vacancy: Field officer at Jacana

Position:          Field officer in Water Sector Location:         Starting in Chipata and maybe later during the year other districts in Eastern Province Start Date:       1-8-2018   Background Jacana supports small Zambian entrepreneurs in realizing...

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Zambia lost a great driller

Zambia lost a great driller

With the deepest heartfelt condolences to the family and friends, we wish to announce the passing on of our beloved and hardworking driller Mr. Steven Zulu who passed away on Friday 13th April 2018. Steven was trained by Jacana in manual drilling, as an...

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Self-supply is rolling

Self-supply is rolling

Jacana SMART Training Center trained a year ago welders and drillers to expand their businesses. The welders have learned how to make a rope pump using local materials and the drillers how to drill boreholes manually up to 40 meters deep. In addition, they...

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Jacana lost a great man.

Jacana lost a great man.

We regret to announce the passing on of our treasurer Mr. John Vaessens, who died on Sunday 1-4-2018. John was involved in Jacana Netherlands from the very beginning. He was working as our treasurer with a lot of dedication, passion and selflessness. Our...

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Bee-expert Frank Leenen helps 5 beekeepers

Bee-expert Frank Leenen helps 5 beekeepers

Frank Leenen was in Zambia and helped five beekeepers: Maria, Chrispin, Brandson, Phiri and Bridgit. General reaction : There is some much we still need to learn. Frank, thanks so much but you have to stay longer!

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International training course

International training course

International training course “Market-led SMARTechs for water and agriculture” 19th to 23rd of March 2018 in Mzuzu, Malawi The SMART Centre SNV are organising an introductory short course to provide policy makers and practitioners in water and...

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Zambia is under attack from Cholera

Zambia is under attack from Cholera

Entrepreneurs for Water disinfect open wells for free. Now let's work together and see how we can solve the issue. People need water and will have to use the water that is available to them. Reality is that not everybody has pipeline water and many simply...

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Donation from Marie-Stella-Maris foundation

Donation from Marie-Stella-Maris foundation

Several communities have worked hard constructing toilets. They are officially declared Open Defecation Free. Now clean water is coming their way thanks to a donation from the "Marie-Stella-Maris foundation".

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Jacana at Agri Pro focus forum

Jacana at Agri Pro focus forum

Agri Pro focus is a network for business minded farmers. On 24 and 25 August 2017 more than 500 local farmers met in Chipata. Jacana SMART Centre was present, drilling in the garden of the hotel, demonstrating a working rope pump. Local trained entrepreneurs pitched...

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Jacana presents WEDC 2017

Jacana presents WEDC 2017

Jacana SMART Centre presents at WEDC: "How can Self-supply help reaching SDG6?" Tuesday 25 July – afternoon 15.30 – 17.00 Loughborough University UK, Session C5: Room WPT003 Let's talk at the exhibition site SMART Centre Group.

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Follow progress of the drillers live

Follow progress of the drillers live

SMART Centre Jacana is monitoring all new boreholes and pumps. Most pumps are partly sponsored but already now, 4 months after training, Self-supply started. Two boreholes with pumps are privately bought. Have a look at https://jacana.help/mwater and witness the...

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Follow up meeting for Entrepreneurs for Water

Follow up meeting for Entrepreneurs for Water

On 16th June, Jacana called a follow up meeting for the welders and drillers who received the technical training in March. During this meeting, entrepreneurs had the opportunity to highlight challenges and discuss possible solutions to the challenges. The...

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June 2017 Business Training

June 2017 Business Training

Jacana closed this year’s first quarter with her usual 3 day entrepreneurship training significantly dominated by young and potential entrepreneurs.This time Jacana trained a mix of experienced and start-up entrepreneurs, this combination created an atmosphere of...

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Creating Show case area in Luangeni

Creating Show case area in Luangeni

Jacana selected some villages around Chipata where 50 partly sponsored pumps will be installed. Families will be the owners of the pumps and are responsible for the maintenance. These families have a plan to earn some money with the pump, because they get access to...

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Welders started making pumps

Welders started making pumps

The welders produced the first rope pump in their own workshop. Jacana monitors the quality and if the pump is of good quality, the welders get money for production of four more pumps. The first pump will be installed in front of their workshop as an example. The...

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Drillers started drilling at their own place

Drillers started drilling at their own place

The drillers are manually drilling boreholes at their own workshop and the workshops of the welders, this to gain experience and to make working examples to convince potential clients. Jacana monitors and guides the proces.

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Jacana on Dutch national TV

Jacana on Dutch national TV

Jacana on Dutch national TV Jacana will be on Dutch national Television NPO2 this morning 9 April 11:57 on channel 2 just before the news in a programe of WildeGanzenNL .  

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Walk for Water 2017

Walk for Water 2017

Walk for water 2017 Wednesday (March 22 2017), pupils of Montessori Green Ring Doves (all locations) walked for water. Each with 6 liters of water on their backs through the Horsterpark in Duiven, the Netherlands. Mayor Rik de Lange opened the event at 9:00 and and...

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EMAS pump production training

EMAS pump production training

EMAS pump production training On 27th of February, Jacana invited all welders and drillers for a training in Emas pump production. This was an amazing and successful task for all of them, as shown in the picture. They are testing their first Emas pump. it was really...

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Castricum results

Castricum results

How Castricum supported Water for Zambia The foundation "Castricum helpt Muttathara" build the foundation for Jacana SMART water centre Zambia through their support to the "Water for Zambia" programme. Here a snapshot of some results: We are very pleased that...

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SMART Centres at RWSN conference

SMART Centres at RWSN conference

SMART Centres at RWSN conference Several SMART Centres have been allocated time to share their experience at Rural Water Supply Network forum (RWSN) to be held on 29th Nov - 2nd Dec: Presentations: "Drilling & Hand-dug wells. Manual SHIPO and Mzuzu drilling)"...

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SMART > SDG6

SMART > SDG6

How SMART Centres contribute to SDG6 How SMART Centres contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 6: "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all" Presentation by Jacana at Ministry of Local Government and Housing, Zambia...

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Sponsorkliks

Sponsorkliks

Online shops donate to Jacana 300 Online shops contribute a percentage of your purchase to Jacana. It does not cost you anything extra. So next time you go to your online shop go via this link:: https://www.sponsorkliks.com. It does not cost you anything extra. For...

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Presentation at World Water Week Stockholm

Presentation at World Water Week Stockholm

Presentation at World Water Week Stockholm Today interesting presentation on "SMART Centres: Water & jobs by training local entrepreneurs" @siwi_water World Water Week, Stockholm 16:00-17:30! How can we provide sustainable water to rural Africa with Simple Market...

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First Lean Canvas Business training in Nyanja

First Lean Canvas Business training in Nyanja

First Lean Canvas Business training in Nyanja For the First time ever Jacana facilitated the business training in a local African language (Nyanja). The trainees completed all the steps of the Lean Canvas Model under guidance of Pious. The training was evaluated as...

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