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Construction of Jacana Business Centre.

The local authorities have given green light for the construction of our new office, designed by Ton Teunissen. Hard work is carried out under supervision of Collin Chabula. The construction team learns many new techniques, which they can also apply to other customers in the future.

What has been achieved so far:

A 324 meter fence has been placed, two gates and the main entrance are ready.
A hand pump is installed on a manually drilled borehole.
An affordable solar pump is installed and connected to a 4000 litre tank.
The groundwork for the foundation of the office is ready.
Two containers have been placed that are used as storage for steel, wood and 600 bags of cement.

Unfortunately, one of the bridges has collapsed on the access road to our site. Waiting for the responsible authorities to fix it is not an option, so one of our teams is currently building a new stronger bridge.

Water program starts in new area.

Despite Corona, Jacana was able to introduce the water program in the new project area Mwase near Lundazi, with the approval of the local health service. Under strict conditions, communities were allowed to be informed about the water program. Various affordable pumps and filters were demonstrated in several smaller meetings.

After interviews, people have been trained in entrepreneurial skills. The participants all made their own plan. In this plan they indicate how they will generate extra income when they have water all year round. For example by growing extra vegetables, growing fruit trees, keeping livestock, etc.

Emeldah Zulu one of the participants of the business training said:

The coming of this business training to Mwase is a prayer answered for me and the entire group, I have always had a heart for business but running it successfully has always been a big challenge! Now with this business skill gained, I'll organize my business better and surely succeed to reach greater heights!

The first farmer has already paid his own contribution for a pump. This farmer has many fruit trees and they cannot survive without water. The best drilling spot on his land has already been located by the siting team and a drilling team is now drilling a borehole. Others will follow soon.

Water for Health centres

All 69 Eastern Province health centres that indicated they needed water have been screened. The researchers discovered the following:

Some centres already had water.
A number of centres refused to pay a commitment fee of € 20. This shows that they will also not pay for maintenance of the pump in the future. Unfortunately, we cannot help in such cases.
Some centres have not told the whole truth. For example, the survey asks whether attempts have been made to find groundwater in the past. At 11 centres it was concealed that large machines had tried to drill deep boreholes in the past. The fact that this information is hidden shows how great the need for water is. Unfortunately, manual drillers can not perform miracles.

Nevertheless, 7360 people now have water through this project. In a few assisted clinics, already positively tested corona patients have been brought in. Just imagine what would happen if they did not have water to even wash hands.

Two teams are currently installing the last 6 pumps. Partly due to the good work of EMD drillers, nearly all health centres in Eastern Province now have water, which can significantly delay the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

Training of beekeepers

At the beginning of 2020, four local beekeepers were trained by Frank Leenen from PUM in training fellow beekeepers. Jacana interviewed and selected over 100 beekeepers in the following months. Unfortunately, when we wanted to start training, this was not possible due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The government advised that all group meetings be suspended and Jacana has complied and postponed the training.

After measures were relaxed, preparations were made to resume delayed training in August. But unfortunately the corona cases have increased enormously since a few weeks. Several cases are also known in Chipata and we were again advised to postpone the training.

What has been achieved so far:

Train the trainer programme.
More than 100 beekeepers have been selected.
Out of 200 bee suits, 100 are ready. Electricity in Zambia is still a major problem. Every week Chipata experiences half or full days power cuts and this considerably slows down the process of the tailors.
Out of 100 beehives, 50 are ready. The producer has a lack of wood. As soon as this is available again, the other 50 are made.
All 100 smokers are ready.

Let's hope that Corona is soon under control so that the 100 beekeepers can be trained and generate an extra income in these difficult times.

Organic farming

After our last newsletter, many people have expressed an interest in the organic farming manuals.

and more

An consortium of the below mentioned expert partners has written very useful organic farming manuals.

FiBL, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Switzerland
IFOAM, International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, Germany, www.ifoam.org
NOGAMU, National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda,
FENAB, Senegal
OPPAZ, Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia,

Jacana also uses these manuals in the training courses. They are free so if you are interested . . .

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