JUST at the mention of the name Development Aid from People to People (DAPP), what comes to everyone’s mind here in Zambia is the sale of second-hand clothes.
But Stanley Mpubula, 25, considers DAPP as his saviour after the organisation incorporated him in its Children’s Town programme in 1998 and he is a teacher today because of the support he got from the organisation.
Established in 1992, Children’s Town in Chibombo’s Malambanyama village, the centre has seen more than 1,500 vulnerable children graduate from the school and pursue lucrative careers to contribute to the development of the country.
Children’s Town, situated 45 kilometres from Lusaka, facilitated Mr Mpubula’s education from primary to tertiary level.
Mr Mpubula narrated to this author how, in 1998, he found himself at the school run by DAPP.
Born in a family of four, Mr Mpubula recalls that after being enrolled into grade one in 1991 at Kasenga Primary School in Chongwe, he stopped school in grade two because of financial constraints.
During that period all he could do was to look after cattle instead of going to school. To a boy of his age, looking after cattle was easier than helping his parents till the land.
“I started looking after cattle because I did not have anyone to take responsibility of my education.
My father was a polygamist and all of his wives looked up to him for the well- being of their children,” Mr Mpubula recalls.
He recalls that on January 5, 1998, his sister who was married and lived in the Copperbelt had heard of this school and decided to take him there for his education.
Mr Mpubula’s sister never looked at the years that had passed without him not being in class and insisted he goes into grade five despite him being 13 years old at the time.
Mr Mpubula said he faced a lot of challenges at school because he was younger and small in stature as compared to his classmates who were older than him.
Every time he reported in class his classmates jeered at him, and as a newcomer, this made his life difficult.
A few days later, Mr Mpubula sought the audience of the class teacher who he describes as very understanding and he was moved back to grade two.
“I found it very difficult to learn in a class of big pupils. I used to be ill-treated and learning was never enjoyable and I had to ask to be moved to a lower grade. Thank God I was moved by this very understanding teacher,” he recalls.
Because of his passion for education, Mr Mpubula worked hard to emerge first in class every time they had an examination.
“I realised I had nothing as a human being to count on or show my children. So, I had to put my entire mind on education.
“Because of my passion for education, I used to be number one each time we had end of term examinations and when I reached grade five, my teacher recommended that I attempt the grade seven examinations and surprisingly I made it to grade eight,” Mr Mpubula recalls.
Mr Mpubula qualified to grade eight at Kafushi Secondary School in Chibombo where he did his grade eight to 12 and upon completion in 2005, Children’s Town engaged him as an untrained teacher taking up grade six.
A year later, he decided to go to Kitwe Teacher’s Training College and was first sponsored by DAPP but due to huge demands of DAPP’s financial support from the community, Mr Mpubula decided to apply for a government bursary and luckily he was given.
The two-year teaching course has seen Mr Mpubula recruited as a teacher at Ndola’s Northrise Basic School where he has been since early this year.
Going back down memory lane, Mr Mpubula says the importance of school was not clearly explained to him and instead, he looked at school as a waste of time not until he was incorporated by DAPP.
“I think parents should take an active role in children’s education by explaining to their children the importance of going to school. Let your children see the relevance of school and visualise them being prominent entrepreneurs, chief executives of their own company or civil servants,” he says.
The Children’s Town runs a rehabilitation and integration programme for former street children and a community school for orphans and vulnerable children from the surrounding communities.
After being in Zambia for 20 years now, DAPP has made an impact in the lives of many and still pledges its continued support to the education sector.
DAPP Zambia managing director Rene Schultz disclosed that DAPP is in the process of starting a teachers’ training programme focusing on training teachers for rural schools.
Mr Schultz said DAPP will open eight teachers’ training colleges in eight provinces, who will be trained to take up the teaching profession in rural areas with the first one to be opened in 2012.
“For the 20 years we have been in Zambia, I think we are better placed to invest more in education.
Because of this, DAPP will construct eight teachers’ training colleges around the country whose main focus will be the rural populace,” he said.
The Children’s Town is a project offering a home, safe environment and education in all spheres of life to allow the children to transform themselves into self-sustaining and creative citizens. Currently, the Children’s Town has 434 children of which 54 are boarders.
Since 1990 when the organisation was registered, DAPP’s main objective has been poverty alleviation and community empowerment.
Indeed, poverty is a coil that leads to lack of education, low productivity and high child mortality which leads to further poverty and underdevelopment in various communities.
For the past 20 years of its existence in Zambia, DAPP has implemented various projects to work with people in need by providing knowledge, skills and tools that will empower them and their families to overcome the challenges of everyday life, thereby improving their quality of life.
DAPP also supports various communities in Zambia. The projects promote education at all levels through programmes in schools, training the teachers, teaching the peasant farmers and their families, training the workers in the projects and training those around the projects.
DAPP is also working in the fight against HIV and AIDS under the Total Control of the Epidemic (TCE) programme and HOPE project, taking care of orphans and empowering various communities through projects like Child Aid, Children’s Town, Farmers Club, and the School WASH and quality Education Project.
It also promotes solidarity and humanism among people by creating the foundation upon which these can exist.
DAPP is a member of the Federation Humana People to People, which has its headquarters in Zimbabwe.
Humana People to People is a networking of non-profit organisations in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Latin America, all working in the field of international solidarity, co-operation and development.
Humana People to People was created to contribute to the fight against colonialism and apartheid in the late 1970s.
When the last countries of southern Africa had won their independence and later when apartheid was abolished, Humana People to People continued to contribute to building the new societies and better lives for the people.
Showing posts with label Published November 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Published November 2010. Show all posts
Friday, January 14, 2011
Monday, November 22, 2010
Farming
With this in mind, organic agriculture becomes part of the solution to climate change. Agriculture contributes to global warming but it also provides solutions.
Organic agriculture provides management practices which can help farmers to adapt to climate change by strengthening agro-ecosystems, diversifying crop and livestock production and enhancing the knowledge of farmers to prevent and confront changes in climate.
Experts believe that promoting organic farming, as opposed to conventional farming, cannot be overemphasised.
Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia (OPPAZ) chief executive officer Munshimbwe Chitalu says the use of fertilisers has an effect on the soil and food production.
Since the early 70s, farmers in Zambia have relied on fertilisers as the only way to promote good yields.
OPPAZ seeks to promote organic agriculture, as an alternative approach which maximises the performance of renewable resources and optimises nutrient and energy flows in agro ecosystems.
Mr Chitalu says it is time Zambia became independent from chemical farming and depended more, if not completely, on organic farming.
“Of late, research has shown that the use of fertilisers has been impacting negatively on the soil and has done more harm than good to agriculture the world over,” Mr Chitalu says.
As opposed to organic farming, chemical-based agriculture is centred on crop yields and not the impact of chemicals on soil.
Farmers have ignored what happens to the soil after using chemicals. They are preoccupied with harvesting good yields which promote food security.
Food security is realised when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
Mr Chitalu says fertilizer life cycle assessments show that emissions in conventional production systems are always higher than in organic systems, based on the area of production.
Soil emissions of nitrous oxides and methane from arable or pasture lands can be avoided by organic management practices.
Mr Chitalu says several field trials worldwide show that organic fertilization, compared to mineral fertilization, is increasing soil organic carbon and capturing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the soil.
Lower greenhouse gas emissions for crop production and enhanced carbon seizure, coupled with additional benefits of biodiversity and other environmental services, give organic agriculture more advantages, including considerable potential for mitigating and adapting to climate change.
For many years, there has been increasing interest in growing and eating organic produce. Consumers cite its health benefits, more robust taste and the participation of small-scale producers as the major reasons for the interest.
The environmental benefits of organic farming over conventional farming have been a matter of a long, sometimes fierce, discussion and often, organic farming has come on the wrong side of the equation.
Nonetheless, organic produce can be less energy intensive than other kinds of agriculture. Growing and eating organic foods may also have significant benefits for the climate.
“We should continue using organic techniques as a weapon against climate change. Let’s be clear: if we want to hit our greenhouse gas targets, we need all the weapons we can get,” Mr Chitalu says.
According to Felix Mwansa, a conservation farmer of Kashitu in Ndola rural, most organic production results in lower emissions than conventional agriculture because of the more restricted use of fertilizers and higher levels of carbon captured in soils growing organic crops.
Mr Mwansa says organic farming is also expected to adapt more easily to changing climatic conditions because the soils growing organic crops are more stable and retain more water.
Mr Mwansa has been into conservation farming for five years and is certain that organic products are difficult to sell because they tend to be more expensive than conventionally produced crops.
“Whatever the reliability of those claims, the problem with organic produce is that it tends to be considerably more expensive than produce from conventional farming, partly because of the need for more weeding and more maintenance throughout the growing season. Our local people cannot afford that,” Mr Mwansa says.
He says it is difficult to determine when produce gets to the market and whether it is genuinely organic.
More sensitisation is needed for rural dwellers to adapt to this type of farming.
“The fact is that strengthening organic agriculture could increase production by up to 56 percent and despite gains in food production and food security in some countries, sub-Saharan Africa produces less food per person than it did 30 years ago.
And the number of chronically malnourished people in the region has doubled since 1970, from 96 million to over 200 million in 1996,” Mr Chitalu says.
He says these statistics reflect the wider picture that developing countries have registered outright declines in yield increases under conventional agriculture between 1972 and1992.
The expansion and strengthening of conventional farming is harmful not only to the environment, but also to the very resources essential for farming.
He says over the past two decades, some 15 million hectares of tropical forests are lost each year to provide land for agriculture, and at a tremendous loss of genetic diversity.
Mr Chitalu says during the same period, soil erosion and other forms of land degradation cost the world between five and seven million hectares of farming land every year.
Organic agriculture has the potential to reverse those trends and reduce carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane and greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming.
“Organic agriculture could double soil carbon seizure in livestock-based systems and decrease greenhouse gases by 48 to 60 percent. For example, organic systems have decreased the use of fossil fuels by between 10 to70 percent in Europe, and 29 to 37 percent in America,” Mr Chitalu says.
For organic farming, increasing soil organic matter and microbial biomass is a fundamental principle to support agro-ecosystem stability.
Mr Chitalu says mandatory crop rotation, the use of seeds and breeds which are adapted to local conditions, and the regeneration of functional biodiversity, all contribute to greater ecological balance.
He says farming is not all about chemicals but also about sustainability and that for it to be sustainable, conditions of agriculture like soil have to be maintained.
Sustainable agriculture, such as organic farming, will add nutrients to the soil and reduce the effects of climate change, nitrogen and carbon emissions.
The other contributing factor to sustainable agriculture is diversity which helps to replenish the soil with the needed nutrients.
According to Mr Chitalu, it has been proven that 27 percent of carbon remains in the soil in the application of sustainable agriculture.
Organic agriculture is a rapidly growing field aimed at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for generations to come.
This type of agriculture addresses current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, starvation in poor nations, obesity in rich nations, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control and biodiversity depletion.
Organic agriculture interprets mechanisms of processes which occur from the molecular level, to the farming system, to the global level and finally translates into an environmentally friendly way of farming.
Organic agriculture provides management practices which can help farmers to adapt to climate change by strengthening agro-ecosystems, diversifying crop and livestock production and enhancing the knowledge of farmers to prevent and confront changes in climate.
Experts believe that promoting organic farming, as opposed to conventional farming, cannot be overemphasised.
Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia (OPPAZ) chief executive officer Munshimbwe Chitalu says the use of fertilisers has an effect on the soil and food production.
Since the early 70s, farmers in Zambia have relied on fertilisers as the only way to promote good yields.
OPPAZ seeks to promote organic agriculture, as an alternative approach which maximises the performance of renewable resources and optimises nutrient and energy flows in agro ecosystems.
Mr Chitalu says it is time Zambia became independent from chemical farming and depended more, if not completely, on organic farming.
“Of late, research has shown that the use of fertilisers has been impacting negatively on the soil and has done more harm than good to agriculture the world over,” Mr Chitalu says.
As opposed to organic farming, chemical-based agriculture is centred on crop yields and not the impact of chemicals on soil.
Farmers have ignored what happens to the soil after using chemicals. They are preoccupied with harvesting good yields which promote food security.
Food security is realised when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
Mr Chitalu says fertilizer life cycle assessments show that emissions in conventional production systems are always higher than in organic systems, based on the area of production.
Soil emissions of nitrous oxides and methane from arable or pasture lands can be avoided by organic management practices.
Mr Chitalu says several field trials worldwide show that organic fertilization, compared to mineral fertilization, is increasing soil organic carbon and capturing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the soil.
Lower greenhouse gas emissions for crop production and enhanced carbon seizure, coupled with additional benefits of biodiversity and other environmental services, give organic agriculture more advantages, including considerable potential for mitigating and adapting to climate change.
For many years, there has been increasing interest in growing and eating organic produce. Consumers cite its health benefits, more robust taste and the participation of small-scale producers as the major reasons for the interest.
The environmental benefits of organic farming over conventional farming have been a matter of a long, sometimes fierce, discussion and often, organic farming has come on the wrong side of the equation.
Nonetheless, organic produce can be less energy intensive than other kinds of agriculture. Growing and eating organic foods may also have significant benefits for the climate.
“We should continue using organic techniques as a weapon against climate change. Let’s be clear: if we want to hit our greenhouse gas targets, we need all the weapons we can get,” Mr Chitalu says.
According to Felix Mwansa, a conservation farmer of Kashitu in Ndola rural, most organic production results in lower emissions than conventional agriculture because of the more restricted use of fertilizers and higher levels of carbon captured in soils growing organic crops.
Mr Mwansa says organic farming is also expected to adapt more easily to changing climatic conditions because the soils growing organic crops are more stable and retain more water.
Mr Mwansa has been into conservation farming for five years and is certain that organic products are difficult to sell because they tend to be more expensive than conventionally produced crops.
“Whatever the reliability of those claims, the problem with organic produce is that it tends to be considerably more expensive than produce from conventional farming, partly because of the need for more weeding and more maintenance throughout the growing season. Our local people cannot afford that,” Mr Mwansa says.
He says it is difficult to determine when produce gets to the market and whether it is genuinely organic.
More sensitisation is needed for rural dwellers to adapt to this type of farming.
“The fact is that strengthening organic agriculture could increase production by up to 56 percent and despite gains in food production and food security in some countries, sub-Saharan Africa produces less food per person than it did 30 years ago.
And the number of chronically malnourished people in the region has doubled since 1970, from 96 million to over 200 million in 1996,” Mr Chitalu says.
He says these statistics reflect the wider picture that developing countries have registered outright declines in yield increases under conventional agriculture between 1972 and1992.
The expansion and strengthening of conventional farming is harmful not only to the environment, but also to the very resources essential for farming.
He says over the past two decades, some 15 million hectares of tropical forests are lost each year to provide land for agriculture, and at a tremendous loss of genetic diversity.
Mr Chitalu says during the same period, soil erosion and other forms of land degradation cost the world between five and seven million hectares of farming land every year.
Organic agriculture has the potential to reverse those trends and reduce carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane and greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming.
“Organic agriculture could double soil carbon seizure in livestock-based systems and decrease greenhouse gases by 48 to 60 percent. For example, organic systems have decreased the use of fossil fuels by between 10 to70 percent in Europe, and 29 to 37 percent in America,” Mr Chitalu says.
For organic farming, increasing soil organic matter and microbial biomass is a fundamental principle to support agro-ecosystem stability.
Mr Chitalu says mandatory crop rotation, the use of seeds and breeds which are adapted to local conditions, and the regeneration of functional biodiversity, all contribute to greater ecological balance.
He says farming is not all about chemicals but also about sustainability and that for it to be sustainable, conditions of agriculture like soil have to be maintained.
Sustainable agriculture, such as organic farming, will add nutrients to the soil and reduce the effects of climate change, nitrogen and carbon emissions.
The other contributing factor to sustainable agriculture is diversity which helps to replenish the soil with the needed nutrients.
According to Mr Chitalu, it has been proven that 27 percent of carbon remains in the soil in the application of sustainable agriculture.
Organic agriculture is a rapidly growing field aimed at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for generations to come.
This type of agriculture addresses current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, starvation in poor nations, obesity in rich nations, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control and biodiversity depletion.
Organic agriculture interprets mechanisms of processes which occur from the molecular level, to the farming system, to the global level and finally translates into an environmentally friendly way of farming.
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