Finally Getting A Break
After his church leadership identified him as someone who needed a boost, Mr. Foloshi demonstrated how getting a little support can turn someone’s life around.
Mr. Foloshi could not seem to catch a break, and his family suffered for it. He’d previously engaged in an activity the poor often resort to: making (burning) and selling charcoal. There is a high demand for charcoal for cooking in the cities, but the person who prepares it makes less than the middleman and the end seller. He would often earn so little after all his hard work that he couldn’t even afford to buy more wood to start the cycle over again.
At long last, he was tapped to participate in agriculture training. He inhaled every molecule of instruction he could on growing and selling food. He studied how to prepare the land, plant the trees he started in a small nursery, make organic compost and “manure tea” for fertilizer, grow different plants, and learned why it’s important to rotate his crops. He looked at ways to control pests. Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) agricultural staff discussed best practices for managing crops, and what’s involved in harvesting and marketing produce.
After the training, he was able to rent land and put into practice all of his newfound knowledge. He asked a friend to start working with him. They received frequent visits from NCM staff who could answer questions and provide tips that propelled the two men toward success.
Nowadays you will find this once-poor charcoal burner constantly busy in his vegetable garden, always implementing what he learned, always learning more. He grows enough to put food on the table, and he and his wife can buy whatever he doesn’t grow with the earnings from his excess produce sales.
This is the story of a man empowered, of children fed, of a family lifted out of poverty and hunger. It’s a significant story, because not only is Mr. Foloshi able to do something meaningful with his life, he has inspired others in his community to do the same. Those who surround him are beginning to see farming as a sustainable livelihood.
Zambia Copperbelt Program
Led by Nazarene Compassionate Ministries