Off to Zambia!

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Tonight I’m leaving for Zambia to volunteer as a development worker with Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB)! After two red-eye flights through London and Johannesburg, I’ll land in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia.

I will be partnered with an international non-governmental organization (NGO) called International Development Enterprises (IDE). IDE focuses on simple irrigation technology for smallholder farmers like the human-powered treadle pump (which looks like a stairmaster and pumps about 1 liter of water per second) and drip irrigation. Unlike other organizations that give away technology and create donor dependency, IDE tries to set up a supply chain for the pumps which involves finding local manufacturers who sell directly to the farmers. They also ensure there is transportation to market for the farmer’s increased crop yields.

I will be working on two projects; the first is the “Chinyanga triangle” project (also known as the Rural Livelihoods Consortium, a multistakeholder partnership) which focuses on subsistence farmers who are interested in moving to small scale commercial farming. We will be working directly with the farmers to help them implement irrigation technologies and use alternative farming techniques. The Chinyanga triangle is not like the Bermuda triangle; rather it’s a distinct cultural region encompassing eastern Zambia, Malawi and northern Mozambique.

The second project I will be working on is called MASIMI (MAlawi Smallholder Irrigation and Marketing Initiative). MASIMI is also a partnership of several organizations which looks at promoting irrigation and establishing market linkages to assist farmers maximize their income generation and food security. The MASIMI project will focus on paprika and coffee crops.

The four weeks of training with EWB covered everything from trust building to development project analysis to cultural integration. Training also included the EWB national conference in Ottawa with over 500 delegates and crazy parties. We also spent a day in the Niagara region visiting the falls and the Jackson-Triggs winery - I was in heaven!

Do I feel ready? Yes and no. I feel ready get working, meet new people, taste new food and experience a new culture. But I’m not as sure about my new position as a development worker. Although I hear it’s like any job where you learn as you go, I feel that in this case, the stakes are a lot higher. Development projects are driven by the best of intentions, but small oversights can easily derail a project. I've lots to learn, I’ll keep you posted.

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