Michael Commane
I'm writing this from Kaoma in Zambia. With the Concern team we left the capital Lusaka on Tuesday of last week and drove to Shamusunya village in Mumbwa District, which is approximately a two hour drive.
I have seen the pictures on the television but this was my first time to see for myself what Concern does.
It's been a long day. Hours of driving sitting in the back seat of a car. The main road from Lusaka to Mumbwa is as straight as a dye but once we left that road we were on dirt tracks. I was told they can be much worse. It would be difficult to imagine.
Village headman James Nsuuma welcomed us in his native language Sala, and Annie Nyiremda translated. Annie works for Concern. She is married and has two children. Her husband works with the Zambian forestry and part of his job is to protect trees being felled for charcoal purposes.
Innovative and exciting are the two words I'd use about the Concern programme in this village.
It is centred around helping pregnant and lactating women and children up to two years of age. The focus is on the nutrition of the mother from conception until the child reaches its second birthday.
It really is a brilliant programme and such a clever idea. It means the local people are cultivating all sorts of new crops with high nutritional value. At first many of the men were sceptical about the programme but now that they are seeing the results they are being won over.
Families are growing these seeds on small areas of land. I saw mbereshi, which is an iron enriched bean, soya beans and pumpkin seeds. I also saw orange fleshed sweet potatoes which have more vitamin A. Most of these are new to the area.
The programme, which is called RAIN - Realigning Agriculture to Improve Nutrition - a long handle but is saying exactly what's on the tin, is funded by Irish AID and the Kerry Group and of course the Irish public.
The villagers had a special programme prepared for us, which included dancing and a drama which explained how the initiative is improving life, and especially for women.
I got chatting to James the village leader. He is 75. He is the headman for 25 families and he in turn reports to a chieftain. His job entails implementing government policy in the village. "I have to make sure that there are no rapes or instances of child abuse. That is the most recent instruction I have received from the Government in Lusaka," he said.
At every corner I have turned on this trip and seen the work that Concern is doing I keep saying to myself if only people back in Ireland could experience this and see the people who are benefitting.
Before we got up to leave we had a short question and answer session. I asked Monica Malundu what she would most like to have in life. "Water," she said spontaneously.
Monica can do two round trips of six kilometres a day to get water for her family.
I got into the car and while driving on to Kaoma, passing people carrying water I was thinking of Monica's answer to me.
But I was also thinking of the amazing generosity of the Irish people in the incredible work they are supporting in Zambia.
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