Community Meetings

Three weeks ago, we headed into each community for what we called the first community meeting. It was both an exciting and exhausting experience. We are so very grateful for all your prayers that have supported us over these weeks.

People in the communities were notified by word of mouth and announcements were made in each of the churches inviting people to come to this meeting.

For the most part people walked to the designated meeting places which in some cases took up to three hours. Although people were told that the meeting would begin at 0800 hours, there is a thing here called "African Time," meaning that designated times are much more flexible than we experience in Canada. That being said, we often arrived well after 8 am and waited for enough people to arrive before starting our meeting. At some meetings, the people sang and danced.

Hundreds of people attended each meeting. The venue of the meeting was always under the shade of one or more large trees. People for the most part sat on the ground. What was so striking to me was that despite the significant walking and length of the meeting, just about no one came with water or food.

The meetings typically lasted for about three hours with people sitting for the whole time. The community was briefed on the project and asked to consider choosing people who they knew were fair and honest that could identify those in the community that were most vulnerable and met the criteria needed to receive food. A significant part of this meeting included conversation around women being chosen to participate equitable in this Community Advisory Committee (CAC). Traditionally men take on the leadership roles in each of these communities but in order to help create gender equality and leadership opportunities for women our project required the communities to choose CAC members that were made up of 50% women and 50% men. There was much discussion in a number of communities as to whether women were capable of leadership. These were difficult things to hear and yet it was amazing to see how God was using this project to not only bring food relief but also to change some of the inequalities within these communities.

CEC Training

Following the full community meeting, those who were chosen to be on the CAC spent the next three to four hours in training. The criteria for beneficiaries was reviewed and they were taught how they should go about selecting and recording the specific number of beneficiaries from their community.

Our second round of community meetings brought us back into the communities to verify that the list of beneficiaries accurately identified households in the community who met the criteria of vulnerability. These lists were then read out to the community for all to hear. If there were complaints, suggestions, or
compliments, people were asked to document them and place it in the "suggestion box" -- an anonymous feedback system that allowed community members to voice their thoughts. After the community meeting the suggestion box was opened and reviewed together with the CAC. Most of the notes written were in Lozi but Carl and I were privileged to have all of them translated into English. 

Unfortunately, the process of selecting beneficiaries did not go as smoothly in a number of communities as was hoped. To help address some of the challenges that came up, our team spent several additional hours with CACs re-training and coaching them on how to do beneficiary selection according to the defined criteria. 

Suggestion Box

Many thanks go out to the Canadian people who have supported this project through their donations to World Renew and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. Here is one message that was translated from Lozi:

To: The Canadian People

I would like to express my gratitude to you for the kindness you have shown through the support of the food commodities. We never had hope that there would be people to feed us, but by the grace of the Almighty God our Lord, you the Canadian people have shown that love toward us. We say thank you for your love to feed the poor and the needy of all various conditions like the orphans, widows, vulnerable, the aged, chronically ill and the physically/mentally challenged. If not for your food support, many souls were going to be lost this year due to lack of food caused by severe drought.

I say thank you once more, may the good Lord give you more strength to continue with this support even to the generations to come and may He grant you long life because you have saved a lot of souls.

Again I say a big thanks to you the Canadian people.

KAHUNDU GLORIA S. 

For those who like to see the numbers involved in this project, I have included the following table: 

Day of Visit	Community	# of Households	# of Beneficiary Households
Monday (Carl)	Mwandi Village	950	240
Monday (Edith)	Sankolonga	432	250
Tuesday (Carl)	Magumwi	440	255
Tuesday (Edith)	Adonsi	180	110
Wednesday (Carl)	Mabumbu	633	365
Wednesday (Edith)	Chisu	240	140
Thursday (Carl)	Loanja	319	185
Thursday (Edith)	Simungoma	580	335
Friday (Carl)	Simenso	80	45
Friday (Edith)	Kasaya	125	75
Total		3,979	2,000