Skills for Life Centre in rural Zambia

We are delighted to see our Skills for Life and Climate Justice Centre beginning to come to life! We have started laying out the demonstration gardens and planting our first crops, and during the August school holidays we held a series of training workshops in the space. One of the highlights was a regenerative farming workshop for 24 girls from our Farming that Empowers Us Project. The girls took part in practical sessions outdoors, learning about drought-resistant crops and growing pineapples, alongside theory sessions held inside the tailoring room. We even borrowed desks from a neighbouring school while we continue fundraising for our own!

Our water supply is now connected to a tap and hosepipe for irrigation, and our agriculture technician, Stanley Hamuspoli, has been working hard on the garden layout. We are planning a citrus orchard, bananas and avocados over the coming months, hopefully before the rains arrive, depending on the outcome of funding proposals. Even without all the funding secured, we are continuing to push forward because we have a vision for this centre that we believe in and are determined to see become a reality. We already love the feel of the space and were excited to welcome a potential donor who may support the next stage of development – our IT and Entrepreneurship room. We are also eagerly awaiting our tailoring equipment from Tools with a Mission, which we expect to arrive any day now.

With all this progress, we have changed the focus of this GlobalGiving campaign. Our tailoring room is built, and our next priority is to install solar power so we can provide lighting and run fans – essential in a place where temperatures can reach 50°C. If you can help us complete this next step, please continue to support our campaign and share the story of what is happening here. We are incredibly grateful to every one of you helping us turn this dream into reality and work towards our goal of reaching 500 young people each year at the centre.