John Zulu is a very active and enthusiastic community volunteer. During the first year of the Eastern Province programme he had already supported the work of more than 300 people in Chilobwe and neighbouring villages. He also has his own land and farms 3 ha each year.
'I am very interested in bettering my life and lifting my family out of poverty. I have learnt much about treating farming as a business. It can be a way of making money to buy the things my family needs, especially education for my children.
However, it is not worth me trying to do this alone- I need my neighbours to improve their lot too.
If they don’t and I succeed in earning more money and produce more food, they will only be at my door asking for help or stealing from my fields and I will remain poor.
"We must all work together so we can get wealthier together.”
What John values most is learning. He sees the new knowledge gained about seed multiplication, livestock rearing and sustainable agriculture as a tool to both help himself and his community. John is also working to produce good quality seeds so that group members interested in planting groundnuts, an important staple food – can buy a good quality, early maturing, high yielding variety to plant.
“Self Help Africa has helped the community become united and able to work together. We are planning all the time and joining together to work on shared projects.”
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