2010 - Volume #34, Issue #4, Page #24
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Small Farm Helps Minnesota Woman Save Zambian Orphans
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It started when McBrady went on a mission trip to Africa in 2002 and saw streets full of orphaned kids. She went home, sold her house, and took all the money she had in the world back to Zambia to start an organization called "Action for Children û Zambia". She rented a home in the city û now called Salvation Home - to take in as many as 42 children at a time but finding funds to support them all was her biggest problem.
When a donor gave the organization 50 acres of land in a village about an hour away, she knew it could be very important to her children's futures.
McBrady and the children have been teaching themselves to farm, growing vegetables for the home and also to sell at local markets. Three years ago the land was brush covered and hard clay ground. Living in a tent and thatched shacks and with just hoes and axes, 12 boys and a few village elders dug up 12 acres. In 2009, McBrady and the children at Salvation Home enjoyed the first food from the land: pumpkins, tomatoes, leafy vegetables, cabbage, carrots, onions and corn. The boys who farmed the land carried baskets of food three miles to catch a bus and paid luggage fees to bring the vegetables to the city.
This year, thanks to a generous donor, the boys had a small concrete house to live in and a used pickup to transport the food that was harvested. It takes 330 lbs. of corn and corn meal a week to feed 42 children.
"It has been wonderful," McBrady says. "Every Sunday, we'd go out to the farm and pick vegetables to take back."
The 12 boys, all 18 and older, are part of a formal cooperative McBrady set up. They sell extra produce and are paid based on shares. Much of the produce goes to a hotel, where some of McBrady's "graduates" work as chefs. Overall harvest has been good. But spring floods destroyed the tomatoes this year, and there wasn't any sweet corn seed to plant. Both had been high value market items in 2009.
"Things like that happen to every farmer," McBrady notes. "But what an experience it's been for these guys, to grow a product and have a profit. They were boys that came through treatment, the worst behaved boys, who probably couldn't have worked anywhere else. On the farm they're becoming real men. They have to take care of themselves."
When McBrady rescues children from the streets they are generally abused, addicted and about one-third of them have HIV/AIDS ù the disease that is the reason so many children are orphans. She says animals in the U.S. are treated better than orphans in Africa. After caring for their health needs and treating them for addictions, McBrady tries to find relatives and also assists them in getting an education. Children with no other option live with her and go to school. When they graduate, she networks with Zambian businesses to find them jobs, mostly in the hospitality industry. Some go on to higher education.
For those who prefer to be their own boss, the farm is the perfect place.
Two of the oldest boys (26 and 21) studied agriculture for 18 months and manage the farm. After last year's harvest they doubled the size of their plot and planted peanuts on half the land as part of a conservation method to improve yields. The stalks and residue will be mixed in the soil of shallow basins to add nutrients and hold water for next year's crops. Villagers who helped the boys get started are now learning from them. About half the boys have moved on, taking their earnings to start their own farms in other villages.
McBrady is working with an Irish organization to build permanent homes at located out at the farm.
"Children without any living relatives could move there. We call it Kulanga Bana Farm, which means æKeeping our Children,' " McBrady says.
She admits her life has not been easy since she sold her Minnesota home in 2005 to move to Lusaka. But McBrady says she's discovered her life's purpose. With simple faith and volunteer supporters back home raising funds - and with the help of social workers and volunteers in Lusaka - she has rehabilitated more than 150 children as well as helped hundreds of other children still on the street. McBrady receives no salary, has occasional volunteers who help at the home and a part-time cook, so the majority of donated funds go directly to caring for children.
Acquiring livestock is the next step, McBrady says. The young farmers want to raise poultry, pigs and goats, which would feed the children as well as bring in income. She estimates it would cost about $10,000 to purchase animals, build shelters, buy equipment, and so on.
Donations of equipment and money are welcomed. The farm could b expanded much more quickly with a rototiller, and hoses and irrigation systems would be helpful to distribute water from the well, which is manually pumped. Fertilizer, seeds (especially sweet corn), and even durable blue jeans all make a big difference, McBrady says.
"It is so important that we can continue to grow this farm so the kids - especially our oldest boys - never have to go back to the streets," McBrady says. "It is so crucial to make us self-sustaining."
Individuals, organizations and businesses interested in donating cash or equipment for the farm or Salvation Home can contact the Minnesota offices for more information. You can also learn more about McBrady and her children at her organization's website.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Carol McBrady, Action for Children-Zambia, 20855 Kensington Blvd., Lakeville, Minn. 55044 (ph 952 373-1351 or Zambia 011 260 977 538 534; c_mcbrady@hotmail.com; www.afczambia.org).
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