I was so excited to go to Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia as I was meeting four very special people. Fredrick, our manager for SEEDS based in Mongu whom I had last seen in August 2012. William, a wonderful man who is raising his deceased sister’s children plus his own. Paul, William’s nephew, who ten years ago was an orphan of AIDS, but now miraculously, works for World Vision, in Chipata, Zambia. And last but not least, Enock, an intelligent, hard-working, handsome young Zambian.
I was fortunate to catch the last 10 minutes of a documentary by Canadian film maker, Catherine Mullins called , They Shine. Enock, Paul and William are featured in this documentary about two families orphaned by Aids, Seven Years Later. Scenes from the earlier film, Their Brothers’ Keepers, are juxtaposed with current footage to convey what it is like for children to raise themselves after both parents die of Aids. The children of these two families remain heroically resilient, and in the end come out shining.I was so inspired by the stories of these two families that I wanted to help!
I located Catherine through her company Green Lion Productions, in Montreal, Quebec and sent her this brief message. ” I want to send seeds to William”. Catherine emailed me back and we started a conversation. I told her that I wanted to bring a variety of non GMO vegetable seeds that I had collected and dried from the foods prepared by catering companies and restaurants. These Seeds would have typically been thrown out. I had also printed “How to Grow” sheets for all of the vegetables I was bringing, so the people I was taking them to, would know how to grow the cooler weather crops like broccoli, cauliflower and winter squash. The binder had instructions on how to build compost pits, store potatoes and little tips such as: urine is a great way to add nitrogen to your compost or even straight onto your garden. Everyone laughed when I told them to not pee on the garden two weeks before harvest.
After Catherine found out what I was doing she set out to contact William, Paul & Enock. Luckily Paul has access to email and was able to get in touch with his Uncle William who lives way up in the northern part of Eastern Province, Zambia. William road his bike for 10 hours, took a bus to Chipata where he met up with his nephew, Paul and took another 8 hour bus ride again to meet me in Lusaka., I learned that William had taken a bad fall while cycling through the bush. He landed on his face and chest and was badly injured. Still, he was determined to carry on. He wanted these seeds because he believed they would help his family in the village.Uncle William is in extremely good shape for a man in his fifties, and his wounds healed up very nicely. Luckily, he didn’t knock out his teeth.
Enock is the 2nd oldest of a family who lives in one of the fifty or so compounds that surrounds the city of Lusaka. They have a plot where they can grow a garden and I thought it would be good for him to share the seeds with his neighbours. This way they could each grow a different vegetable, even in pots if they could find them, and then share the harvest. Enock looks after is younger siblings so it is good for all of them to share in growing a garden, especially since Enock rides his bike about 15k each way every day to school. The kids in Canada do not realize how good they have it!
So we all got busy for two days and went through the “How to Grow” binders and I answered their questions and they answered mine. We were learning from each other! William has been growing food for many years and he will know instinctively if the plants are growing well where he plants them. I told him to plant some in the shade as most vegetables can do well with only 6 hours of sunlight. I also suggested he stagger the planting so everything is not ready to harvest all at once. It was a most enjoyable, educational two days. I hope to send them more seeds in July 2014 but I have to raise the funds to do so as it costs about $150 CAD to send 2.5lbs of seed. It is hard for them to access email and afford the money for airtime to use the internet so as soon as I hear how everything is growing I will let everyone know.
It was a pleasure to meet Enock, William & Paul and I hope to one day see them again. Thanks for everything guys!
For further information regarding either documentary, Their Brothers’ Keepers or They Shine, please contact director Catherine Mullins at cmullins@greenlionfilms.com, or the distributor, Filmoption International at www.filmoption.com .
