RLG International and Ramsey Foundation visit iDE Zambia

iDE Zambia’s Sam Harvey updates us on playing host to two distinguished supporters of iDE’s Farm Business Advisor (FBA) program in Zambia.

I have recently returned from a vacation to Zambia’s premiere National Park South Luangua, the highlight of which was watching a gang (I’m not sure of the collective noun) of 20-30 meerkats chasing ‘Molly’, a tabby cat, round and round my bush tent.

Whilst nothing of late can possibly top that, I have also had a fantastic time providing an insight into the on-the-ground work of iDE Zambia and our FBA program with some of iDE’s important new partners, RLG International, a worldwide organisation of performance improvement specialists based in Vancouver and the Ramsey Foundation, a donor-advised, private fund operating from Colorado.

On Tuesday the 31^st myself and iDE Zambia’s Southern Province Team Leader, Willard Chitembo drove down to Livingstone, the home of the Victoria Falls, to meet Steve Baroch and Ana Xiemes, Rudy and Alice Ramsey and their 14 year old grandson Carlos.

Steve Baroch is a prominent Rotarian who has been an iDE ambassador for the past 6 months, spreading the word about iDE in Colorado and further afield internationally. His partner, Ana, works for RLG International, and Rudy and Alice run the Rudy and Alice Ramsey Foundation.

The following three-day ‘immersion trip’ was an opportunity for them to learn about the FBA program which they are helping support. We asked Rudy to blog about their experience. It’s a great read with some excellent photos!

So how are RLG International and the Ramsey Foundation helping support iDE’s FBA programme?

Volunteering for iDE Zambia in the land of the Chipolopolo!

iDE UK volunteer Sam Harvey swaps getting on the crowded London tube every morning for volunteering with iDE Zambia and waking up to the African sun. He is in no way feeling smug about it!

Sam: Well it has taken me just under a month to write my first blog – so no prizes for speed, but then again I have been pretty busy so I’m not apologising! Seeing as it’s the first one, I thought I would bring you up to scratch with who I am and what exactly I’m doing in Zambia for iDE.

I’m a 23-year-old Sussex Uni graduate who has been volunteering with the World Food Programme (U.N) in Rome and NGOs in the U.K and Nepal, and more recently with iDE UK in the London office for the past 4 months.

Since I started volunteering at iDE I have been highly impressed with iDE’s thinking and positioning, especially in relation to connecting farmers to markets and providing inputs such as micro-irrigation technologies, quality seed and advice through the local private sector, to guarantee inputs are available all year round, every year, not just for the duration of this or that project.

When the opportunity arose to put everything I’d learnt into practice on a short volunteer placement to Zambia, I jumped at the chance (just look at the picture!).

And here I am living and volunteering in Lusaka. It is a great time to be in Zambia with Zambia’s Copper Bullets winning the prestigious African Cup of Nations and the outpouring of emotion and optimism for the future that accompanied the win.

I’m out here to observe and collect data on the many anecdotal examples of how iDE’s efforts have resulted in significant and sustainable changes for the better in the lives of client farmers.

This means that I will be spending most of my time bumping up and down dirt roads (what I like to call an African massage) visiting iDE assisted farming entrepreneurs and documenting what I find through pictures, video and writing.

After hitting the road on arrival and undertaking a two-week immersion field trip, to gain an insight into the various project activities and areas, I found out that I love doing this!

Tune in next time for the highlights of volunteering and my first impressions on how iDE’s Rural Prosperity Initiative is assisting smallholder farming entrepreneurs in Zambia.

Do you have volunteering experiences like Sam’s to share?

What are your thoughts on volunteering in support of social enterprise initiatives?