Today’s blog post finds us in Nampongo village which is about 60km from Livingstone. Nampongo is a hub of activities and the community members have really taken to RN’s self-help philosophy. It is imperative to us, that communities are able to gain the knowledge they are given by our facilitators and utilize said knowledge to start up their own income generating activities that can be sustained, using locally available resources and manpower.

The self-help concept could really be seen to have taken effect during a mini-meeting held on Tuesday, March 3^rd, where community members testified to the absolute usefulness and pertinence of RN and self-help. The trip was made with a special visitor to RN, Roger Hansen and our good friends in media, ZNBC TV. The members, especially women passionately testified that their lives have been greatly improved due to learning about self-help groups and the save and borrow method. To explain the method in simple terms, a group of people come together to form a group and decide on how much money to ‘bank’ and how frequently. Once a decent amount has been saved, group members can then begin to borrow at an agreed interest rate. Some members said that they have already saved up to K5000 which is an amazing accomplishment. They added that the self-help groups and like activities have really given them a sense of pride and joked that now it’s their husbands who come to ask them for a bit of pocket money and can now even consider themselves breadwinners as well.

It’s always amazing to hear about such heartwarming stories and to actually see how people’s lives have been changed, simply with knowledge and it didn’t hurt that people were able to tell their change stories and be captured by the media, which will hopefully reach more eyes and ears and help more people improve their lives.

Check out more pictures and video from the visits on our social pages on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Until next week!