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In Practice | Dorothy | Roy | Mrs Daka | Walubita | Growing Knowledge
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In Practice | Dorothy | Roy | Mrs Daka | Walubita | Growing Knowledge
When Knowledge Takes Root
How Training is Transforming
Lives in Zambia
Across Zambia, ADRA is helping communities move from surviving to thriving by equipping people with practical skills in farming, nutrition, and livelihoods.
In this story you’ll read:
- Farmers like Dorothy are gaining market access and increasing income
- Teachers like Mrs. Daka are feeding students and improving learning
- Mothers like Walubita are turning food into income and stability
- Farmers like Roy are transforming small farms into sustainable businesses
When people gain knowledge, they don’t just improve their own lives they strengthen entire communities. This is how ADRA brings justice, compassion, and love to life.
How Justice, Compassion, and Love Show-Up in Practice.
In many parts of the world, poverty is not just about a lack of resources, it’s about a lack of access. Access to knowledge. Access to opportunity. Access to the tools needed to build a better future.
Across Zambia, communities are facing rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall, and economic hardship. For many families, survival depends on what they can grow, produce, or sell. But without the right skills or support, even the hardest work can fall short.
That’s where change begins
Through training, mentorship, and community-based programs, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is helping individuals gain the knowledge they need to move from uncertainty to stability. From surviving to thriving. This is what it looks like when justice, compassion, and love take root.
Justice: Unlocking Opportunity Through Knowledge
For Dorothy Makina, a 63-year-old farmer in Senanga District, the barriers were clear. Markets were far, transportation costly, and negotiating fair prices felt out of reach. Like many farmers in her region, where most live on less than $2 a day, she worked hard but struggled to earn enough.
Everything changed when she received training in crop aggregation.
“Before the training in aggregation, I had challenges with market access, negotiating prices, thereby reducing my income,” she says. “Now, I know how to organize, add value, and bargain better for our produce.”
With new skills, Dorothy didn’t just improve her own income, she became a leader. She has since trained eight farmer groups and now works with over 200 farmers, helping them access better markets and sell their crops more effectively.
In another part of Zambia, Roy Syansingu, a retired medical professional turned dairy farmer, faced a different challenge. Despite his dedication, his farm struggled with low productivity and animal health issues. But through ADRA’s dairy development training, Roy learned improved feeding, pasture management, and breeding techniques.
“The coming of ADRA was a game-changer,” Roy says. “I was making losses without even realizing it.”
Today, his milk production has nearly doubled, and his farm has become a source of stable income and pride. His success is now inspiring others in his cooperative to see farming not just as survival, but as a business with potential.
This is justice in action—ensuring people have the knowledge and opportunity to earn a living with dignity.
Compassion: Nourishing Bodies and Minds
At Nabbanda Primary School, compassion is growing in the school garden.
Led by teacher Mrs. Daka Petronella, the garden supports a feeding program that ensures students receive at least one nutritious meal each day. For many children, this meal makes the difference between struggling to focus and thriving in the classroom.
“Seeing the children learn on a full stomach makes me happy,” she shares. “When learners are hungry, they can’t concentrate. But when they eat from what we grow here, they become active and eager to learn.”
The garden is more than a source of food—it’s a classroom. Students learn how to plant, harvest, and care for crops, gaining skills that extend beyond school walls.
Mrs. Daka’s dedication reflects a deeper truth: meeting immediate needs while investing in long-term wellbeing.
This is compassion in action—caring for both the present and the future of every child.
Love: Building Resilient Communities
For Walubita Monde, a mother of five, farming had always been a way of life, but not always a reliable one. Post-harvest losses and limited knowledge meant food often went to waste, and income remained unstable.
Through ADRA-supported training, she learned new techniques in agroecology, food preservation, and value addition.
“The value addition lessons helped me to prepare and preserve food that I never thought I could preserve for dry seasons,” she says. “I learned to make jam from tomatoes and lemons—fruits that we used to let rot in the village.”
Now, Walubita is not only feeding her family more consistently—she is planning to sell her products, creating a new source of income.
Even more powerful is the ripple effect. Farmers across her community are adopting crop rotation and intercropping, improving yields and food security for many households.
“Train as many farmers as possible in our village,” she urges.
This is love in action—investing in people so that change spreads, grows, and lasts.
When Knowledge Grows, Communities Thrive
These stories may look different—a farmer, a teacher, a mother, a dairy producer but they are deeply connected.
Each one shows what happens when people are equipped with knowledge:
- Income becomes more stable
- Children are nourished and able to learn
- Communities grow stronger and more resilient
And perhaps most importantly, change does not stop with one person. It multiplies.
At ADRA, this is the heart of the work. Not just meeting needs for today but walking alongside communities to build a better tomorrow.
Because when knowledge takes root, it doesn’t just change one life.
It transforms generations.
From stronger harvests to healthier children, your support helps knowledge grow where it’s needed most. Discover how lives are being transformed and how you can be part of it.
Author | ADRA International
Photo Credit | ADRA Zambia
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