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Newsletter No. 6, November 2021

Dear Friends,

The worldwide Covid-19 epidemic has forced us to make changes at Tiko and among other things forced us to look into the effects of the loss of income from the lodge and restaurant. With Lydia, a life stock officer in Katete and Christine, a long-time hard-working member of Tiko I am going to Uganda for a weeklong course of Dr. Emma Naluyima to learn how we can make the best possible use of the land and demonstrate the methods used to others. The internet video of Dr Emma’s TED lecture will show you why we are going to Uganda. We are all looking forward to this trip…

Dear Friends,

The worldwide Covid-19 epidemic has forced us to make changes at Tiko and among other things forced us to look into the effects of the loss of income from the lodge and restaurant. With Lydia, a life stock officer in Katete and Christine, a long-time hard-working member of Tiko I am going to Uganda for a weeklong course of Dr. Emma Naluyima to learn how we can make the best possible use of the land and demonstrate the methods used to others. The internet video of Dr Emma’s TED lecture will show you why we are going to Uganda. We are all looking forward to this trip. To pay for this trip, I shall be using my nest egg, which is part my pension fund, which is meant for medical needs, should they arise. In the meantime we have been very busy with the activities below.

TIKO IS ON RADIO

Otto Mille has given Euro 1000 to us for COMMUNICATION AND VISIBILITY, so, in anticipation of having some new methods to teach to Eastern Zambians, I went to Radio Breeze, a popular local commercial radio station in Chipata. I paid for four sessions, two now and two after the trip to Uganda, to get attention. Ideally, after this we will have courses to teach, and money to charge, so if we start now, it will be less than a shock.  People were invited to visit Tiko and order products they might want.

OTTO PER MILLE PROJECT

Tiko is running the last Otto per Mille project teaching 14 women’s’ clubs the Tiko 19 Steps out of poverty 19 steps out of poverty for the subsistence farmer’. We are in the middle of distributing seeds and not yet ready to report on this project.

COOKING ON MORE EFFICIENT CLAY STOVES

For full information on how to donate go to: GlobalGiving Cooking on more efficient clay stoves.

It may be a sign of the times, but this crowd funding project has got off to a very poor start. Despite this there has been some progress with the planting of firewood trees and we are already running the project with pocket money for girls who plant firewood trees. They are getting an outdoor kitchen with a clay stove at their homesteads. Some people do not realize that for many people using firewood that they have grown can be a source of renewable energy and in the absence of other resources is the only way that is cheap enough for people cook. We are still hoping for further donations to this crowdfunding project. COMACO (Community Markets for Conservation, an organization that is a social enterprise that supports wildlife conservation and small-scale farmers in Zambia) is also running a campaign to promote the burning of small sticks, but many farmers cannot afford their metal stoves.

We do know about climate change here and are experiencing it. It has never before been so extremely cold and now extremely hot in Katete, so people are ready to listen, especially since firewood, including twigs, is now scarce now.

DEHULLER AND OIL MILL FINALLY CONNECTED

We had to wait far too long for the expensive electricity connection of these essential machines but that was not the end of the story. Alas we were badly wrong about the cost of the connection of the dehuller and oil mill to electricity. The connection of the dehuller mill and the oil mill not only took 14 months but cost some K 25 200 (US$ 1 482). We are selling 25kg maize meal each to the crew, and will do that again in December, for a very low price.

The dehuller ready for action
Spectators watch the dehuller in action
Our oil mill is also acitive

The dehuller produces maize bran and sample (coarse corn meal). School children are often given sample, and our crew like sample. If they do want the fine maize meal, they can take the sample to a mill for further milling they have to half the price for taking a bag of unlulled maize to a mill. We tried to economize by selling sample to the crew K 2 per a kilo. We will do the same for November, but from December they were always given got hunger help.

CHICKEN HOUSING PROBLEM

These people received chicks from July, in the hope that they would get a chicken house from the grant we applied for. Well, we have not heard anything, and the chicks are getting too big and must move into the three houses we had finished with the investment money from NZ.

Cecilia
Christine
Isaiaha
Tigris
Joyce
Vitalina
Tisauke

FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONSED

Tiko’s general finances are precarious. To date the chicken business has cost money rather than making it largely owing to the cost of equipment and expensive chickenfeed which we have had to buy, but that should change now that the dehuller is in operation. We also hope to produce more chicken feed including black fly maggots and azolla after the Uganda visit. We spend an average of 100 000 K per month but from the month of June we spent double if not triple the connection of the dehuller mill and the oil mill with electricity not only took 14 months, but cost some K 8 000, i.e. US$ 400 to get connected.

The local currency got stronger, which is good for the country, but that means that £2000 from the UK account, which I asked for only brought 44 000 Kwacha, i.e. not even half a month’s survival. It did cover the school fees for 148 children, however, while the money from the school in Duesseldorf is being used to add onto the minimum of $ 1 500 that we receive from Germany every month, so far till April 2022.

WE SIMPLY CAN ‘T SAY NO TO SOME REQUESTS

We want to save money, but simply can’t say no to some requests, like these, which happen about three times a week.

Left: A woman and her 5 children were sitting at the Katete bus station without food or money, so they were directed to Tiko. She came from Ukwimi, some 100 km away. Her husband had died in a traffic accident and his parents had sent her packing with the five children. She has uncle near Chipata, so needed the fare to get there. – We gave her ZMW 400 or now US$ 25.

Right: The second woman had taken a relative with epilepsy to St Francis hospital and needed the fare back home for 3 adults and a child, ZMW 320, US$ 20. This is a service we have performed for many years, and she came with a letter to us written by a clinical officer in St Francis. No photo of Grace, number three, whose daughter has a child, but does not have breast milk. A milk supply for one week was ZMW 100 or $6.25.

Left: Beatrice, the most admirable of all the suffering women we are looking after. One of her daughters needs transport money to get back from the Lusaka hospital. Beatrice had some money she by selling her chickens but needed the difference ZMW 300 (nearly $19).

So, please, hang in there with us. We are not spendthrifts – I decided a year ago to put all my money in to Tiko, just staying with the widow’s pension, in the time after covid and no income from tourism, but still starting activities that needed investment and – having managed just until now. It is from December 15 that there will not enough.  So, this is not even investment money for the future we think we will have with our ideas from Uganda, this is about sheer survival.

We are busy making timetables for everyone to get two days off a week for planting and making sure that our new ventures are progressing. The three of us who are going to Uganda are excitedly planning for the trip which is only 3 days away now. There will be lots to tell in the next newsletter!

Love from, Elke and the Tiko Crew

– For donation information please have a look on ‘Support Tiko’ –

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