We’ve been keeping a little secret over here these past few months!

As you may know, we’ve been partnering with a rural village 3 hours outside of Lusaka, Muchochoma Village, since 2013. We began a sewing skills-training program with a group of women there and they were the producers of our Village Twist Bracelet back in the day. Thanks to a generous private donor, we were able to drill a clean water well, benefitting hundreds of people in surrounding villages. Then we built a permanent brick building there to house our manual sewing machines and provide a training center for our monthly intensives, led by our staff from Lusaka.

While many of the women are now proficient in sewing (which is so great!), they have always been amazing farmers. Muchochoma Village is a farming village with entire families pitching in to harvest maize, sweet potatoes, squash, vegetables, and more. We were able to sponsor a business grant to boost their yield last year through providing seed and fertilizer.

This year, our staff had a great idea to further the independent success of the village.

For every other maize harvest, the women would have to take the maize to a government-sponsored milling factory for it to be processed into roller meal, which then becomes nshima, the national staple food. There is always a high demand for this, as it’s typically eaten for each of the 2-3 meals per day. But the women were only making a tiny profit on each harvest, not leaving enough money to purchase seed and fertilizer for the next season.

In comes the brilliant idea.

Food scarcity is on the rise, the prices of food are climbing, and yet there is the opportunity here to make a good amount of money. Our staff and the women of Muchochoma Village came up with the idea to purchase a Maize Hammermill. The CiH women could farm on a communal plot, pick the maize at harvest time, process it on their own Hammermill, then sell it directly to the nearby villages, controlling every part of the process and getting every bit of profit for their hard work.

We had to coordinate a quick build of a concrete structure to protect the equipment from the elements and then a tricky transport of a huge piece of machinery out to a village, so it’s been quite the process to get this Hammermill there. But we are thrilled to share that this season’s maize has been harvested and the Hammermill is now in use with our ladies in Muchochoma Village in control of their new business venture. We are so proud of them for taking on this exciting new project and continue to support them along the way.

Just take a look at these incredible entrepreneurs living an empowered life for the benefit of their families and entire village!

A huge thank you to Highland United Methodist Church in Raleigh, NC for providing a generous grant to fund this Hammermill project!