The Camp is a refugee resettlement camp established in 2018 by the UNHCR in conjunction with the Zambian Government and other UN agencies. The camp has two schools, a clinic, and a local trading market. In addition, some of the inhabitants were allocated 0.5 hectares of farmland each to help them begin rain-fed farming to support their families.

How to manage and sustainably grow farmland?

Hence, Sparkassenstiftung’s the Famers Business Game was a decent start for the new emerging farmers to gain financial education, to obtain knowledge of crop selection and make a reasonable planning of their costs. The Farmers Business Game is a highly interactive training for smallholder farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs who want to improve their skills for a successful and sustainable farm management. The trainers, providing this training are qualified by Sparkassenstiftung and equipped with both, local understanding, and more than 25 years of Sparkassenstiftung’s training experience in Africa.

First training during a pandemic

The training had a total number of 26 participants and was conducted for five days instead of the usual three days. The minimizing of daily meeting time was due to the safety measures put in place by the UN to manage the spread of the corona virus in the camp. In addition to the reduction of time, hand sanitizers were used, and face masks were worn. With temperatures reaching 35 degrees, the trainers and participants conquered the hot weather and the difficulties of the pandemic measures and concluded a very successful training week.

Activities of Sparkassenstiftung Zambia

Sparkassenstiftung has been working in Zambia for ten years continuously strengthening financial literacy and providing access to basic financial services with its partners. Both Sparkassenstiftung and the new partner NACRO agreed on providing fundamental financial education to the people of Zambia, starting with the training at the refugee camp. The country director in Zambia, Reinhold Hörnle was very content with the outcome of this first training: “During these times it is challenging to fulfill our training task and at the same time reducing the risk of spreading the virus. I am therefore proud of the measures taken and the successful implementation of the training” stated Hörnle. In recent years more than 17,000 small entrepreneurs and farmers were reached with Business Game trainings in Zambia. With the success of this special pandemic training the team of Sparkassenstiftung Zambia will now carefully resume the acitivites to support entrepreneurial attitudes as one measure to mitigate difficult times.

Contact partners:
Jennifer Berbuir / Sebastian Dudda
0228/9703-6651/6633