Pigs in Zambia? Just ask Lodi Interact!
By AG Carol Herman, Group #6
The Lodi Interact Club established a piggery in the remote village of Munyambala, Zambia in an effort to provide sustainable food security. In August the Club completed the first sustainable piggery in the village of Munyambala, Zambia in coordination with Peace Corp and Rotary International District 9210. Lodi Interact financed the building of the first pig pen as well the purchase of the first 6 pigs for the sum of $1,000 USD.
District 9210 (Zambia) Governor Douglas will maintain news and correspondence of the current piggery and any future piggeries in Munyambala and the Lodi Interact Club has direct video, audio, and photo contact with the Peace Corp worker in the same area. Lodi Interact has been requested by District Governor Douglas to mentor a new start Interact Club in Lusaka Zambia in an effort to establish their club, become sister clubs, and coordinate projects in the future.
Read More below for all the details!
Zambian Piggery - Lodi Wisconsin Interact Club 208602
The village of Munyambala lives by subsistence farming with their main crop being corn. This is a starving community due to drought and suffers from subsequent health maladies. There is plenty of water from borehole wells but the lack of irrigation and dry weather with scorching sun is a cause for crop failure.
Lodi Interact Club coordinated with a Peace Corp worker living in the village of Munyambala, to directly fund this project. The Peace Corp worker trained in pig husbandry educated others in the village. The initial pigs bought will reproduce and provide a sustainable source to further piggeries in this geographical location. Pigs have a fast reproduction cycle and subsequent disbursement of offspring to new piggeries will reduce herd diseases and provide sustainability. Profits from the pigs sold outside the community will pay for school fees, school clothes, and food. Within the community the pigs provide a source of protein and food security. The pigs will eat what humans will not, such as the corn husks, cobs, bushes, stalks, and spoiled vegetables.
The establishment of the first piggery in Munyambala has not only touch the lives of Munyambala but has touched the souls and minds of the youth in Lodi Interact Club beyond prediction. Cultural understanding, community economic development, gratitude, understanding of economic inequality, passion for serving others, building self-esteem, leadership skills, and international friendship to name are a few of the thoughts that come to mind when thinking of how this project has impacted Lodi Interact Club members.
