Annes has a plan for the first time

Annes Kampini married at nineteen through necessity, not because she wanted to. Her father had settled in South Africa, and her mother couldn’t provide for the family alone. Marriage looked like the only path to support.

It didn’t change much. Annes and her husband put everything into farming, but without money for fertiliser, harvests stayed poor. Their harvest carried the household for two to three months of the year. For the rest, Annes turned to piece work to keep food on the table.

In 2024, The Hunger Project introduced the Chimwemwe Village Economic and Social Association (VESA) group to her community, and Annes joined. Through VESA, Annes built new skills: preparing nutritious meals from locally available food, diversifying crops, using organic manure, and managing livestock.

Annes was the first in her VESA group to receive five goats through The Hunger Project’s goat pass-on program, committing to pass on the same number of kids to the next family once her goats give birth.

The goats have already changed what’s possible on her land. Annes now collects milk and manure from them, and that manure has powered a shift to irrigation farming – freeing her from relying on rain alone and opening up winter planting. The results are showing: alongside maize, Annes has harvested cabbage and is now growing tomatoes.

“We are no longer relying on maize farming alone,” Annes says. “We recently harvested cabbage and now we have tomatoes in our field, all of which is made possible due to the advice we receive from VESA and the manure I collect from my goats.”

Annes’s vision is to use the proceeds from her harvests to meet her household’s food needs and support her children’s education. She’s now planning to expand her field further, working toward a home free of hunger and poverty for good.