Copperbelt Province Permanent Secretary, Bright Nundwe has commended organisations for supplementing the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) in responding to disasters in the region.
Mr Nundwe noted that the coming on board of the various organisations had made the work of government easier when it comes to disaster response.
The PS said this during a donation of farming inputs to the first 30 small scale farmers out of the targeted 200 by Kabushi Entrepreneurship, Vocational and Training Centre (KEVTC) in Ndola’s Kafubu block.
This is in a speech read for him by DMMU Copperbelt Region Coordinator, George Akalemwa.
Mr Nundwe further thanked KEVTC for coming on board to inspire over 120 churches working in different communities to improve their livelihoods.
“With this kind of support, we have no doubt government’s efforts of responding to people’s needs especially victims of disasters is being supported. So far more than 120 farmers have already received fertilizer and seed which KEVTC organised through the continuous programmes,” he said.
He stated that with such partnerships, government through DMMU has managed to reach many under privileged people including school going children.
KEVTC Director, Melvin Simangolwa said his organisation through its cooperating partners has distributed school kits to more than 100 school going children in the area.
“We have so far empowered about 38 farmers for this programme, however, we aim at empowering more than 200 of the farmers in the farming block at the end of the entire programme,” Rev Simangolwa said.
Rev. Simangolwa also revealed that the organisation is working on a project called ‘Raising Families (RaFa)’ whose aim is to help vulnerable families to improve their livelihoods.
He said this in an effort to supplement government’s agenda of diversifying the economy from mining dependence to agriculture and others.
Rev Simangolwa said phase two of the empowerment programme will target not less than 2,000 households and 12,000 farmers in the farming block in Mukulungwe ward of Bwana Mkubwa and Mapalo areas.
Meanwhile, Chitwi Ward 13 Councilor, Robert Chisupa advised the recipients not to sell the inputs.
