Meheba – The Work

After the amazing vacation I had in Tanzania, it was time to get back to work. But, for the next two months or so I would be in a different province of Zambia in Meheba Refugee Settlement. I’d visited Meheba a few times for meetings, but for this project, I was in for the long haul. After one of my worst public transport experiences thus far (I sat on a bus for 5 hours waiting for it to take me to Solwezi, the main town near Meheba. After 5 hours the bus driver told me that they had decided not to go to Solwezi anymore. I don’t think I have to try to explain how frustrated I was!), I arrived in Meheba. In Meheba, I worked with the other Project Managers to implement the new FORGE model focused on collaborative project planning. Through this model of project development, FORGE works hand-in-hand with the refugees to develop projects that they want in their communities.

We started the implementation with huge community-wide meetings in each of the 3 communities we had chosen to work with in Meheba. During these meetings we talked about all the different needs the community had. We also had the community chose 6 representatives that would work with the Project Managers to develop a project to meet the needs the community mentioned.

Every week, we had 6 meetings with the representatives from each community to discuss project ideas and teach them about project development. The complicated topics were not always easy to explain (especially to some of the representatives who had NEVER been to school before), but in the end we came out with three great project ideas that I believe will truly make lasting change in each of the communities. We have decided to open two preschools in the less-educated community, a health center in the community with no access to a clinic, and a market with a seed-selling component in the remote community made up almost solely of farmers. It was a learning process for everyone, but we accomplished so much in a short two months.

xoxo