National Agriculture Show

I was in Lusaka from July 29th til August 7th working at the National Agriculture show with Department of Fisheries and representing Peace Corps with Christi. The show started on August 2ndt and lasted til the 6th. It was a great networking experience. We met with many government officials including President Mwanawasa and the President of Bostwana, the Minister of Agriculture, the Governor of Finance and a Permnant Secretary. We were really honored to represent Peace Corps with the Department of Fisheries at the show. It gave us a lot of insight into what people knew about Peace Corps. Unfortunately the vast majority of people had never heard of the Peace Corps. A few had heard of Peace Corps, but did not know what we were doing here and even a smaller amount actually knew about our programs. Most people were extremely interested in our projects and wanted to learn more. We handed out brochures about Peace Corps Zambia as an organization and the RAP program specifically. We showcased a map of Zambia that showed the locations of all RAP volunteers. To our surprise, we were able to connect several people to volunteers in various provinces. We even made some contacts in Eastern province.

After being there each day of the show, we realized how important we think it is for all programs in Peace Corps Zambia to participate with their respective ministries at the show. We met with everyone in the Department of Fisheries and representatives from each Province and made some great connections with them. Sadly, even people within the Department of Fisheries had never heard of Peace Corps. As volunteers we were extremely grateful to have the chance to meet such influential people and for us to discuss the Peace Corps with them.

Overall our greatest accomplishment was putting a face on our organization. People were fascinated with what we do and how we live. We provided farmers with information booklets on fish farming and integration that the Department of Fisheries could not provide. After speaking with many people in the Department, they were extremely grateful to have us be apart of their booth. We even won the best Government Stand award.

We think it is important to work closely with our ministries as it had proved helpful in getting RAP started in Eastern Province and by participating in the National Agriculture Show we are reinforcing the connections we want to maintain. It was a great networking event for us and we are much closer to our counterparts due to the show. RAP volunteers from all the provinces may get work just from this show. We encouraged the fisheries extension officers from all over Zambia to meet with the RAP volunteers in their provinces.