One sad morning, a dark cloud hovered over Ceron Mumba’s family, swooping away their daily joy and hope. It seemed they had reached an end to their once glamorous future. On that day, Ceron’s husband, the only bread winner and father to her three children, suddenly passed away.
“That was the beginning of the worst things to come for me and my children because I literally depended on my husband for everything,” says Ceron, 39, of northern Zambia’s Mwamba community. “Things became tougher for me than I had ever imagined. I tried many things that never worked for me,” Ceron says.
“When dad died, I missed him because of the way we started suffering without him. He used to buy me books, pens and pencils and uniforms from the money he raised from the garden. I remember we never went to bed hungry,” says Katongo, now 16. “I began to wonder if God ever loved me and what I had wronged him to make me a sufferer. I became the first born of the family of the poorest. I never thought there was anything that could be done to change my life, ever,” Ceron says.
But the beginning of better things had finally come when World Vision introduced Ceron to a saving group. She started to save and borrow from her group. Soon she was trained in the Empowered World View (EWV) and Farming God’s Way (FGW) programs. Through World Vision’s training, Ceron experienced her life being lifted up again
“At first when World Vision introduced me to all these things, I thought they were just wasting my time because I believed God had cursed me - my life will never change. But because of my savings group, trainings in EWV and FGW, World Vision helped me realize who I was and the potential in me, which could change my life,” Ceron says.
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| Katongo & Ceron feed their goats, purchased through their money raised through their savings group |
Today, Ceron has achieved many things. “World Vision has transformed my life and that of my family. Each year my harvest has continued to grow,” she says. “Through savings and farming, I have been able support my children’s education, afford to eat three meals a day, buy children’s clothing, bedding and build a big house roofed with iron sheets for my family.”
“I never thought a woman like me would ever achieve what I have achieved to come out of poverty. Now the pain of the past is over,” Ceron says. Katongo, a 9th grader, is now hopeful. “I want to build on what World Vision has helped us to achieve through my Mum. If World Vision never helped Mum, I would have dropped out of school by now,” Katongo says.
