By BRIAN HATYOKA –
RESPONSE Network (RN) is a Self-Help facilitation Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) operating in Livingstone, Kazungula, Zimba and Kalomo districts of Southern Province.
The organisation  which was set up in 2005  has empowered 7, 552 people in Southern Province with self-help activities, and will be one of the exhibitors at this year’s Southern Tourism, Agriculture and Commercial Show Society (STACSS).
This year’s STACSS  Show will be held at the Livingstone Showgrounds from July 21 to July 24 under the theme: “Managing the Environment for Growth”.
RN aspires to be one of the leading self-facilitation organisations in Zambia in empowering communities to attain their rights and alleviate poverty through self-help.
The organisation strongly believes in self-help facilitation as the best way of helping a vulnerable persons,  instead of offering them handouts.
Over the last 11 years of its existence, the organisation has produced several manuals which have been used to train and empower communities to attain self-sustenance.
The manuals include let’s start our own community school, let’s start our own literacy class, let’s start our own Community Sports Club,
let’s start our community skills training, let’s start our own organic vegetable growing, let’s start our own community HIV/AIDS support group, let’s start our own nutrition and health club, let’s start our own community Know your rights club, let’s start our own community alcohol awareness and support club and let’s start our own community mental health club.
Other manuals are let’s start our own community participation governance club, let’s start our community support group for children with special needs, let’s start our community women rights group and stop gender based violence, and lets start a community support on gender equality in governance Club.
RN programme manager Julius Simfukwe said  his organisation would take advantage of the Show to explain its unique approach in empowering vulnerable people in Southern Province through self-help activities.
Mr Simfukwe said as of December 2015, total self-help activities or clubs supported were 331 while a total membership of 7, 552 was empowered.
“The thematic areas where we are operating and implementing self-help projects  are education, sponsorship programme, health and nutrition, organic vegetable growing, literacy, women’s groups, HIV /AIDS and sports groups, disability, skills training and know your rights ,
community participation to do with governance and gender,” he said.
“As of December 2015, 44 women clubs were supported while 715 women were recruited in the Clubs. In terms of organic vegetable growing, 31 Clubs and 550 members were supported,” he further said.
In addition, 16 HIV/AIDS support groups and 209 people were supported. In the area of Health and Nutrition, 22 Clubs and 550 members were supported.
Mr Simfukwe also said RN supported 17 Community Schools which resulted into 1, 701 children accessing school facilities.
He said seven Literacy classes and 201 members were supported.
On Gender issues, 16 clubs and 233 members were supported through self-help activities.
“On sports, 87 clubs and 2, 658 members were supported. This year, in sports we have gone into a different direction and we are in Kalomo and the  figures are still increasing. Further, 23 governance clubs and 312 members were supported,” Mr Simfukwe said.
On Skills Training, 21 clubs and 343 members were helped while 31 sporting clubs for persons with disabilities and 271 members were assisted.
In Livingstone, RN is sponsoring about 700 children from grade one to 12 and provides other means of education.
“We are into self-help but you can’t run away from certain demands and get an opportunity to address certain things. These programmes are identified through headmasters and schools. This is a corporate social responsibility that Response Network has taken up in partnership with other donors to help the girl child education. We support 700 girls and that sponsorship is specifically to target the girls. We give them full scholarship, school requirements and other responsibilities,” he said.
Mr Simfukwe said  his organisation was very unique and that  was why people attending this year’s STACSS  show should find time to visit his organisations pavilion.
“In social sciences, we always talk about self-help initiatives to empower communities but when you get on the actual ground and how most organisations are implementing these activities, you will realise that there is no self-help approach and it has a dependant  syndrome.  Let people come and see what we are capable of doing and going to showcase. We will show what we are capable of doing in terms of self-help approach in communities where we have given people information and now results are showing,” he said.
He said his organisation will show products such as the process of organic vegetable growing, the manner to which they are networking and how they are including persons with disabilities.
He urged local and international donors to  explore RN’s self-help facilitation activities in Kazungula, Kalomo, Zimba, Livingstone.
In terms of how RN was interpreting the theme for this year’s Show,  Mr Simfukwe said his organisation was already managing the environment for growth in various aspects of its thematic areas.
He said the theme entailed that appropriate measures of interaction between humans and nature such as usage of soil, flora, agricultural activities just to mention a few, should be put in place to promote a sustainable environment.
“We have to put measures to improve livelihoods and target  minor to major contributions  toward household and national economic growth.
“For instance, the manner and approach RN uses to promote organic vegetable growing, affects households  towards contributing to national growth in one way or the other,” Mr Simfukwe said.
He said RN was environmentally  friendly adding  that it was also dealing with issues of water and sanitation.
“We need to enhance and approach environmental friendly projects  for the purpose of sustainability and we also need to benefit from the environment on social and economic progress. While we support our communities with organic vegetable growing, we are very sensitive of materials being used. As a result, we usually ask local communities to ensure that they preserve the environment by reducing the use of artificial fertilisers,” he said.
Mr Simfukwe said managing the environment for growth entails strong linkages with the Department of Forestry and Agriculture of which RN was already working with.
He said the show theme means promoting and improving livelihood of the most vulnerable.
Mr Simfukwe said some community schools started without structures but the local communities were able to mobilise raw materials and build structures after being trained.
He said some schools started under a tree while others from grass thatched structures and had  trainings to ensure there is linkage with District Education Board Secretary (DEBS) offices.
“When these people start up something, we link them to the donor who helps them with infrastructure development and this is where you find the structure which was made by the community. We provide them information on certain actual materials that can’t be accessed within the community,” he said.
In terms of future prospects, RN is seeking partnerships with local and international donors to expand its programmes.
On challenges, Mr Simfukwe said the organisation needed adequate resources to enable it expand operations.
“We are an NGO and every organisation tries to look at potential funders. Sustainability of the project requires resources and challenges are there. We don’t have a strong networking system with local financiers and they feel we are satisfied with where we get resources. Once donor funding is cut, how do we get to sustain our operations? We are open to partner with the private sector,” Mr Simfukwe said.
RN looks forward to partnering with a lot of orgnisations locally and internationally to enable it empower more citizens in the province.