From Struggle to a Brighter Future: Chikwenda’s Journey to Dignity and Hope

For years, the Chikwenda family worked to make ends meet. Despite long hours on their farm, poor yields left little food to sustain the household throughout the year.

Mr Boniface Chikwenda recalls a season when farming brought small returns.

“A long time ago, we weren't making any progress because we didn't know what to do. In a farming season, we would harvest two bags, sometimes three, and this would leave my family in hunger throughout the year until we were taught,” he says.

The turning point

Agriculture remains the backbone of rural Zambia. The sector provides a livelihood to more than 70% of the country's population, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO Zambia, 2025). Nationally, roughly four out of five people living in poverty are in rural areas, where more than three in four households fall below the poverty line, according to the World Bank's 2025 Zambia Poverty and Equity Assessment. Against this backdrop, World Vision's agricultural training and livelihoods support in communities such as Boniface's aim to help families move from subsistence farming toward lasting food security and income.

Through this support, Boniface and other farmers received knowledge and skills to improve their farming practices. The results have transformed his household.

“We started harvesting ten to fifteen bags after learning,” he says.

The increased harvest has given Boniface an opportunity to invest in his family's future. In 2024, he began building a house and used income from his harvest to buy a motorbike. The following year, he bought an ox cart and cattle.

“My children are happy,” he says. “Our livelihood has now changed for the better. We are living well because of the help we received from World Vision.”

For Boniface, the support has improved his harvests and given his family the confidence to keep building a better future.

“We have done a lot, and now we will keep going forward,” he says.

A change in mindset

World Vision's Empowered World View model sits alongside this practical training. The approach helps community members recognise their own dignity, agency, and God-given ability to shape their future, rather than viewing poverty as fixed or inevitable. Through facilitated group sessions grounded in Scripture and delivered by trained local facilitators, participants set a vision for their households, build savings and support networks with their neighbours, and translate that renewed outlook into everyday decisions about farming, income and family life. For families such as the Chikwendas, this shift in mindset works together with new farming skills to sustain change well beyond a single harvest.

Water and maternal healthcare

For Boniface's wife, Mrs Hilda Chikwenda, access to water and improved maternal healthcare has also brought meaningful change to their community.

“We are thankful to World Vision for bringing water to us. We are working hard with the knowledge we have been given. May God continue to bless them,” she says.

Before the maternity facility was improved, pregnant women faced long and difficult journeys to reach healthcare.

“When I am pregnant, and it is time to give birth, I used to walk long distances to get to the hospital,” Hilda explains.

The distance sometimes put mothers and babies at risk, with some women giving birth along the way or at home before reaching a health facility. The maternity room at the local clinic also had only two rooms, making a comfortable and dignified birth difficult.

“The maternity room at the clinic only had two rooms, which made things uncomfortable and embarrassing for women giving birth there,” she says.

The construction of a proper maternity room has since given women a safer, more dignified space to receive maternal healthcare.

“Now we have been given a proper maternity room, and we are thankful to World Vision for the help,” Hilda says.

A personal transformation

The changes in the Chikwenda household extend beyond farming and access to essential services. For Boniface's son, Cliff, guidance from his family and his faith has shaped a personal transformation.

Cliff says that before changing his life, he struggled with alcohol and often fought with friends.

“I used to live a life of difficulties. My father and mother were also living a difficult life. Before I got close to God, I was a troubled man. I used to drink a lot and fight with my friends. I was a difficult person,” he says.

Through guidance from his father and his faith, Cliff learned to make better choices and work toward a more productive future.

“My father sat me down and taught me the right way to live. I learned, and now I own cattle. I am young, but I have my own cattle and a house,” he says.

For the Chikwenda family, the journey from struggling to survive to building a more secure future has been shaped by knowledge, opportunity and support.

Cliff now encourages others to embrace positive values and seek the guidance that helped transform his own life.

“I would like to encourage everyone to pay attention to the word of God. I am thankful, and may God continue to bless the people of World Vision,” he says.