Poundland miracle

I spent this morning at Tambako – this is one of our planned sites for the irrigation project. I was here in July with a Kelvinside Academy team and we met the Village Chief. He told me he could no longer read and asked me if I could get him some glasses.

So there I was this morning with a £1 pair of Poundland reading glasses, 3.50 magnification. When he tried them on it was a , “Once I was blind and now I can see” moment, and he instantly clamed it as a miracle!

Village Chief (on left) with his “Miracle Glasses”

It’s amazing the little things that can make so much difference – often we are so blind (sorry) to the simple needs of others which we can so easily meet.

The real miracle lies not in a £1 pair of specs but in the half a million pounds (gulp) that we have been entrusted with to completely transform the Chief’s village and another two like it. When I saw Tambako in the Summer, nothing was growing but already I can see the impact of the work that the Kelvinside pupils did and the effect of the money they gave. 8 Hectares of land (about 12 football pitches) are now growing maize using a refurbished diesel pump which the school supplied.

Refurbished canals courtesy of Kelvinside Academy

This is now the driest point in the year and nothing is growing for miles around but irrigation has created this miracle of an oasis.

But that’s not all.

Thanks to the funding we have, this time next year there will be 40Hectares of irrigated land here and the Chief will see his village’s income go up fivefold. Increased income means kids go to school; houses get solar lighting; livestock can be bought; and much more. Over the next three years, God willing, we will irrigate 120 Hectares in total and transform the lives of 3000 people.

Now that really is a miracle!