COMACO Helps Families Secure Their Futures

When cushioned from the hardships of hunger and poverty, families can begin an exciting discussion about the future they can plan for.  Unfortunately, that discussion rarely happens and most families live from one day to the next, never really sure what the future might bring.  In many ways, COMACO is like a family investment plan for a better future.  By investing in the skills and production practices that COMACO promotes, families derive a return from the markets that COMACO offers.  Through continued dialogue at farmer field days and producer group meetings, better understanding for how to invest market earnings in family care allows families to secure their future while securing the safety of their natural resources. 

There are too many families that cannot escape poverty.  Alcoholism, spousal abuse, disease, and abandonment inflict their toil on the next generation and the cycle often repeats itself.  To break the cycle, new skills and markets have to provide an alternative for more secure food and income.  When homes become broken and children have to fend for themselves, the family unit is lost and the future leaves the dark side of humanity to exploit.   The battle COMACO fights is to reach far and wide to find these families on the verge of collapse or those that have already done so, and transform, rebuild and start them on a new path.  It does this with its combined team of dedicated extension staff and its production staff managing the production lines of products it manufactures from the commodities produced by these same families, as they become skilled and better farmers.

Zambia is a liberal, open-minded country with a strong commitment to helping fellow human-beings.  It has become a strong partner and supporter of COMACO as an important model for linking conservation and rural development.  With cooperation and support from the Zambian Government, this novel experiment has begun to show promise as a platform for demonstrating how a private company can play a key role in the development of a country and the protection of such a unique ecosystem as the Luangwa Valley.