Peter Lungu a Transformed Poacher with Great Talent in Metal work

“Things were alright when I still had my father. He was able to provide for the family and even send me to school. However when my father died, my mother had problems in raising money for my education. This situation forced me to drop out of school. I had no choice but to discontinue my education in grade 7”, Peter recounted.

Stopping school did not solve Peter’s myriad of problems because his family was still not able to meet their daily food requirements. To help his mother in looking for food for the family, Peter started poaching to raise money from the game meat sales. He also exchanged the game meat for maize and rice.

“Life became easier for me and my family since I had a steady flow of income. I made some good money from poaching until one day when the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) officers arrested my fellow poachers who were later prosecuted and sent to jail. I was lucky to have survived the dragnet because at the time when my friends were nabbed, I did not venture on that expedition with them. Since then I knew that my life was at risk but I had no choice but to continue poaching so that my family was food secure,” recalled Lungu.

However besides poaching, Lungu was also a farmer and a tinsmith. He grew a lot of rice and a bit of maize but the problem he faced was lack of market for the produce. There were no good markets for both rice and maize hence he could not make a good income to sustain his family from farming. From time to time Lungu also made metal tins which he sold and raised a bit of money.

“One day I heard about WCS/COMACO conservation activities from my colleagues and I went to surrender all the wires that I was using for snaring animals. After surrendering, I joined a group of friends who had surrendered their weapons earlier than me and we were trained in carpentry and later given carpentry tools,” revealed Lungu.

Because of his talent in metal work, Lungu began to collect empty tin cans that once contained cooking oil provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) to vulnerable households participating in Food for Assets activities in Lundazi.

Last year, WFP assisted COMACO farmers who were affected by floods with food during the recovery program. Among the food items given to the farmers was vegetable oil.
After distributing the vegetable oil to the farmers, the empty tin containers were destined for a rubbish pit or used as metal flowerpots. But Peter found a better use for these empty containers. He started making metal buckets, tins for fetching water from dambos, watering cans and chicken feeders.

Peter is creative, he has added value to empty vegetable oil tins that were only good for the rubbish pit. He is currently making enough money from the sale of the product as a tin smith. A bucket made from the same material is sold for ZMK 12,500 ($ 3.25). He is also exchanging these buckets for maize, rice and groundnuts, which he later consumes at home. He is intending to make more products around May, 2008 so that he can exchange these for more rice and maize. This will make his household more food secure.

Peter, who is now 29 years, is married with 4 children and he is also keeping his late brother’s daughter. COMACO intends to give Lungu more tins so that he can also train others in metal work.