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On my way to Zambia!

Mar 12, 2019 | Training and preparation at CICD

By Zsolt Gyarmati, Hungary, Fighting with The Poor 21 months programme

Earlier I had a decent job in the capital of Hungary, I rented an apartment, had a car, had friends and all the “normal” stuff. However I wasn’t satisfied with my life. So I decided to change my life maybe not permanently, but entirely. I wanted to do something meaningful in this rushing and money-centered world. My goal now is to make other people’s life better. If I can make only one single life better, I will be really happy. So I decided to go on a journey and become a Development Instructor in Africa.
Humana People to People has been involved for several decades now in various long-term development projects in numerous developing countries, such as Zambia. The areas of these projects are education, rural and community development, agriculture, health, HIV/AIDS prevention and care, support of orphans and vulnerable children, economic development and environmental conservation. Just to have an idea of the influence of Humana’s activity, in 2015 the projects in Zambia were reaching over 700.000 people in 30 districts.


Since earlier I was studying to be a teacher, it wasn’t really surprising that I chose to volunteer at a project which involves children, namely Children’s Town. Life in not easy for orphans and vulnerable children in our western culture, and it is not any better in Zambia either. Children’s Town offers home and basic education from pre-school age to ninth grade for former street kids, who otherwise don’t have much hope for better conditions in life. The project also fuctions as a normal school for the local children living in the neighboring villages and communities. The project has many supporters, and since the curriculum is based on the Zambian Ministry of Education’s guidelines, the children will have good chances in their later life. The programme was launched in 1992 and since more than 1400 kids benefited from it.
I hope with my work I can be a part of this programme and it’s community, hopefully I can contribute to the kids’ education. Maybe I can even provide them a brief overview of life in other countries. I also hope that I can teach them science at some level, since that was what I was studying myself earlier in college. I’d like to see the spark lighting up in kids’ eyes when they understand or discover something.
Working in the local communities will likely be part of my work as well. I’d like to understand their lives and struggles, enthusiasms and fears in order to be able to be of real help. I really don’t want them to copy the European life style or mine for instance, but rather to find their own way.

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The Hidden Side of “Help”: Why We Need to Rethink Development

The Hidden Side of “Help”: Why We Need to Rethink Development

Aug 27, 2026 |

We usually don’t think twice when we hear the word “aid.” Most of us assume that helping someone is always a good thing—after all, how could giving to the poor be wrong? But I’ve realized that there is a big difference between just being “charitable” and actually doing development in a way that changes lives forever.

I used to think that poverty was just a lack of money, but the truth is often about a lack of
access. For a long time, the traditional “aid industry” followed theories that didn’t really work on the ground.
A powerful example of this is the story of Muhammad Yunus. He met a woman who had to borrow less than a dollar from a moneylender just to survive, but the terms were so bad she was basically a slave. He realized that by giving just $27 out of his own pocket, he could free 42 people from that cycle. This wasn’t just “giving money”; it was proving that the poor—especially women—are trustworthy and “credit-worthy,” even without any collateral.
Another thing I never really considered is that real help doesn’t always need a big institution. In many places, people are creating their own “financial inclusion” without any banks. For example, in Mali, women form small groups to save their own money and lend it to each other. It only costs about $20 to train a member, and then the group can run itself for years.

This is so much better than just a “handout” because it builds social capital—the women gain confidence, learn to lead, and even start their own businesses.

Finally, we have to look at how governments help. In Brazil, a program called Bolsa Família has liftedd millions out of poverty, but it isn’t just a “free gift”. Families only get the support if they meet social requirements, like making sure their kids go to school and get vaccinated. This way, the help isn’t just a temporary fix; it’s an investment in the next generation.

The more I learned, the more I saw that the best kind of development is about empowering people to be their own driving force for change. It’s about building their capacities, so they don’t need “aid” anymore.

My Personal Turning Point I never used to think about the “aid industry” this way. I just thought help was help. But exploring these different models and seeing how much impact
“doing it right” can have has completely shifted my perspective. This is exactly why I wanted to create this article: to tell you about my favourite course and why it changed my mind. It was through these specific lessons that I truly understood how we can move beyond simple charity to real, sustainable change.

Thanks for reading, a. see you soon!

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My name is Raquel Dávila, I am from Mexico and currently volunteering in Zambia as a Development Instructor (DI) with DAPP Zambia through CICD. When I first arrived in Zambia, I did not fully understand how much impact second-hand clothes can have in a community. Many...