My name is Garry Brooks, a Canadian, and I was born in the final year of the Second World War, 1945. I was raised in a loving family with five brothers. We always lived close to nature where I learned to coexist with the other species of this earth. Not religious but very spiritual, acknowledging the maker of all that exists. My father, a Fisheries Officer with the Government of Canada was a very good teacher, explaining the ways of nature and life. I married late and have two grown sons living close at hand with three granddaughters. One son is a lawyer working as a Public Defender and the other is a Safety Officer for the Canadian Government at a shipyard in Victoria.
I chose the occupation of working in the forest sector of British Columbia, owning a logging company, sawmills, and heavy construction company for almost 40 years until I retired in 2002. When I retired I decided to give back for my prosperities; as I never went to bed hungry, wore only the clothes I wanted too and was never out of work for one day. After doing some volunteering with indigenous communities in Canada, I arrived in Lusaka on October 8th to work as a Community Developer with Volunteer Services Overseas. I worked for some time in Petauke, Eastern Province for an American organization the Cooperative League of the United States, CLUSA. We parted ways because I was there to raise funds from donors and the commodity we dealt in was the Zambian people. At this point, I became the founder of African Community Project ACP and am still working with communities for their betterment. Practicing Social Forestry; which is delivering safe, clean drinking water to the community, providing basic education and health, and creating community wellness. With women and children taking the forefront.
I have lived in villages for months on end, listened to the people, and understood their plight. Enjoying life as a villager was an experience I will always cherish. Shared their food and drank their refreshments. I have owned trucks, motorbikes, rented cars, had drivers, bummed rides, rode in buses, endured minibus rides, and walked. Rode my 125 Honda from Petauke to Lusaka many times….. Slept in tents in villages……listening to the night stalkers. Chased by all sorts of snakes. I am a world citizen. An active member of the Canadian Institute of Forestry. I have met most of your Presidents. Even summoned to Statehouse to meet President Banda. Shared many conversations with President Sata before he was President. I have a Zambian NCR card. Been too many funerals in Zambia. Watched a good Zambian Forester die because of no medical help. Paying for schooling for many Zambian students. Dug and repaired many wells. Repaired cattle dips. Suppled hundreds of blackboards and school supplies to hundreds of community schools. Taught the carvers how to dry their carvings in solar kilns. Built a lumber dry kiln that is still in use today. Repaired bridges and dams. Handed out hundreds of Mosquito nets. Planted thousands of trees. Distributed millions of tree seeds to community forests. Built hundreds of tree nurseries at schools and communities. Introduced Moringa to be used in school feeding programs. Started breakfast feeding programmes at community schools. Many small enterprises like selling eggs and pigs as money raisers at schools. Taught reforestation and environmental education to inmates at prisons in Zambia. Talked about the environment to more communities, schools, and groups than I can count (the biggest was a Primary school in Zimba with the football field full of students and others). The late Chief Mwanachingwala was my younger brother. Robbed at gunpoint for cash and my clothes. Been in a few vehicle and motorbike accidents. Sat on the steering committee for sustainable forests in Zambia. Worked in Mozambique on projects. Mentored communities all across Africa. They use my book on Zambian trees as a teaching tool at the Zambia Forestry College and at Agriculture Colleges. I have given out almost 3,000 free soft copies of this book. Gave away over 500 hard copies of the book to schools.
SUSTAINABLE FUELWOOD IN ZAMBIA 