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When Mailes Zulu's husband secured a job in one of Zambia's largest prisons, he often returned home with shocking tales of mistreatment faced by women with children. Many of these women were victims of gender-based violence, trapped in abusive relationships due to a lack of financial independence. Through her husband's work in the prison, Mailes became aware of the consequences of gender discrimination and underrepresentation in her country, compelling her to take action.

In 1999, her husband was transferred to Northwest Zambia, and she went with him. The province was undergoing a mining boom, promising economic prosperity and new job opportunities. However, the reality was starkly different: unemployment rose as ancestral lands were seized with little to no compensation, forcing many to migrate. Again, Mailes saw that it was women and children who bore the brunt of these impacts, facing increased environmental pollution and a surge in illegal activities like prostitution and gender-based assault.

Directly influenced by these events, Mailes founded the Save Environment People’s Agency (SEPA), with the aim of empowering women, reducing the gender gap, and promoting environmental protection in the rural communities of Chavuma, Solwezi, Mufumbwe, Kalumbila, Mwinilunga, and Zambezi.

Women’s empowerment through climate-smart agriculture

Mailes embarked on a mission to raise awareness among women and young people about climate-smart agriculture, giving them the knowledge and tools to combat climate change and improve their economic situation. Climate change disproportionately affects women and children, who bear the responsibility of feeding families and fetching water. To improve the situation, SEPA set out to empower communities with life skills.

“We started educating both women and men about financial literacy, agribusiness, and climate-smart agriculture, as well as increasing their capacity for civic responsibilities, land rights, financial literacy, record-keeping, child safeguarding, among other things,” said Mailes.

In rural Zambian landscapes, subsistence farming called mavunda, or ‘shifting cultivation,’ is common. It usually involves clearing bushland, and often land can’t be reused after one season because it isn’t fertile enough. SEPA’s projects promote food security in arid lands using climate-smart, resilient agriculture employing drip irrigation and sustainable energy, as well as agroecology-style agriculture encouraging productivity with limited land.

Through this, Mailes has empowered men, youths, people with disabilities, and women, and SEPA's milestones and successes are numerous and transformative. For example, SEPA provided women-led farming clubs with small livestock, with each member of the group now possessing an average of 30 goats, which they can sell and trade. They also use the milk to nourish their children, aiding in sustaining their families.

“Through these efforts, we have empowered more than 20,000 people,” Mailes says, “which makes me delighted!”

Mailes and SEPA also provided non-timber forest product training to 15 groups, covering topics such as beekeeping, sustainable gathering of edible caterpillars and wild mushrooms, as well as the extraction of natural oils from Rosewood seeds and wild fruits, to aid in food security and train local communities in alternative livelihoods. Beekeeping has become a major source of livelihood among these people, with some groups establishing bank accounts, creating cooperatives, and profiting from Constituency Development Funds, which are given by the government, to expand their operations.

Turning the tide on climate change

As part of her work, Mailes has been actively involved in schemes designed to reforest the local environment and mitigate the effects of climate change.

“Tree planting was part of the SEPA program to address issues of deforestation to combat climate change, and we have planted three million trees to date,” said Mailes. “It has been amazing to promote awareness of climate change for the last 20 years.”

Reaching new heights with support from WeCaN

Since Mailes joined WeCaN in 2022, it has been a source of knowledge, opportunities, and community spirit for Mailes. Transformative leadership training, capacity building, and exposure to the experiences of other WeCaN members fueled her personal and professional growth, enabling her to take SEPA to the international level. After mentoring and training support, she worked with regional networks like the South African Development Community and felt ready to ask her government for direct involvement as a community representative for Zambia at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP27. Once there, she actively advocated at COP during the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification-WeCaN side event.

"I have learned a lot from other WeCaN women members on what they are doing, which I want to replicate in my country," Mailes said.

It is clear that in the vast landscapes of rural Zambia, a story of economic transformation and women’s empowerment is unfolding—of course, led by the indomitable spirit of Mailes and the tireless efforts of SEPA.

(c) Mailes Zulu