Overview:
Working in three different communities in the capital city Harare and a nearby rural village, our partners will train very poor communities of predominantly women and widows to implement income-generating projects, namely point-of-lay chickens, bee-keeping and making peanut butter. The aim is to more effectively and sustainably meet their physical needs of general sustenance and then replicate their skills in the longer term. As a result families will have better food security and any surplus can be sold to generate extra income.
What we like about it:
This project doesn’t just provide one-off training and then move on. The families are part of a twelve-month program where our partner walks them through the skills needed for the activity. Each community has identified one of the three activities where they think they can best succeed. Communities provide land and labour and some farming equipment, together with planning, research and risk management. Building on programs completed in 2016 and 2017 with Entrust, villagers can see that working collaboratively and supporting each other brings beneftis to everyone.
Budget: $16,000
The budget covers the cost of training 12 women in each community, which indirecty supports 135 family members and other local tradespeople. The budget allows for 100 chickens and a fowl run, beekeeping equipment and two hives, the materials needed for making peanut butter and supports the salaries of the staff to run the programs.
The Need:
In recent years, food production in Zimbabwe has been devastated by a number of factors incuding natural disasters and economic and political instability. Recurrent drought, high unemployment and HIV/AIDS (the fifth highest in the world) have contributed to increasing levels of vulnerability and actue food insecurtity. Only 11% of children aged 6-23 months receive a minimum acceptable diet and one-third of Zimbabwean children are stunted or short for their age. Life is tough and insufficient food compounds all their other problems.
Life Change:
