FCTZ A Better Life upenyu hwakanaka Impilo Enhle Mumapurazi Budiriro Mumapurazi Quarterly Newsletter March - May 2007 Celebrating 10 years of facilitating the empowerment of vulnerable groups in farm communities WHATS INSIDE Editorial…………………………………….....................…........................Pg - 1 Your letters……………………………………….............….....................….…Pg - 2 New hope for orphans in Chihwiti…………………….…………................….Pg - 3 More food despite poor rains-case study on conservation agriculture…Pg - 4 Old but going strong- story on goat pass on scheme……….….....………..Pg - 5 Widower gives away chickens to vulnerable groups……………….......…..Pg - 6 A man who has a passion for beekeeping………………..…… …….……….…..Pg - 7 Chawasarira nutrition garden bears fruit………….……………………………....Pg - 8 Smallholder farmer dedicated to community development…………...…pg - 9 Nyanzou garden source of livelihoods for many households………………Pg - 10 Chicken pass on project helpful- says beneficiary…………….…….....…..Pg - 11 Promoting household food security, Being HIV not disability- woman………………………………………...........….Pg - 12 income and sustainable livelihoods Children's Section……………………………….…..……………….……….............Pg - 14 Anniversary theme winner……………………………………………........………….Pg - 15 WELCOME MESSAGE EDITORIAL Welcome to the March-May 2007 issue of Budiriro Mumapurazi, Farm Community The Protracted Relief Programme (PRP) Trust of Zimbabwe (FCTZ’s) Quarterly with funding from the Department for Newsletter. This edition focuses on food security, sustainable livelihoods and HIV International Development (DFID) aims and AIDS. The newsletter will publish case to assist the poorest and most vulnerable studies on the impact of the FCTZ Sustainable Livelihoods Programme. households in Zimbabwe suffering from Testimonies on HIV and AIDS, which will the effects of rainfall failures, economic also feature in the newsletter, will inform readers on how farming communities are decline and the HIV and AIDS epidemic. copying with HIV and AIDS. The Children As a member of the PRP programme, Poem competition is also published in the Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe Children’s Section. For more details about FCTZ programmes, please refer to the (FCTZ) implements a number of contact details below or write to Budiriro activities designed to boost food Mumapurazi, P. O. Box WGT 1049, Westgate, Harare. production by the poor, to improve access to water as well as provision of care to the chronically ill persons. FCTZ implements these CONTACT DETAILS National Office: activities in former large-scale commercial farming areas and rural Harare informal settlements in the four provinces of Mashonaland East, Physical Address: 9A William Gale Close Marlborough, Harare, Zimbabwe West, Central and Manicaland. FCTZ target groups are (ex) farm P.O Box WGT 1049, Westgate Harare, workers and other vulnerable groups in these areas. Zimbabwe Telephone: 263-(04) - 300290, 309889, 309898, 309244 In line with the PRP aims, this newsletter focuses on promotion of Fax: 263- (04) - 309398 household food security, income and sustainable livelihoods. The E-mail: [email protected] newsletter will publish case studies of groups, households and Mashonaland East: individuals who will showcase the impact of the organization’s Marondera Physical Address 1st Floor 51A sustainable livelihoods programme. The case studies will show the The Green, Marondera. P.O. Box 1143 impact of nutrition gardens, livestock pass on scheme and Marondera. conservation farming programmes being implemented in Chihwiti/ Tel/Fax: (079) 21398 E-mail: [email protected] Gambuli settlements in Makonde District of Mashonaland West Province. Mashonaland Central: Bindura Physical Address: At household and community level, nutrition gardens have provided 494 Hughgundry Road , Bindura P. O. Box 143, Bindura. vegetables and culinary herbs. The livestock pass on scheme has Tel/ Fax: (071) 7316 improved households’ dietary options, nutrition, food security and E-mail: [email protected] income while conservation farming, a technology ideally suited to Mashonaland West: poor farming households, has seen vulnerable groups increasing their Chinhoyi Physical Address: harvests in recent years. However all is not on a bed of roses. 109 North Drive, Chinhoyi Tel/Fax: (067) 28896/ 28438 Challenges ranging from limited access to water and land are being P.O Box 1162, Chinhoyi experienced. Programme challenges and proposed solutions are also E-mail: [email protected] published within the case studies showcased. Manicaland: Mutare Physical Address: As usual, the newsletter will also publish the case stories on people 118-3rd Street, Mutare Tel/fax:(020) 68873/ 63538 living positively on HIV and AIDS. The Children Section, which P.O Box 1592 promotes the voice of the children and whose current focus is Health, Mutare E-mail: [email protected] will also be published. VISIT OUR WEBSITE ON – www.fctz.org.zw Your comments and views are welcome. Thank you. THIS NEWSLETTER WAS PRODUCED B Y: Takaitei Bote – Communications Officer Takaitei Bote DESIGNED AND PRINTED BY: HARMONY PRINTERS Budiriro Mumapurazi 1 Your Letters Request for a water pump I am a man aged 44. My wife and I are HIV positive. We live at Villa Franca Farm in Glendale. We have three children. The oldest child is 11, the second is nine and the last born is five years old. We are thinking of starting projects on rabbits, ducks, chickens and vegetables. We need water for the projects. We have a seven horse power water pump. We want a smaller water pump suitable for the kind work we want to do. We are writing to Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe (FCTZ) to request for a small water pump to start our projects. We are looking forward to your assistance Yours sincerely William Good and Rebecca Kurasha Dear William Good and Rebecca Kurasha Thank you for your letter in which you requested a water pump. Unfortunately, Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe (FCTZ) has no programme where it donates water pumps. Thank you. Editor Peer educators make progress in Muzarabani Peer educators in Muzarabani district have successfully grouped in-school child protection committees (CPCs) which were elected in four wards which are 11, 12, 13, 14 in Muzarabani. The CPCs are now operating as a district club which they named The Muzarabani Children’s Club. The district club looks at children’s rights within their community. The club consists of junior councilors and including out of school peers. Thank you FCTZ for introducing peer education in our area. Needmore Famba Bhangeni Provincial Peer Educator And Trainer (Mashonaland- Central). 2 Budiriro Mumapurazi New hope for the vulnerable groups in Chihwiti Orphans set to benefit from sweet potatoes project Shaireti Sagen (12), an orphan who lives in Tiritose Village in Chihwiti Mashonaland West province wishes to go to school one day. Shaireti is expecting to go to school after she sells produce from a sweet potato project. She is a member of a garden project set up for vulnerable members in her area. Shaireti is vulnerable as she lost both her parents. Shaireti’s foster parents, who are her uncle and aunt registered on her behalf to be project members. The project was established in 2006 comprising of 30 households ‘ who received sweet potato seedlings from Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe (FCTZ). The members were selected at community level comprising orphans, foster parents, chronically ill persons, the elderly, widows and widowers. Agriculture Research Extension (AREX) trained the members in conjunction with FCTZ. Speaking to an FCTZ communications team recently Shaireti said in addition to the sweet potatoes, the group produces leafy vegetables. It produced sweet potatoes for the first time this year. Some had already harvested the sweet potatoes when the FCTZ communications team visited the garden in May 2007.The objective of the sweet potato programme is to promote food security and nutrition among vulnerable groups. Integration of sweet potatoes in the garden also increases utilization of garden space. A total of four nursery gardens in Chihwiti are supplying sweet potatoes to the community. Shaireti vowed that she will work hard in the garden so that she goes to school. Shaireti has only done up to grade one at the age of 12. She expressed her satisfaction with the progress at the garden as one of her young sisters is now going to school using money from the garden produce. She said she was allocated seven beds of sweet potatoes which she irrigates. In addition, she said there are challenges being faced by the group such as water shortage as the borehole installed for the community is currently not working. Shaireti said she makes several trips to a nearby well to fetch water for irrigation purposes. Shaireti Sagen working in the garden Budiriro Mumapurazi 3 More food despite poor rains Conservation farming an alternative farming system for Chihwiti household Mr. Daniel Muzhona, his wife and grand children at their home The food security status for the Muzhona family, which lives in Village 7A, Kanyaga, Chihwiti, has been improving in recent years despite the poor rainfall patterns in the area. Asked in an interview recently, Mr. Daniel Muzhona, said his family has produced food adequate for the household using conservation farming methods in recent years under adverse rainfall patterns. He said his family had produced more food using conservation farming than the conventional farming method. “I planted maize on one acre (0.405ha) using conventional