PAST PROJECTS in ZIMBABWE

WARD 15 – Bulawayo Community Garden Projects

Details of Ward 15, the Luveve Old Age and Poultry Garden:

COMMENCEMENT: Established in January 2013, Luveve Old Age and Poultry Garden is located adjacent to a block of houses and is farmed by 19 families.

LAND AREA: In 2014, the original lease over 900 sq m was expanded by members to now include an area of 0.8 ha.

COMMUNITY BENEFITS: On expansion, the members decided to adopt Entembeni Old Peoples Home and make twice monthly donations of fresh vegetables. When they can they also contribute basics such as salt, sugar, cooking oil, candles and matches, using the money that comes out of their garden.

RECENT PROGRESS: In 2015, the original hand pump was converted to an electric submersible linked to a diesel generator and connected to large existing water tank for overnight storage. A portion of the water serves a nearby community.

FUTURE PLANS: The long term plan of members is to add a poultry business.

WARD 27 – Bulawayo Community Garden Projects

Details of Ward 27, the Women’s Daycare Centre and Garden:

COMMENCEMENT: Established in January 2013, the Women’s Day care Centre and Garden is located in Pumula South Township and comprises 21 women in a women’s only garden (with a recent addition of one of the husbands).

LAND AREA: The original lease of 900 sq m was expanded by the women in early 2015 and this more than doubled the acreage.

COMMUNITY BENEFITS: As well as the gardens, there is a small church and 4 business units that have been established adjacent to the house offering services a such as LPG gas, mobile phone cards, carpentry and a brick making enterprise.

This now constitutes a community business hub with potential for further growth. Direct and indirect beneficiaries total over 200.

RECENT PROGRESS: An old house has been partly refurbished and two toilets restored to comply with municipal health regulations. This is used as the Daycare centre.

A hand pump has been converted to diesel power drawing from an old well situated within the extended lease area.

Permaculture in Schools program

VISION: To see an improved quality of life through active participation of the young children in sustainable land-use management in their school and communities.

SCHOOLS: Sally Foundation has partnered with Health Excellence to introduce a Permaculture Program in a cluster of 5 schools in Bulawayo. The program is essentially about ushering in a new way of Environmental thinking and action in the teachers, children and adjacent community – through growing trees, crops and vegetables within the school.

The key is to do this in a co-ordinated way that is lead by the School Leaders and parents to the youngsters themselves, with the objective of restoring and preserving the environment surrounding the school at the same time protecting it from soil erosion.

A schools program was selected as they are vibrant centers for this development and centers for much needed Environmental change. Many schools have substantial soil erosion caused by bad practices such as total removal of ground cover by weeding and sweeping. Continuous degradation of soil goes on unchecked. Schools still burn dry vegetable matter like leaves and dry grasses while they do not have manure to nourish their soils.

There is often too much use of non-food plants which demand a lot of the scarce water which can alternatively be used for gardening to produce food for the hungry children. Most do not have enough food for the learners, for the teachers and the community.

Young children receive mentoring on environmental management issues and learn to solve their own Environmental problems from a young age.

IMPLEMENTATION: Intensive training is undertaken for the selected number of teachers, learners, community representatives and ground management staff – leading to the formation of a Permaculture club. This club will not only produce ‘kitchen gardens’ but also be valuable to the children who join as they will more likely implement the training at their homes to feed their own family – and potentially go into agriculture as adults. This is good for Zimbabwe, who is pushing the agriculture agenda at the moment.

OUTPUTS:

• The participation of children, parents, staff and other stakeholders in the planning, implementation and monitoring of their new landscape design for their grounds. This creates a more socially sound community. Improved community cohesion
• Stronger school and community linkages
• Increased access to fruits, vegetables, herbs and other foods
• Culinary, aromatic and medicinal use of herbs
• Enhanced teaching and learning using locally available resources
• A real mixed forest at school – a source for real life examples across the curriculum
• Increased motivation by children and teachers

SELF-SUSTENANCE/SUSTAINABILITY: The program should eventually be self-supporting and recycling itself and as soon as all the envisaged areas have been covered it must continue to grow itself and also create and support other similar programs within the community and the whole region as well.

Cooking School at Entembeni

NGOZI Dump Site settlement

BACKGROUND: An informal community of some 600 people, including many orphans, live on or next to a dump site outside Bulawayo, known as Ngozi mine, or Ngozi dump site. They have no basic infrastructure, electricity, facilities or piped water.

FUNDING: In this neglected community Sally has provided funding for a toilet block – the only one in the settlement.

PARTNERS: Sally partnered with the local Bethel Church to enhance this community and hopefully attract other organisations. This has led to Sally Foundation funding a library to enhance a school they have set up in conjunction with Open Schools Worldwide. This is complementary to the toilet block addition.

DRAMA PROGRAMME: Geraldine Roche Drama has also been running a dedicated programme at the NGOZI Mine dump site. Drama is regularly performed there with Young At Heart.

The holistic approach adopted by Young at Heart highlights messages such as behaviour change, human rights and birth registration awareness. These are conveyed through puppetry making it easy for the audience to understand.

BENEFITS: The YAH programmes at Ngozi have impacted positively in the community in many respects -from attracting organisations who have assisted people to get their birth certificates, an increased number of people going to HIV testing, greater awareness of the dangers of sexual/child exploitation, understanding self worth – to name a few.

And at the same time as bringing some laughter and joy to an impoverished group and some dignity as residents can now utilise a proper private toilet for the first time. A good example of how Sally Foundation and Geraldine Roche drama work together.