ZANE donors are transforming communities to become self-sufficient. ZANE helps people in the high-density areas around Zimbabwe’s major cities to start their own businesses. In this way ZANE is enabling communities to become self-sufficient and is helping to re-build Zimbabwe society.
Due to the collapse of manufacturing and industry in Zimbabwe in recent years, the informal sector has increasingly emerged as the only way to survive for people in the poorer urban communities. ZANE is working in these communities seeking models for sustainable solutions.
Farming Training Programmes
ZANE works with foundations for farming training programmes. ZANE trains local communities in the high-density areas surrounding Zimbabwe’s major cities in sustainable farming methods. The vision is to demonstrate a model of community life which will allow grassroots communities to help to rebuild their broken country from the bottom up in a sustainable way.
The following is a report from a ZANE training co-ordinator:
We urged each of the farmers to plant half of their crop using compost and half using fertiliser and then compare the output from these two areas. The purpose of this was to demonstrate to the farmers how effective compost is in the production of maize and build their confidence in this method.
Ultimately, we want the farmers to use compost exclusively in a bid to encourage self-sufficiency.
In each of the areas we planned to have a demonstration garden at a very visible site so as to ‘advertise’ this amazing and beneficial tool that we have. All the farmers were given two weeks to prepare their land before we assess their efforts and given string for demarcating the plots, seed and fertilizer where appropriate. Stringent rules were to be followed and numerous follow-ups taken in order to achieve the excellence required for the method to be successful.
A few of the ladies already run their own ‘tuck shops”/vegetable stalls, so we discussed and did a small workshop on how to improve and increase sales, make enough profit, etc.
The ladies leave as early as 3 am to Mbare Market to purchase vegetables to bring back and sell.
School Education
With the current collapse of the economy in Zimbabwe, many children are simply unable to attend school because their parents cannot afford even minimal school fees.
ZANE has sponsored several pop-up classrooms for children living in the high-density townships, which means that they will be able to follow a curriculum consisting of basic literacy and numeracy but will also learn farming techniques to enable them to grow food for their families.
