Podcasting In Rural Zimbabwe

Here is an example of how Practical Action is providing rural chicken farmers with information on disease and disease prevention.

Practical Action

Hi Everyone,
If you live or work in a developing country and you are looking for innovative, low cost ways to improve lives and help others generate income for themselves, Practical Action is a fabulous organization.  I came across this video which gives a good overview of who they are and what they are about.  Theur website also offers a wealth of resources from free reading materials to tutorials on for example How To make Candles, or How To Make Fruit Candy.  This information can be shared with one person or many.  Either way, you can make a difference in someone's life.
The video below demonstrates their work in action around the world, including Zimbabwe.  Simple solutions, from micro-hydro power in Kenya to flood-protection in Nepal, and smoke hoods to reduce indoor air pollution. They also have Spanish-language videos at http://es.youtube.com/user/ITDGPeru, and Practical Answers videos on using technology to reduce poverty at http://www.youtube.com/user/practicalanswers

The Women of Minyore - Earning school fees from garbage

Here is an interesting video recently posted by Afrigadget:

Bees in War Against Poverty

The Herald - August 11, 2011
By Ruth Bataumochoh


Thirty-eight-year-old Judith Rutsito of Nyajese village in Nyanga was devastated when her husband died in 2002, leaving her with three children to fend for.


With no pension, nor any formal education that she could use to look for employment to sustain the family, her only option was to brew beer for sale, which she did vehemently for a good one year.
However, a visit to one of her brother-in-laws' homestead, Mr Andrew Nyandoro, turned out to be a life-changing experience that was also to improve her ebbing lifestyle and that of her children, who introduced her to beekeeping as a source of livelihood.
Reminiscing over the trying times she went through the first two years following her husband's death, Mrs Rutsito who is known in the neighbourhood as Mai Chifamba believes her fortunes could have turned around overnight.
Beekeeping, which is centuries old in Zimbabwe, has become a well-recognised entrepreneurial activity among small holder farmers with an estimated 50 000 beekeepers engaged in the activity.
The beauty of it all is that the bee farming industry, together with the horticulture industry and the safari businesses, once the preserve of white commercial farmers, is now open to the small-scale farmers, following the agrarian reforms.
And small- scale farmers have found beekeeping as a viable income- generating activity considering that it is done on a part-time basis, allowing farmers to concentrate on other agricultural activities, while waiting to "harvest".
With no heavy capital injection needed to kick-start the project as is the case with a litany of income-generating projects, smallholder farmers can afford to make a financial projection premised on the diverse plant species as well as the ecological and climatic conditions.
Like other beekeepers sprouted around the country, farmers in the Nyajese's Village 14, have witnessed a dramatic and positive change in their lifestyle, since they started beekeeping in the area.
Although most of them inherited the beehives from past generations that relied mainly on traditional technologies, they have been able to upgrade them to hives from timber, used pots and baskets.
Use of brown sugar, beeswax and propolis as baits has resulted in increased yields, undoubtedly doubling farmers' incomes.
Nyandoro (52), who has been involved in beekeeping for the past 19 years, says his flirtation with bees has paid dividends, adding that his lifestyle bears testimony of benefits he has to date accrued since a neighbour introduced him to apiculture.
"I come from a humble background and for 20 years, I slept in a traditional granary until I managed to build a three-bedroomed house from the proceeds of honey," he said.
Nyandoro who started off with 20 hives, now has over 100, a feat he has achieved owing to patience, persistence and determination. Nyanga
"I now have a regular source of income and I am able to plan and buy inputs for my farming projects, while paying fees for my children," he gushed.
Realising that the numerous spin-offs from beekeeping, villagers have since adopted "busy bee attitude" towards honey production.
So intense are their efforts to make money from honey that they have since formed a co-operative made up of more than 50 people - all beekeepers, though in various stages.
They say the co-operative is one of the mechanism they are using to collectively market their produce, and in the process benefit from schemes that are being introduced by players keen on investing in the beekeeping sector.
Already their synergies have yielded results after a private company Savanna Delights entered into a partnership with them that will see the latter training them on beekeeping and later buying their produce.
Savanna Delights is a private company that supplies honey to retailers as well as honey as a raw material to the pharmaceutical and other industries.
The company is not a novice in the industry having trained small-scale farmers in Mutoko, Nyanga, Chimanimani, Hurungwe, Raffingora, Zvishavane, Chipinge, Buhera, where more than 1 000 households have since benefited from the initiative, which Savanna did in partnership with the Swedish Organisation for Individual Relief.
Savanna Delights is already working on an initiative to empower communities in Shurugwi and Makoni in beekeeping.
Executive director for Savanna Delights Mrs Selina Mercy Chitapi said the company was born out of the need to eradicate poverty by empowering communities with special focus on beekeeping as an intervention strategy.
"It was also born out of the realisation that the apiculture industry in the country was underdeveloped, despite the vast marketing opportunities available not only in Zimbabwe but in the region as well," she said.
Mrs Chitapi, however, said although beekeeping was slowly taking shape in Zimbabwe, individuals and organisations involved in the initiative were still not able to service the growing market.
She added that the huge deficit of honey in the country had resulted in Zimbabwe becoming a net importer of honey, despite the competitive advantage it has in producing the product at minimum cost.
"The country produces in excess of 100 tonnes of honey for the formal market, a figure which is way below the market expectations.
"As a result, a lot of people who use honey in production of say pharmaceutical products are now importing from South Africa.
"Demand for honey worldwide stands in excess of 909 million kilogrammes per annum, with Brazil and China being the major producers," she said.
She called on the Government and the private sector to support honey production, as a long-term poverty eradication strategy.
"If support is extended to the beekeeping community the country has the potential to produce three million kilo- grammes of honey from rural communities alone."
However, despite the low production level of honey in Zimbabwe, the activity is quite robust in neighbouring countries like Zambia and South Africa.
In the North-Western Province of Zambia, beekeeping has since expanded from an informal activity to a booming source of revenue, where more than 10 000 beekeepers own 500 000 hives, producing 1 000 metric tonnes of honey per year.
Half of the honey and other bee products are exported mainly to Europe, earning the country the much-needed foreign currency.

Candle Making and Goats in Zimbabwe

Open Air Candle Making Class

After a tree planting ceremony in Chiweshe the village Chief expressed a need for help with income generating project ideas. 

A month later, we had partnered with a local micro finance organization and travelled to Chiweshe to support candle making training and the beginnings of a very promising goat  rearing project.

The Chairman of the committee shares their plans for the goat project and enclosure



 Together with 2 university iterns from the micro finance organization, we came up with a plan to start 2 projects – one for candle making and another for goat rearing (a world away from New York city for sure).   Tashanda did the research on the different types of candles and candle making techniques around the globe and also researched income generating ideas for goat projects.    


During our visit to Zimbabwe we took alaptop and shared Youtube videos on candle making with the villagers.   The purpose of the video demonstration was to encourage them to think beyond what they imagined was possible (in this case, thinking beyond residential candles for domestic lighting).     It was our hope that after they had mastered the candle making technique they would begin to experiment further. 



The in-progress goat enclosure



We were also given a tour of the new enclosure built for the goat project.   The villagers organized themselves into groups of 11 and 20 for candle making and goats respectively.  Each group has a chairman, a vice chairman and a secretary.  The secretary took notes throughout the day!  A candle making project for 11 villagers costs $600. 

Bow Hunting in Southern Africa - A new spin on tourism

An American colleague recently returned from a trip to Southern Africa where he experienced bow hunting for the first time. Apparently South Africa has become a top choice for bow hunters and professional hunters world wide because a) it is a vastly different experience from most parts of the world and b) it is extremely affordable. While hunting is very popular in this region of Africa I had never heard of bow hunting not that I am a fan of hunting at all.
If you are like me, and want to consider alternatives you can visit safaris and game parks for a day or more. These come with spa services, game drives, and other activities. I think people should consider Africa more when they plan their vacations because it it an unforgettable experience. It's unconventional in some ways, but that's what makes it so thrilling.

Zimbabwe: Superwoman Found

This blog was posted by Nicole Johnston Oxfam's Regional Media and Communications Officer for Southern Africa:

Women Baking Bread

For women in rural Zimbabwe, unceasing toil is no guarantee that their children will eat tomorrow. Nicole Johnston interviews these incredibly hard-working and resourceful women.

Florence Manzu speaks at a women's meeting in Gutu [All photo credits: Nicole Johnston]At a tiny village in Gutu, Zimbabwe, Florence Manzu (21) questions why she works all day but has nothing to show for her efforts. “I am a hard worker. I get up and plough the fields and I work all day. All I need is fairness. I want to buy seeds at a fair price and I want to sell my goods at a fair price.”
Instead, Florence faces the problem many poor people experience: the less money you have, the more expensive services are. The nearest bus stop is a 16km walk, and bus fare to the small town of Gutu costs $US5 each way. But shops in the village charge way over the odds for basic necessities, in a country where prices are already high. “A bar of laundry soap costs US$2.50 here, but in town it is 80c…But what can I do? I don’t have $10 to get to town.”
As we speak, a crowd of women gathers round, all keen to make their voices heard.
“We have no water to drink. We can walk 20 kms looking for water, and it is a job for women.”
“We have no toilets so we are very much afraid of cholera.”
“The clinics have no water or medicine and sometimes no qualified staff. They tell us to bring candles but how can we?”
“Schools are deteriorating but we have to pay more.”
“There is no market where we can sell our goods, so we have to barter on unfavourable terms.”

Women turn their problems into song in Gutu A lack of access to hard currency after the collapse of the Zimbabwe dollar and adoption of the US dollar has meant that most people in the rural areas are forced to barter precious livestock and their meagre harvests to pay for basic fees and services.
Children are expected to pay up to $10 each per month to their teachers, and parents tell of endless demands from teachers, from money for food to bus fare. Some parents sell their livestock to raise the cash. Parents will starve themselves to ensure children go to school.
At the next village we met Emilia and Eustina Nyamandi, waiting for their turn at the grinding mill. Eustina (26) is a subsistence farmer who grows maize, pearl millet and peanuts. But a third of her maize harvest will go to the owner of the mill.
“The food from the last harvest will last until about September, then we will have to buy food or barter our goats and chickens,” explains Eustina. “Sometimes you don’t get much…Last year I had to sell everything.” Eustina painstakingly rebuilt her livestock, but will probably have to sell it all by the end of the year once the “hungry season” hits.
“The rain is getting less and less each year. If we have two bad seasons in a row, it will be too difficult for us to live.”
Emilia and Eustina’s families survived last year because the grain marketing board sold them maize at a reduced price and they received food aid from NGOs. But neither woman is expecting a handout. “We need projects, like sewing affordable school uniforms or knitting jerseys,” says Emilia. “We need to earn money for our families.”
In the neighbouring district of Chirumanzu an innovative project run from the Saint Theresa’s mission aims to address many of these concerns. The mission hospital not only cares for orphans and vulnerable children, and offers voluntary counselling and testing, it also runs an outreach project for people living with HIV which provides home visits, psychosocial support and income generating schemes.


Sister Andrea gives her comments on a women's weaving project in ChirumanzuSister Andrea is deputy matron of the hospital and definitely the coolest nun I have ever met. She takes us to visit one of the women’s support groups, and as we arrive they burst into vigorous song and dance. Without missing a beat, Sister Andrea joins in. She then admires the baskets they have woven and gives advice on pricing, while explaining to me how the women extract fibre from sisal, and use tree bark to dye the sisal in various colours.
Sister Andrea explains that the biggest obstacle the women face is that they have nowhere to sell their products, and no way to get them to the big cities where buyers with ready cash might be found.
At the Takashinga support group in Chengwena, the women proudly display their baking project. Sister Andrea samples freshly baked buns and bread, served with delicious wild melon jam.

Women baking bread at the Takashinga support group in ChengwenaAs the women drum and dance joyously a woman beckons me over to a small fire. I am astounded to realise she is making shoe polish. The women dry pieces of black rubber and grind it into a fine powder, add paraffin and candle wax and cook it up before pouring it into old shoe polish tins.

The group plans to sell the bread and jam at schools “because it is hard for the children to get something to eat at break” and the shoe polish to people who can’t afford to buy it in town. Mary Ngoya (26) explains that even if they can’t shift all of their stock, “we sell to each other. It is cheaper than the shops.”