Finding Solutions to Drought in Zimbabwe

By Jean Worth

Zimbabweans are very familiar with the word ‘suffering.’ It is their daily lived experience. If it isn’t politics that is causing it, it’s high inflation, with no jobs and, therefore, no money. People continually struggle to pay school fees and feed their families. But now a severe drought is adding to their woes. Poor rainfall has led to partial or complete crop failure in most parts of the country. Fortunately, as our Movement of Life project is discovering, there are solutions to this challenge.

The drought is exacerbating existing socio-economic vulnerabilities, particularly in rural communities that are reliant on rain-fed agriculture. Suburban communities around the major population centers are home to a growing number of people searching for any form of sustenance. Many people in these communities have grown up in sprawling suburbs with small, uninsulated houses and very small gardens. They have no experience of farming or growing vegetables and are not knowledgeable about matters concerning health and nutrition.

The good news is that in some areas the Movement of Life is beginning to turn things around. Fruit and vegetable gardening schemes are underway in a number of schools around Harare, the country’s capital, and students are learning about nutrition and how to stay healthy.

Initially, the students lost many of their crops once the rains stopped and the drought took hold. They were therefore encouraged to each bring a 1-liter bottle of water to school each day to try and keep the school gardens alive. While this certainly helped, the resulting quantities of fruit and vegetable produce remained small.

Taking a different approach, the pastor at a local church paid to set up a water borehole on a piece of communal land. A group of community members soon created vegetable gardens around the site, while students from a nearby school used water from the borehole to help keep their own vegetable gardens alive.

Seeing how successful this borehole was in providing water, Bruce Kanengoni, coordinator of the Movement of Life Zimbabwe team, approached the head of a local school to discuss the possibility of setting up one on his facility’s land. An agreement was reached wherein the cost would be shared with the Dr. Rath Health Foundation and access to the water would also be made available to the local community. Subsequent to this a further borehole was then installed at a second school, on similar terms.

These boreholes have not only provided people with access to water. They have also brought hope. With their crops no longer failing, many community members are aiming to achieve sufficiently large harvests that some produce can be sold, thus helping to take them out of poverty. This will enable more parents to pay the necessary fees to enable their children to attend school.

With plentiful supplies of water, crops are thriving.

Meanwhile, with drought sweeping across southern Africa, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has declared a state of disaster in Zimbabwe. He says the top priority of his government is to “secure food for all Zimbabweans,” adding that “no Zimbabwean must succumb to, or die from, hunger.” The Dr. Rath Health Foundation and the Movement of Life share these goals. There’s a long way to go, but there are solutions to the challenges the country is facing.

If you would like to help support our work in Zimbabwe, any donation you can make, no matter how small, will be very greatly appreciated.

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Jean Worth

Jean is an experienced educator with a Master's degree in Education. Over several decades she has worked in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, and in northern remote areas of Australia with Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Her experiences range from primary school teaching through to secondary school and then into Remote Area Teacher Education programmes in Arnhem Land and in the Kalahari. Originally from Zimbabwe, Jean has never lost her love for the country and its people and is keen to use her knowledge to help improve the lives of people who are living in poverty.

Jean ist eine erfahrene Pädagogin mit einem Master-Abschluss in Pädagogik. Über mehrere Jahrzehnte hat sie in Simbabwe, Mosambik und Namibia gearbeitet und in abgelegenen nördlichen Gebieten Australiens mit australischen Aborigines und Torres-Strait-Insulanern. Ihre Erfahrungen reichen vom Grundschulunterricht über die Sekundarstufe bis hin zu Ausbildungs¬programmen für Lehrer in abgelegenen Gebieten im Arnhem Land und in der Kalahari. Ursprünglich aus Simbabwe kommend, hat Jean ihre Liebe zu Land und Leuten nie verloren und möchte ihr Wissen nutzen, um das Leben der Menschen zu verbessern, die in Armut leben.

Latest posts by Jean Worth (see all)

• Finding Solutions to Drought in Zimbabwe - June 28, 2024
• Spreading Health, Hope, and Prosperity in Zimbabwe - July 21, 2023
• Let’s Help Each Other - April 14, 2023