New Fence Protects Women’s Crops
Six hundred women in Chomuzangari village, Zimbabwe, can grow more food for their families, thanks to Chomuzangari Women’s Co-operative project funded by the Welsh Government’s Wales for Africa programme.
The first phase of the project has been completed successfully – fencing one hectare of garden so that the women’s crops are no longer destroyed by foraging wild animals.
Climate change has made life challenging for women in Chomuzangari as frequent droughts mean traditional water sources dry up. Our previous projects included establishing the vegetable garden and installing a borehole and pump so the villagers could access fresh water for drinking, washing and watering crops.
Things were going well and the garden was providing food for hundreds of families. The women were able to sell surplus vegetables to the local school and this provided some income for them and fresh healthy food for the school children.
The problem was that wild animals could get into the garden and help themselves to the crops. The grant from the Welsh Government, through the Wales Council for Voluntary Action, has allowed us to construct a fence to keep animals, both wild and domestic, out of the garden.
The community played a very important role in ensuring that the whole project was implemented successfully contributing labour and food for the 67 volunteers who built the fence.
We will monitor the success of the project but we expect the fencing to help the women grow more food and earn more money. We plan to support the women to work together to get the best prices for their produce and support the local economy
