By Cephas Shava
Mwenezi- As part of efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change and enhance community resilience in the remote Mwenezi District, Score Against Poverty, a locally based community organisation is spearheading a successful Indigenous Nature- Based Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation in Zimbabwe (LINCZ) covering six wards of the district.
The initiative, which is a consortium partnership also fronted by the Mennonite Central Committee is funded by the Global Affairs Canada and has seen Score Against Poverty taking partners on a tour of the projects sites where the focus was on farmers who engage in fodder production and bee keeping.
Speaking to TellZim News after the tour where farmers shared their success stories, Score Against Poverty Programme Director Caroline Pugeni said the project which started in November last year had a total of 9000 farmers who are on fodder production.
“Our Project started on November 24 last year and so far we have got a total of 9 000 beneficiaries of which 5 400 are female while 3 600 are male. The project is being implemented in six wards of Mwenezi district which are ward 1, 3,4,6,10 and ward 14,” Said Pugeni.
One beneficiary Cosiness Dube who hails from ward 1 said as one of the team leaders she was impressed by the knowledge she acquired from the fodder production project saying supplementing their livestock’s with own made feeds was going a long way in saving the poverty stricken villagers who lives from hand- to-mouth.
“Given that most of the villagers cannot afford to buy their livestock’s supplementary feeds, the fodder production project has brought relief to locals who are now fully equipped with the knowledge on fodder productions.
“Using some fertilizer and various crop remains in 28 days’ time our supplementary feeds will be ready for consumption for our livestocks. Given that drought has become a regular phenomenon in our district, fodder production knowledge which is being imparted by Score Against Poverty is going to go a long way in alleviating poverty,” Said Dube.
Score Against Poverty field Officer, Cynthia Mutsindikwa added that in addition to promoting gender equality, the organisation had a total of 100 bee farmers of which 53 of them were women and 47 men.
She said among several other projects Score Against Poverty also spearhead projects like sustainable harvesting of mopane worms, land rehabilitation through cash for work, clean energy, conservation agriculture, value chains and business development.
