Enable 500 Tanzanian youth to feed their families

Transforming the poor society especially to access enough and nutritious food, is a gradual process that requires commitment, tolerance and support from both stakeholders. Mboni ya Vijana Group (MVG) is the proud initiative that is real heading to nutritious food and income prosperous for the poor youth society of Zeze in Kasulu Tanzania. We are changing ways of food production and income bolster to youth and women at Zeze village which is therefore bringing well-being to their families. However it is not so fast like flog leaping to water destination, we have moved ahead of the previous situation and registered impressive outcome as beneficiaries substantiate their achievement through the initiative;

Jesca is a woman aged 32 years old and caring a family of 6 members. She enjoys accessing fish the very nutritious food for her family. "I can't explain how happier life we are having today. It has never happened in my life to see and eat fresh fish with my family. I am my family we are proud of the initiative which is making enough and nutritious food available in our local place" Jesca says. The Mboni ya Vijana is making wonderful job to sustain youth with nutritious food through fish farming which is very potential for providing food which is building children's health and improve their learning abilities. 

January is a young man aged 22 years old and he is a small farmer who has never thought of producing enough food for him and marketing. He therefore accessed farming support that has made big difference to his life. "I am not the family father despite that I have all my parents. I grew in an extremely poverty and we were able to eat once in a day. Mostly we did not eat good food which made us live sorrowful. Now I am the great, I feed the whole family and I earm money from improved farming I adapted and supported by Mboni ya Vijana Group. I am not the only lucky; the entire community is of much lucky" January states.

Njongo and Teodosia are youth enjoying revolution which are brought by access to water for irrigation and fish farming. They are also growing trees for environmental conservation which is powered by accessibility of water drawn from the borehole installed submersible pump. "The works now are now very easy. It has been difficult to grow vegetables, managing fish ponds and germinating trees for the environments. Now I can do the great jobs through dry season with the access to water for irrigation". Njongo reveals. Teodosia is not away from the steps to adaptation. "We girls have been children home care after schools graduation especially when we have not passed for higher classes. Availability of resources in Mboni ya Vijana Group, are changing the situation positively. Now I am a vegetable, trees growers and in the evening I sells vegetables to earn money. These are the great revolution in my life and I cannot be forced to marry away by my parents because I support them from my earning. Water is the key to the achievement I am getting" she prescribed.

The progresses laid to Zeze village is fuelled by the donations which have been collected through GlobalGiving that we all the Zeze society appreciate. The future is great than the past with all of our effort to gradual transformation of the poor to prosperity and well-being.

Life is very busy in Zeze now.  People are harvesting their maize and beans and preparing small vegetable gardens to grow local spinach to enhance their diets with vegetables.  Because of the small loans we were able to give out earlier in the year villagers were able to buy better seeds and organic fertilizer and so yields are greatly up on last year.  

This is a great achievement as it has been a challenging year in many ways.  First there was the problem of the Fall Army Worm which destroyed maize unless farmers were very vigilant and picked them off, and then there was severe flooding caused by torrential rainfall over much of Tanzania, including Zeze.  Normally either of these events could have led to calamity, but due to the farmers' training we delivered, and community mobilisation in digging drainage ditches hunger was averted.

So now families have a safety net of maize to get them through to next harvest and are able to feed their children three times a day so they can thrive.  

There is other good news in Zeze - after years of negotiation we have persuaded Water Mission to deliver a better water system in the village.  So for the last month we have been helping them install new water tanks, a solar pump and pipework for 15 new taps around the village.  So for the first time the 3 schools have access to water.  And people will no longer have to wait for hours to fill their containers at the few working pumps or carry them many miles from the stream.  The taps will be switched on next week and everyone is very excited!

Better access to water will also mean more opportunities for villagers to grow a wider range of vegetables to improve their diet and potentially to sell to raise income.  But to do this they need access to good seeds and ideally simple irrigation equipment.  We are hoping to extend the farmers loan scheme to cover this and enable more families to benefit next year, with your help.

Thank you so much for your generosity - it continues to make so much difference to the people of Zeze..