Enable 500 Tanzanian youth to feed their families

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..