Enable 500 Tanzanian youth to feed their families

FEEDBACK FROM ZEZE VILLAGE,  AUGUST 2016

Zeze community is achieving steady progress feeding their families! Poverty and farming illiteracy have been problems for many households in Zeze community. Adapting to sustainable practices for organic farming, having access to water and small capital to start micro-businesses enables Tanzanian youth to feed their families. We have trained villagers on how to start small businesses and on how to make soap. 

Community access to clean and reliable water is the major challenge in Zeze village, but the fund from GlobalGiving has allowed us to make great strides. A water borehole attached to a rope hand pump, is feeding 240 households with water for 12 hours every day. School children and mothers who previously spent over 2 hours a day collecting water from the stream now have more time to carry on with their studies while mothers get extra time for farming and other productive activities.

Improved Farming is a practical progress engaging young people growing vegetables and other crops to enable their family’s access to nutritious foods and income. We help them with compost making, use of animal manure,    establishment of irrigation schemes, and use of improved crop seeds.  Since May 2016, MVG has 24 youth operated farming activities at Zeze village to enable their families with food sufficiency.

Feedback from the Community

Modesta is a woman in a household of seven members in the village. She cares for her four kids, her old mother and her young sister. She is happy with the difference she is making in her life and for her family. Modesta says “I am the family mother. I am happy with my improved vegetable farming because they have enabled an improvement in my family's nutrition. We eat three meals a day instead of eating twice, like we did before" Modesta says.

Levitha is a married women with 5 children while January is an unmarried young man supporting his parents and young sisters who are in forms two and four, in secondary school. They are both in the same group making soap and farming. The finances produced from soap making is therefore diversified into farming and other family consumable goods. “Improving my family life needs good health. I cannot improve it by eating good food only, but need to also improve the hygiene of my family. I am happy soaps are giving me money which I am using for increasing food, clothes and my home utensils. I am glad because this project is bringing respect and unity in my family. I am not dependant on my husband anymore, we are both helping each other to improve our lives,”  Levitha says. January had a short sentence to say of the joy he has to be part of the changes needed in Zeze community. “We are in a group making soap,  I am so happy. This project is great for family support, unit and hygiene,” January added.

Epiphania had never thought she could feed her family of 6 household members including three school students because agricultural produce has been declining. She did not know how to improve small scale farming to increase yields until she got MVG support. Since February 2016 she started adapting to modern farming which has enabled her to increase white beans production. “I would have not managed to produce enough food if I did not have your (MVG) support. Since I adapted soil improving farming methods from you in February, I have tripled production with the same size of land I used before. I am proud to be feeding my family this year and will increase more production next season,” Epiphania says. Mboni ya Vijana Group supported her with the best farming methods education and agriculture implements in March 2016.

Godiliva is a married woman living with her mother and six of her 9 children. She benefits with Mboni ya Vijana Groups’ projects including micro-credit scheme. In March 2016, she started growing yams and other crops with the assistance of a small loan and now she is harvesting both crops. “I am not only happy with my work but we are all happy in the family. We eat three meals a day, we enjoy and we support each other in the family and community as well. We are in the generation in which my family is self sufficient with food,” Godiliva says.

Adrophina is a graduate and MVG member transforming Zeze society to adapt the best farming practices to improve productivity per area and resources. She has established a pilot plot on which she grows varieties of crops including a wide variety of vegetables. “I would really like the community to learn from my work. I am not doing this just to enable my family, but also to teach others,” Adrophina says. Adrophina is maintaining her plot using water drilled by MVG but also with varieties of seeds and irrigation materials supplied to her.

Vedasto is one of the Mboni ya Vijana Group (MVG’s) beneficiaries living in Zeze. He is living with his older parents and his nephew in a household of four members. He was often migrating around Tanzania searching for a good life without success and finally decided to stay at Zeze and to adapt modern methods of farming using organic matters. “Mboni ya Vijana has enlightened my future. I was illiterate to improve agriculture but now I know how to change obstacles into opportunities. I change waste into organic fertiliser to yield high,” Vedasto says. “I did not believe that dry materials could change into fertilizer hence why I was burning everything that was dry with fire but with Mboni education, I will be using waste for wealth production,” he added.

Your generosity helps villagers like these lift themselves and their families out of extreme poverty.  Thank you again from the people of Zeze. 

• Progress Narrative Report Due as August 2o16 (DOCX)