Provide Youth in Zimbabwe with Hope

The Greenhouse Initiative has had a huge positive impact on the project's major development objectives. One of the objectives is to develop agricultural projects that will enable us to not only feed the children but also enable the centre to become 60% sustainable. Within that, the centre aims at providing training opportunities for the girls who have no formal education set up their own businesses or assist them in gaining employment.

The students have had an opportunity to grow crops in the greenhouse, the crops have been a resounding success and the demand for the cherry tomatoes as well as the bell peppers has been very high. The cherry tomatoes that were planted in the greenhouse were estimated to yield s harvest target +/- 300kg of tomatoes from the two beds we planted.  The organic method of growing cherry tomatoes made them invaluable. An average of 75kgs were sold on the open market weekly. To date we have sold in excess of $2,300 and we continue to sell bell peppers.

From the last quarter sales we look forward to the installing of the second greenhouse this month. The sales and the successful crop have had a positive outlook on the greenhouse initiative and the students are enthusiastically anticipating the coming of the second greenhouse.

One of the most successful stories is of 18 year old Tracey who grasped the importance of saving. To this end she has saved $60.00 from the vegetable sales she has made. She is very excited about this development and in her words says “In my entire life I have never saved money. I would spend every little cent of whatever I got and this has made me see money differently.” It is envisaged that when she eventually graduates, Tracey will use her savings to set herself up for her own business and if she gets employment, she will use this income to set herself up without necessarily depending on family support to achieve her goal.

Our teams here at the American Foundation for Children with AIDS and our partners in Africa thank you for supporting this project and the work we do for the children in in our programs.  If you would like to learn even more about what we do or how you can meet some of the children you have helped, please contact Tanya Weaver at tweaver@AFCAids.org.