Even Severe Drought Hasn’t Stopped Us Improving Health and Transforming Lives in Zimbabwe

By Jean Worth, Bruce Kanengoni, and Paul Anthony Taylor

Amid one of the worst droughts southern Africa has seen in living memory, authorities in Zimbabwe have announced plans to cull 200 wild elephants to feed communities facing severe hunger. The move comes after low rainfall wiped out crops across much of the country, resulting in widespread food shortages. With the World Food Programme predicting that 7.6 million Zimbabweans will face food insecurity in the early part of next year, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has declared the situation to be a national disaster. Despite the scale of these challenges, the work of our Movement of Life project is demonstrating that practical, affordable solutions are possible.

Aided by our help in funding the construction of two water boreholes, our donating of gardening tools to local schools and communities has resulted in around 5,000 people in the Harare region, the country’s capital, now having enough to eat. But the launch of these fruit and vegetable gardening projects has not only improved health and saved lives; it has also brought hope for a better future.

Take Mr. Muvakidzani, for example, a father of two children, to whom we donated a set of gardening tools. For many years he had worked as a security officer and earned enough money to pay for his children’s education. Education is highly valued in Zimbabwe and is a priority for most parents. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, along with many other Zimbabweans, Mr. Muvakidzani lost his job. As a result, not only did he now struggle to put food on the table and pay his rent, he could no longer afford to pay school fees. The situation seemed hopeless.

When Mr. Muvakidzani heard about our launch of a Movement of Life gardening project in his area, hope came surging back. It wasn’t just that he could now see a way to feed his family, it was also that he saw the possibility of growing enough food to sell some and make money to pay his children’s school fees. Upon receiving a set of tools from us, Mr. Muvakidzani and his family immediately began setting up a vegetable garden. Aided by water from one of the nearby boreholes that we had helped fund, the garden soon flourished.

Asked today how he feels about the Movement of Life, Mr. Muvakidzani expresses his deep gratitude for the opportunities it has given him. He has big dreams and plans to expand his vegetable garden so that he will have even more surplus produce to sell in future. His ultimate goal is to save enough money to set up his own water borehole on a plot of land he inherited from his father. This land is some distance from Harare, where he is currently living, and covers an area of approximately 300 hectares. Having a borehole on it would enable him to make a good income as a farmer.

Mr. Muvakidzani’s story illustrates how, step by step, our Movement of Life project in Zimbabwe is beginning to change lives. Setting up water boreholes, distributing gardening tools, and teaching people about nutrition and Cellular Medicine has the potential to transform the African continent, not just from the perspective of health but also economically. Governments, along with the large international aid agencies and charities, need to be brought to understand this.

If you would like to help support our lifechanging work in Zimbabwe, any donation you can make, no matter how small, will be very greatly appreciated.