PROJECT #75
Project #75 | Agricultural Training for Women in South Africa
Our partnership with Zimele
South Africa’s climate has often experienced drought; this project focus allowed invaluable knowledge to be gained during trainings. In the UThukela district, where the community who received the training is situated, much of the soil has been drained of its nutrients, and the area is prone to drought. Traditional farming methods that have been practiced for many decades together with the significant increase in populations and their livestock’s numbers, have led to soil standards being strained. Soil erosion has been a big problem in the area and rain water has further depleted soil conditions where it is difficult to begin planting any crops.
Zimele’s mission is to empower women with the skills, resources and support networks to start business and social service projects to sustain themselves, their families and their communities. This project set about confronting food insecurity through rain water harvesting techniques. Through this project’s additional hands-on trainings, 150 women have been able to improve their farming expertise and skills to increase their yield, learn about and implement rain water harvesting, and use productive pest and disease controls. It has been proven that rain water harvesting in South Africa can be very beneficial in conserving soil and water resources, which leads to greater food security. Beyond food security, rainwater harvesting lessens the time women spend collecting water, allowing them to focus on other tasks within their community.
Our collective impact
People Gained Access to Food
People Gained Employment
People Impacted
Meet Nombuso
“Since the Zimele Community program has been working with in our community we have learnt that to uplift ourselves and our families we must also uplift our neighbors. If we begin producing excess produce then we need customers, if our neighbors are still poor who will our customers be? We had training on how to improve our farming methods. At first we wondered why we needed it since our ancestors have done it this way for many years, but we decided to go and listen to the training the Zimele Agriculture team brought. We now understand more about the soil and caring for it, we understand how important crop rotation is and that it puts nitrogen back into the soil and that elements are important to get higher yields. We also learnt how to produce our own seeds and seedlings so that saves us money on buying in. We also learnt how to use soapy water to control pests from destroying our gardens. All this training has helped us improve our farming techniques and we are able to sell off excess produced. That money can then be used for school uniforms or fixing the house, something that would have taken a lot longer to do if we had kept farming the way we had.”
Thank you for making this possible!
Our movement is grassroots, to us that not only means the work on the ground is led by local leaders with the support of the community, but it also means that we raise the funds for our projects through everyday donors just like you. In addition to all the donors that gave $25, $100, or $250 and the campaigners that ran a race or donated their birthday to raise funds, we also want to thank our generous business, school, and faith sponsors who believed in our work and joined the movement.
If you want to support future projects like this you can make a donation to our global hunger fund.
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