Together, we are creating a more equal world

Families in the Chivi district of southern Zimbabwe rely on farming crops and raising animals in order to survive. Women often perform the bulk of these duties as well as looking after children and their household.

Consecutive years of drought have made these tasks extremely challenging. In 2013, with your generous support, CARE started working with families to overcome nutrition and agriculture challenges.

CARE teaches men and boys the importance of sharing the workload with women and girls in order to increase their crop yields, and improve their family’s resilience during lean seasons.

With many hands making light work, sharing these duties also makes happier families.

CARE taught Naphert (right) and Eleginia (left) to farm traditional vegetables which are well suited to the dry conditions. By working together, the couple are able to harvest enough to eat three times a day and even have surplus to sell at the market.

Naphert explains: “The money we get from the garden crop sales helps complement our food supply in the house.” 

CARE distributes healthy food to vulnerable families who are struggling to provide for their children. This makes sure families have a nutritious diet and is really changing lives.

“Without this food, my children would be at home working rather than going to school,” Tasara, father of five explained. “When the assistance came we were very happy. Now we eat three times a day!”

Euna (39) leaves a CARE food distribution site with her cooking oil and food supplies. Before she started receiving these provisions, Euna had to spend all of their money on food just to feed her children.

Thanks to the distributions, she now has her money in savings, and said, “We started to see our children growing up in good health. They are gaining weight.”

Before CARE came to their district, Tasara (left) and Memory (right) could only grow enough food to have one meal a day. Their family receives seeds and beans from the food distribution and they have also been taught improved farming techniques to help overcome their hunger/grow more food.

“Our diet has greatly improved,” Tasara said. “The beans are very healthy. We even have chickens to produce eggs!”

Tasara was trained by CARE to be a community leader. He travels by bicycle to teach other communities about farming techniques and the benefits of men and women sharing farming duties.

Tasara has already trained farmers in 23 other communities to help them increase their crop yields. He said, “The most important thing we received from CARE is knowledge.”

CARE teaches families in rural communities about how they can eat a variety of locally sourced, nutritious foods which are easy to prepare.

Foods such as okra and groundnuts are readily available in some areas, and community members gather enough for their entire village and form groups to share their resources with others.