Report from BHW Zimbabwe Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Key person: Rodwell Masanga

A team of four from BHW visited for four days. The intention was to visit the farm, but we were not able to in the lead up to the elections. We therefore spent the four days in Harare having meetings with the team. During that time, we visited the Foundations for Farming base in Harare and this was a great help to Rodwell. The intention is to get back to Maunga within a year. 

Recent Events

Background

Rodwell and Enicia married in 1992, they have five children, with the two youngest still at home. Rodwell worked full time for the Evangelical Church of Zimbabwe for several years after they graduated from seminary. In 2006 they started working with DaySpring church. There are now about 60 DaySpring churches over which Rodwell was the Bishop. After two terms, Rodwell and his wife shifted to Maunga as they felt they could be of use to help transform that village. He is now 63 years old and still operates as a consultant to the DaySpring churches.

In 1992 Rodwell also got involved in heading up the mission's team at Sowers International. He spent several years with Sowers, planting churches in various African countries, and is now the President of Sowers International.

Rodwell has 20 hectares of land near a stream which flows until late September each year.  He is planning to dam the river but needs approval for this.  

Rodwell’s team consists of him and his wife, Philip (an agronomist), Anxious, and Rose (an accountant). Philip was essential in helping him start agricultural activities and is a key person in the ministry. Anxious has now shifted to the U.K.

Maunga is a dark and difficult community, made up of people from Zambia, Malawi and other tribes who find it challenging to live together. There is a lot of drug and alcohol use which motivates crime. There is no public infrastructure - schools, water etc. The nearest school is 10 km away so only those 8 years and over can walk the distance to attend school.  

Foundations for Farming training was extremely helpful for Rodwell as it taught him how to work with a community and learn to identify and work with the community gatekeepers. It totally changed his mindset.

Activities

In 2021 BHW funded US$2,640 to send three people for Foundations for Farming training, and US$3,300 to put down a borehole.

Well Water: Free community water is now available since they drilled a solar powered bore with 5,000 litre tank which takes two hours to fill. The well is on Rodwell’s property, but water is piped nearer the community for easy access. Water is available for the village between 7 am – 6 pm.  Rodwell queried whether he needs to charge for the water and was reminded that funds would be needed to maintain the well. People are coming up to 5 km to get water. 

Agricultural Training: There is an acre set aside for the vegetable garden on Rodwell’s property.  They have started the project and are growing kale, but the area needs to be secured with fencing. It could ultimately provide fresh vegetables for the community or produce to be sold at the farmers market in town. Once the demonstration garden is up to speed, then Philip will do some training with the village people to teach them to grow food on their own properties, but also have a community garden that they could all be involved in nearer to the borehole.

Five of their people attended the Foundations for Farming training. Two have shifted away, leaving three people who are still involved in the project. Philip visits Maunga weekly/fortnightly during the peak periods of planting and growing. There is another team at Maunga who help with the functional side of things.

Philip is trying to connect with the young people in the village. He says there is a pleasing trend of people returning to villages as land in the village areas has less restrictions than land in the cities.

Spiritual work: They share the gospel and have 40–50 people from all the different ethnic groups who are committed to gathering for prayer, worship and bible study. Rodwell is thankful for the Bibles and lights that Bright Hope World funded. They do not just hand the Bibles out to people, but once they show commitment to their faith, they are then eligible for them. The lights have also been a great blessing and meant that the groups have been able to meet more regularly and at night.  

They are not where they wanted to be in establishing a church, but they are pleased with the progress.

The village people have made bricks which will be used to build the walls of a building that will be used for church gatherings and the preschool. This will be built on another 15-acre plot that the Government has allocated. The team believe it is critical that the people are changed by the Gospel in order for the village to be transformed and projects to be successful. This will reduce the amount of stealing and corruption they have to deal with.

Layer Hens: They started a 200 layer chicken project where they collect and sell eggs over two years, and then sell the birds at the end of the two year period. The proceeds from the eggs help generate funds to do other community projects.

Poultry in the area is susceptible to diseases so they expect a mortality rate of 5%. They had over 50 hens stolen so they installed burglar bars and more netting around the hen enclosure. Before they replace these hens, they want to increase security by installing a surrounding security fence and get some dogs. Once this project is successful, then they will encourage the villagers to have their own chickens and replicate the model.

Preschool: A small preschool was operational when Rodwell arrived, but they have assisted in its operation and have also installed a brick wall structure and roof. Unfortunately, the roof was later stolen. The parents pay a small amount towards the education of their preschool children which pays the teacher’s wage. Next year they want to build a new classroom for Grade 1 for the older children to graduate into, and then will increase a new classroom each year for further Grades.

Soya Beans: The nearby cyclone took all the moisture from their area, so they had less rain than they needed. They expected 9–10 tonnes of soya beans but they have harvested 5 tonnes so will break even financially. They are still to sell the soya beans and are waiting for the market to settle before doing so. They will provide a financial analysis once the beans are sold and we encouraged them not to get locked into the same crops each year if conditions change. They are wondering if they should use half the tonnage as seed for next season given that seed is unnecessarily expensive. 

Personal Stories

Rose

Rose is a widow with a 22-year-old son who is at university doing Business Studies. She is employed as an accountant specialising in credit control in a medium sized company but also does accountancy for her church and the Maunga Farm project.  

She started working at 16 years old. Her parents didn’t want to send her for further studies, so she worked as a cleaner and saved money to do her degree, and Honors. She lives in Harare and is a member of DaySpring Ministries Church.

She became a Christian at 16 years old, but it was only when she was 19 and studying at the Theological College doing a certificate in Christian ministry, that she really understood things. She was married at 24 and was introduced to Rodwell through her husband. She lost her husband due to leukaemia when he was 41 years old, and she was 26 years old. She went through a difficult time with her in-laws. He was a very active Christian that Rodwell could rely on to help with ministry.

Rose’s role in the project is looking at the viability of projects. Phillip submits costings on proposed projects, and she assesses the feasibility of them, and the length of time until they could become sustainable. She loves helping with the project.

Phillip

Phillip is 37 years old and is married with three children (11, 8 and 1). He is skilled and well qualified as an agronomist and is committed to helping with the project. He is the key person in the development of the project and has had a small amount of exposure to Foundations For Farming and is favourable towards it. It is critical that Phillip does Foundations for Farming training so they are all on the same page.

Partnership's Influence within the Community

We had planned to visit the farm however, because of election issues were not able to so will need to wait until our next visit to evaluate this. Although, to be fair, Rodwell is not the main leader in the community and local leaders and chiefs are coming to him for advice and encouragement. The fact that there are now more than 50 people regularly meeting and coming to church tells a lot about the impact they are having. 

Ideas for the Future

Toilets: They would like to build long-drops in the community. This is an opportunity to bring people together and contribute to the planning in order to get a sense of ownership of their health.  They would get the village people involved in making the required bricks as they have previously helped out in this capacity.

Tomatoes: They want to increase the productivity of the garden and grow tomatoes. They will be able to do this once they increase the availability of water - which they are working on. They anticipate 20 harvestable tomatoes per plant and would like to start with 1,000 plants. The cost of production is reasonably low, and they could potentially grow their own seedlings which would cost than US$500 for one crop.

Pig Meat Project: Pork is the third most consumed meat in Africa after beef and chicken and there are no religious beliefs preventing any of their community from eating pork. They plan on purchasing five pregnant sows and one boar. After 180 days they will get a minimum of eight piglets from each sow. After 12 months they would have 40 pigs. Young ones could be sold at three months for meat, or for breeding stock. This project would require more water. Feed would need to be purchased initially, but once the vegetables grow, they could also be used to feed the pigs. Pigs are less susceptible to diseases in the area.

We had discussions on how the community needs to benefit from the pigs. This could speed up trust and relationship building and provide jobs for young people to encourage them to stay in the village. In primary production, the farmer takes on all the costs, but the butcher makes more money than the farmer when they are slaughtered. Why not consider starting a pork butchery to slaughter one or two pigs a week for the market so that the middle man would be cut out, encouraging a symbiotic relationship?  If they can use agriculture and farming to bring in the Gospel, then that is the most important thing.

They would one day like to raise their own fish integrated alongside the pigs. Vertical integration is essential to minimise waste and maximise the products.

They are also interested in helping the people in the community raise their own pigs.

The team want to transform the community and need some financial assistance. They are hoping that as the people grow spiritually that they will start supporting the work of the church, so it can be self-supporting.  

We encouraged Rodwell to start a demonstration Pfumvudza farming project himself, growing maize, soya beans, peanuts and sunflowers, and then help the villagers to start their own the following year. He needs to sit down and put a plan in place, then follow the plan 100% and keep notes.  

There is an order that needs to be considered for their activities, i.e., the growing of food needs to be the priority before a pig project is considered. The Government is already endorsing Foundations for Farming and providing the plots and seeds etc. so Phillip needs to focus on encouraging them to continue with this.

Larger water tank and another borehole: They are planning an expansion to build an additional 50,000 litre ground tank and a second borehole. This is for the gardens and also for the community. 

Current Issues and Challenges

In the Mashonaland province where Maunga Farm is located, all the cows died from January Trichomoniasis Disease earlier in the year. The families had a mix of livestock but 50% of their animals were cattle so this disease devastated these families who now have to start all over again to get cattle. The Government now requires everyone to pay to get their own vaccinations/chemicals. There are also restrictions that prevent them buying cattle from another area, so they must source cattle from their area. 

Rodwell believes the change of mindset to do Foundations for Farming is a lot for the people to overcome. We showed them photos from Bulawayo (ZIM02) and advised them to work with a community that is open, then other communities will see and eventually be open to change.

There is still a lot of crime in the area. The preschool had the roof stolen and the first 50 chickens were stolen and killed. This is a major issue the whole project faces and has the potential to scuttle it, especially with small animals. 

There is a lot of promiscuity among the young people and child marriages are prevalent. One hope is that this will decrease as the Good News penetrates even more. 

Prayer and Praise Points

1) There is now a group of believers there where there was none at the beginning of the project. 

2) Many lives have been transformed, drunkards and abusers have been converted and their lives turned around. 

Comments

This partnership seems to have got off to a reasonable start and already the local people are being impacted by their presence in the community. But there is still a long way to go and there will be many disappointments along the way. Their plans look great on paper, but there are many outside influences that are hard to factor into the plans, i.e., theft, drought, politics etc. 

We are in discussions about the next stage of the development. They have ideas but are still working on how to achieve them. This will continue over the next two months or so.