NDAKA’S GARDEN: Cultivating Nutrition and Livelihoods in Zimbabwe.

Ndaka Nenzema, a 49-year-old widow from ward 16 in Chiredzi district in Masvingo Province understands the importance of good nutrition. Each day, she makes sure her five children eat nutritious food, harvested from her small field.

Her children are healthy and happy. In a country like Zimbabwe, where child malnutrition and stunting is a major concern, this is no small feat.

In dry lands of Chiredzi, Ndaka has transformed an abandoned piece of land into a flourishing low input garden. Together with her children, they grow fresh, nutritious vegetables for domestic consumptions and for sale in nearby villages boosting both nutrition and income in their family.

Action contre la Faim and its implementing partners Nutrition Action Zimbabwe (NAZ) and Africa Ahead (AA) are supporting the most vulnerable people in Chiredzi and Mwenezi districts, Masvingo Province*. The targeted households are now able to plant and harvest nutritious crops from their home gardens.

Before she began, growing vegetables in her low input garden Ndaka used to grow and sell cotton in the market. However, the producer price has declining over the past years and her returns have been diminishing yearly. She also planted millet, maize and groundnuts. This brought in very little income and most days she returned home without enough money to feed her children after selling the harvest from her field.

Now she grows different vegetables in her garden that include tomatoes, sugar beans, onion, butternut, peas, and spinach. She sells some of her harvest, and takes some home to feed to her family.

“For the past two months l have earned more than $60 from selling vegetables. I`m glad because now l can take care of our needs as a family.”

She is confident for the future: “There is a big change in my life. I can now send my children to school and l`m planning to buy goats which will multiply. Now, my children eat three times a day. This has not happened for a long time”

*Multi-sector project funded by USAID