By Tsitsi Ndawana
Susan Mutambara is a 59-year-old widow, who lives in Marondera, Mashonaland East Province in Zimbabwe. Susan is a member of Zimbabwe Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA). She lives with her 3 grandchildren and one relative who is disabled. Susan has seen a great transformation in life through the Women and Land in Zimbabwe (WLZ) project. The WLZ project was introduced in her area to support RWA women to build their resilience to climate change. As a widow she used to struggle to provide enough food for her family. She used to depend on piece jobs within her community. Her status made her not to have confidence to participate in other community activities because she used to be labelled as someone who was very poor. On the other hand, her small garden was not thriving well as she used to depend on rains, due to climate change all the sources of water she was depending on were drying up early and no longer sustaining her garden activities and her efforts to grow vegetables often fell short.
However, everything changed when a solar-powered green hub (through WLZ project) was introduced to the community, promising a new way to cultivate the land. The hub is benefiting 55 women, and Susan is one of them. In May 2024, Susan planted Rape (rampant variety) in her own plot. As someone who had greater hope, she dedicated most of her time on her rape crop making sure that it was well maintained. She was the one with the best crop in the garden. She harvested rape for period of approximately 5 months, generating about USD10-15 per week. For the first time, Susan and her family had access to fresh, nutritious food, and the excess allowed her to sell at the local market in her community, bringing in much-needed income. Susan started to realise a change in her life, she would now afford to provide at least three meals per day for her family. She managed to pay second and third term school fees for her three grandchildren. She began to see herself not just as a homemaker, but as an entrepreneur.
In addition, after saving the proceeds from the sale of vegetables, Susan was thrilled to finally have the resources to start reviving her own garden and expand into horticulture. She had always been passionate about growing her own food from her own garden. After releasing that savings from vegetables sales were not enough, she went on to borrow money from her ISAL group (which they also started through WLZ the project). She then purchased a 0.75horse power pump and 300W Solar and she now has plans to revive her own garden using a solar powered pump. As an empowered woman she has a plan that one day she will move out of the green hub and pave the way for other young women in her community to also benefit from the green hub. She believes in creating opportunities for other fellow women.
In June 2024, the green hub was also assisted with a 1,000 square metre greenhouse and currently it has 3,320 plants of Candela F1 tomato. Susan and her other group members are growing the tomato collectively and they have plans to share the money at the end of harvest. They have started to sell the tomato crop and on average they are selling 40 crates per week at $15 per crate. Susan is hoping to use this money to buy a fence and other equipment so that she will fully establish her garden. As she is working in her garden, Susan is reflecting on the journey that had brought her to this moment, how the RWA project through WLZ has impacted her life and how her confidence was boosted (through training and exposure to horticulture information). She has realized that gardening was not just about growing food, but a source of empowerment as she is acknowledging the WLZ project for transforming her life, as she is moving towards fulfilment of her dreams.
