Pending review: CAW22 - Churches Film - Voice Over
Country
Zimbabwe
Region
Africa
Date
18 September 21
Expiration date
20 March 25
Credit
Christian Aid
Programme name (s)
Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund – BRACT Programme
Partner organisation name(s)
• Community Technology Development Organization(CTDO)- Conservation Agriculture • Bio Innovation Zimbabwe (BIZ) (Non timber food products) • Silveira House (SH)(Vocational Training) • Nyahunure Community Trust (NCT)
Consent form received
Yes
Subject
Climate Change
Emotion
Happy
Caption
The church's film (16x9) with voice over for Christian Aid Week 2022.
Featuring Janet Zirugo, 70 and her family.
Janet Zirugo and her family are receiving support from the Christian Aid led ZRBF-BRACT Programme to build their resilience capacities to climate change and other shocks. Mutoko District where Janet comes from experiences harsh climatic condition with extended dry spells in recent years.
In the past, Janet’s family has gone through drought which affected their harvests. The drought drove the family into hunger forcing them to seek relief food.
But to improve food security and income generation, the programme has supported the family grow diversified traditional grains like pearl millet and other small grains as part of the climate smart agriculture interventions. Through conservation agriculture Janet has seen an improvement in crop production from her farm. She can now sell to local cereal boards and keep more for home consumption.
Eating traditional grains is also important for their nutrition and health.
Janet Zirugo’s QUOTES:
“During that drought, with no harvests, and little food, seeing my children and grandchildren without enough to eat was heart-breaking, I thought they were going to die, it was such a distressing moment, we had to get relief food.â€
"When I gauged that food that I had prepared I knew right away that it was not enough. So I would let boys eat on one plate, and girls on another plate, but even so, I would still realise that some were not having enough food. I would give them my plate before I ate. I would take just take two handfuls just to survive, but I was content that my children had something to eat. "
"Using conservation agriculture that we have been trained, planting of small grains, we now realize that despite little rainfall, we can still harvest good cropsâ€
"We have been trained on how to make and use compost use manure for our farms, then we were taught on conservation agriculture, the we were taught on preparation of feeds for livestock."
Background information
Christian Aid Week 2022
Climate in Zimbabwe:
Due to climate change, the rainfall pattern is characterised by shifts in the onset of rains, increase in the frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall events, increases in frequency of low rainfall seasons, , and increases in the frequency and intensity of mid-season dry-spells.
Extreme weather events, namely tropical cyclones and drought have also increased in frequency and intensity.
According to the Zimbabwe Meteorological Service, daily minimum temperatures have risen by approximately 2.6°C over the last century while daily maximum temperatures have risen by 2°C during the same period.
Changes in climate have resulted in more arid environments for agricultural production. Due to this Rainfall patterns and crop production have progressively deteriorated. Overall, the climate in Zimbabwe is regionally differentiated, but is generally becoming warmer with more erratic rainfall patterns.
The country is often affected by droughts lasting from one to three years and occurring every five to seven years. The economy and the livelihoods of the poor in Zimbabwe are highly vulnerable to climate change due to their heavy reliance on rain-fed agriculture.
The impacts of climate change in Zimbabwe, particularly the increase in rainfall variability, make it difficult for people who depend on rainfall and water resources – including those involved with agriculture,- to plan their activities. Persistent drought in Zimbabwe has severely strained surface and ground water systems, contributing to the country’s deteriorating water supply.
About BRACT Project:
Christian Aid through BRACT project has contributed to increased absorptive, adaptive and transformative resilience capacities in the two districts of Mutoko and Mudzi . The project is stimulating climate smart crop and livestock production t on profitable production and marketing of drought tolerant field crops, horticulture, post-harvesting processes (including storage), fodder production, farming as a business and marketing skills.
Through the project households are receiving support to increase regular consumption of traditionally produced nutritious foods.
Finally the project is supporting vocational and entrepreneurship activities for young people to diversify their sources of livelihood.
IMPACTS SO FAR
The project has supported 27,178 people(10,998M/16,180F) to increase their resilience capacities toward harsh climatic condition and unpredictable weather patterns.
Through adaptive action the project has helped households to:
• Improve their food security through increased diversified crop production and marketing of traditional crops and livestock;
• Enhancing regular consumption of traditionally produced nutritious foods;
• Strengthening sustainable farm productivity and competitiveness;
• Equipping youth with knowledge and skills to engage in non-agricultural income generating activities;
• Sustainable harvesting and processing of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs)for viable markets.
Through these interventions families are better able to withstand the recurrent climate and economic shocks and stresses.
Marker lat / long: -18.7, 29.9 (WGS84)