LCV food and water security

You can’t support a village and a community without food and water. Through its partnerships and funding AFADU has supported a number of projects to provide water and food security.

• Two water bores – funded by the Australian Government Direct Aid Program
• Irrigation pumps and hosing – donated by the Archer Family Foundation
• Fencing for the LCV and community farms – protecting the crops for LCV and the community
• Shade cloth for young crops to survive the African sun – donated by Shade Cloth Australia (Sydney) – allowing grow of vegetables all year round

AFADU provided funding for the purchase of water tanks as part of the installation of a water system, providing water from the nearby Mwenezi River to the Village and surrounding community.

The LCV farm and gardens have been planted with wheat, sugar beans and vegetables.

History of the farming projects

The water project made possible with fund raising activities of “Girls on Top”, a group of young Australian women who climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, was completed in June 2007 and built with the help and support of the local community.

The system consists of pumps, irrigation lines and water tanks. Water is pumped from the Mwenezi River to the Lirhanzo Children’s Village some 3 km away and provides irrigation to farming communities who live between the village and the river as well as water for the Lirhanzo Children’s Village, its own vegetable plots and for their animals.

Now, instead of one (often failed) crop a year, the local community members involved are ensured of two healthy maize and wheat crops a year and vegetables all year round.

A mesh wire fence surrounding 2.5 hectares of crops providing food security for villagers and their children in the Mwenezi District of Zimbabwe.

Buying food in the southern region of Zimbabwe continues to be a challenge as food shortages are rife throughout the country.

At the Lirhanzo Children’s Village and surrounding village community the maize and wheat crops grown from the irrigated water project have substantially helped the local villages and the LCV children.

Together with the support of a Government farming adviser, farming techniques have dramatically improved yielding increased crop harvests.

The fence provides crop security.

This has an immense impact economically and personally on the district community, 20 local village families and their children providing support, encouragement and a future.

Funding was provide by The Archer Family Trust.