‘My project to create positive development in my environment. How can l foster sustainable development in my community?’
(Original)

Gladys Rudo
(Age 21, Zimbabwe)
Hillside Teachers College, Bulawayo

In the project mentioned prior, I took a closer look at the problems faced by my community, Ntabazinduna, a rural village. Among the problems cited was poverty, disease, ignorance and disunity. Solutions for countering the problems include effective planning use of available natural resources and my formulated theory of Producing Investing and Trade which l dubbed (PIT). Various challenges encountered in the application of the solutions are lack of interest and people’s application of the ‘seeing is believing’ mentality.

In my community poverty is slowly but surely taking its toll and the underlying factor is lack of food. Upon interviewing the poverty stricken families l discovered that they lack effective planning in their agricultural activities because the area has got free land and water to grow crops. According to Abraham Maslo’s hierarchy of needs, food was found to be the most basic requirement of human life hence the need to implement good farming methods like crop rotation, intercropping and dry planting.

To counter the challenge of ‘seeing is believing’, I decided to make our homestead a platform for emulation for the community. I use the method of intercropping and this has helped me in fostering sustainable development in food security as one does not only benefit from grain but from legumes like beans and cow peas during harvesting. This makes the soil rich and highly fertile. I use the available resources like cow dung, goat droppings and leaf moulds from the ready made compost together with fertilizer on my crops. Members of the community who cannot afford fertilizer can improvise by using this natural manure.

In my project of creating positive change in my environment, I made sure that l acted upon the problem of disease by setting up a nutrition garden and an orchard. Firstly, l urged my father to get a well constructed in the yard to serve us the trouble of going to the borehole. This greatly inspired our neighbors and those around us and prompted them to construct their own. The garden comprises legumes, bulbs, tubers and leafy vegetables. Good preservation methods like drying, salting and roasting are undertaken for later use.

Owing to effective planning, l have a distinguished garden with an abundance of indigenous trees., l make sure that the bare yards that l see in homesteads are utilized by planting these easily accessible nutritious and drought resistant fruit trees. I distribute two exotic fruit seedlings like mango and guava to each home in my area to ensure continuity in fruit production. From the foregoing we see that a balanced diet is achieved because of the presence of fruits and vegetables in the people’s meals. Diseases like kwashiorkor and scurvy that are caused by malnutrition are eradicated therefore.

In livestock production each family should strive to get at least two animals of the same kind male and female for production purposes. The problem of ignorance is dispelled by summoning the community elders and educating them on community development. These will in turn set their homes as platforms for emulation and reach out to the rest of the community spreading the possibilities of’ ‘creating a haven’ on your homestead! I have also invited school children to take a tour around the homestead to see and learn different methods and skills that they can apply at their homes hence bringing about sustainable development to the community.

Pertaining to shelter, Ntabazinduna has got an abundance of building material like river sand, pit sand, gum poles, grass and water. Our house is built of farm bricks and is thatch roofed. It is this modern eight-roomed house which saw the emergence of such houses in my community as people made use of the natural resources available. In fostering sustainable development the Chief of my community presented the community for rural electrification because of these beautiful houses with orchards and gardens. Through the use of (PIT) cattle have been obtained by many people through barter trade and wealth has been acquired through the selling of surplus produce. Unity and peace now prevail in the community and has given rise to co-operatives where ideas are shared and sporting activities like soccer.