Agriculture

Planting the Seeds of Hope in Burundi

aheckman — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 17:20:40 +0000

Planting the Seeds of Hope in Burundi aheckman Thu, 09/21/2023 - 17:20

Planting the Seeds of Hope in Burundi

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023 – DANA FRANCHETTI

“My kids were sick, always sick,” says Sylvane.

Sylvane lives in Kagazi, Burundi. A mother of several children, Sylvane recently spoke about the past health condition of her family and compared it to their health now. She and her children have been changed by an integrated project designed to their community thrive through economic and agricultural development.

Burundi has one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world. According to the World Health Organization, more than 6 percent of children under the age of five suffer acutely, and 55 percent experience chronic malnutrition.

While her children were also threatened with poor health and malnutrition, the education Sylvane received gave her life-changing skills in agriculture and business practices. And she isn’t alone. Sylvane is one of a group of women in her town called “light mothers” by their neighbors. These women are leading the way, improving the health of their families and setting an example for the whole community.

“When we learned how to grow vegetables, the kids are healthy,” Sylvane said. “I learned that even though we are vulnerable women, we can go to the fields. We can get seeds and grow food ourselves so our families' lives can improve.”

Nazarene Compassionate Ministries in Burundi partners with local Nazarene churches to organize interested community members into associations—groups of primarily women and young adults who want to provide for their families, learn better agriculture and business practices, and help marginalized groups in their communities access better food options and possible job opportunities. These community members are organized into groups of around 30 people each, based on where they live.

Due to the impacts of a warming climate, farmers face new and complex challenges when growing produce. Africa Nazarene University worked with NCM Burundi to create training opportunities on agricultural practices, teaching association members to grow food in their personal gardens as well as larger land areas. The skills members learn through these training opportunities give them the ability to harvest enough food successfully. More crop production allows them to sell the extra harvest at local markets, which means members are providing for their families through the food they grow and the income they earn. Flauncy, a 28-year-old mother of three, grew up in the village of Bugar as a child who was orphaned. She attends the Nazarene church in her village and is a member of an agriculture association. In partnership with the local Nazarene church, light mothers in this particular association found that with the increase in food production and income from selling produce at the market, they could begin a ministry to provide food, housing, and education for the children in their community who are orphaned due to war and illness.

“I don’t have much, but I can help in this way,” Flauncy explained.

Flauncy has two biological children and also cares for one child who has been orphaned. She explained that when she and her husband saw how their agriculture efforts were providing for their family, it was a natural next step to begin providing for the needs of other children in their village.

The holistic agricultural model is easy to reproduce in other parts of Burundi or other countries in Africa. As the associations become more established, members can pass on their knowledge to other community members who can form their own associations. This method creates a pathway for younger people to receive mentoring, knowledge, and hands-on training in their agricultural and economic endeavors.

Ozean, a mother of three, serves as treasurer for her association. Her children were at one point feeling the pain of malnutrition. She attributed one primary reason for this—a need for more education for mothers focused on resources available to provide whole and nutritious meals for their families.

“When we train other mothers, we show them the importance of good nutrition,” Ozean explained. “We show them that life starts when the baby is in the womb, so you must take care even then. You need to eat three times a day, [including] fruit and vegetables, with good food. So, babies and moms can have good health."

Claude, who serves as the coordinator for NCM in Burundi, explained that his hope, vision, and prayer for these projects are always to glorify God. People can more readily consider their spiritual lives when physical needs are met.

“The vision I have is for transformation,” Claude said. “As people see that they get enough harvest, people will be fed, kids will go to school, and people will go and sell in the market. ... We are responsible not only for the spiritual needs of our community but also the physical. Hungry people don’t hear the gospel.”

---

This story adapted from the most recent issue of NCM Magazine. Read the entire article here.

Africa

Burundi

Food Security

Agriculture

From the Magazine

Small Scale, Big Impact: Food Security in Zambia

aheckman — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 20:33:48 +0000

Small Scale, Big Impact: Food Security in Zambia aheckman Thu, 11/10/2022 - 20:33

Small Scale, Big Impact: Food Security in Zambia

NOVEMBER 10, 2022 · AMY HECKMAN

Ms. Ruth, a widow in Zambia, recently began cultivating a donated plot of land. She is new to farming, though, and wasn’t sure of the best way to care for her garden.

In Zambia, a Nazarene Compassionate Ministries food security project is educating farmers in skills like conservation agriculture, soil quality, composting, organic fertilizers, crop rotation, and entrepreneurship. Participants were chosen through local church connections—most are members of Nazarene churches, and others came from the community.

Project leaders provided help and encouragement through monthly visits, and during the harvest, most participants reported an increase in their crop amounts. The churches involved provided space for trainings and cooked meals for the attendees while they were in class. This project is also supported by Growing Hope Globally, a partner organization that encourages growers in the United States to donate a portion of the proceeds of crops they raise to equip and encourage small-scale farmers around the world.

Through her church, Ms. Ruth heard about the project and joined to learn more about farming. She and the other members also received seeds, fertilizer, and tools after the training. In October, Ms. Ruth came to church with a bucket full of tomatoes: her first crop. She was thrilled—she was already selling the produce and earning an income, she explained.

At Nchanga North Church of the Nazarene, four women from the church took the training and began to grow tomatoes, too. Their crop was large enough they earned enough money for themselves as well as extra to donate funds to pay for their church building to be repainted. “The beauty has added life to the church building,” one project leader reports.

This agricultural project has caught the attention of community members outside the church, too. In Chililabombwe, Mr. Kabwe serves as a public school teacher and also gardens on the side for extra income. When he learned about the church’s work to improve cultivation skills in his community, he approached the project leaders and offered to be a coach, free of charge. They’ve utilized his knowledge and experience to assist those who chose to grow tomato crops.

All along, the project leaders have had a goal of not only developing individual farmers’ skills and caring for the environment through wise stewardship, but also changing the trajectory of the community through better nutrition and greater food security. So far, the project is doing just that.

Mr. Mumba, a beneficiary from Nakatindi Church of the Nazarene, experienced a large crop after learning new techniques, and it had immediate impact in his home. He lives in a rural area where most parents can’t send their children to school because of lack of funds for uniforms and school supplies, but thanks to this project and his higher wages, he is now able to afford school fees.

The impact in Mr. Mumba’s house didn’t end there. Every year, NCM Zambia holds an agricultural show. This year, Mr. Mumba entered the show for the first time, sharing what he was able to produce through these improved methods with other attendees.

“I now have enough food for my family, compared to the previous times when it was difficult to have food,” he says.

To see this program in action, visit the Growing Hope Globally website for more stories and a video.

Growing Bananas, Lifting Burdens

aheckman — Thu, 15 Sep 2022 16:11:24 +0000

Growing Bananas, Lifting Burdens aheckman Thu, 09/15/2022 - 16:11

Growing Bananas, Lifting Burdens

What does a banana have to do with economic security, education, and skill development? In Rwanda, the answer is everything.

There, Nazarene churches discovered that by training smallholder farmers to grow and sell high-quality bananas, they could create paths for security and change for individuals, families, and entire communities. These bananas fetch a high price at the market because they are highly nutritious and few farmers in the area grow the fruit.

At Mbare Church of the Nazarene, one of the participating churches, project leaders explained that this idea came about specifically to address burdens that church and community members carried on a daily basis. Lack of funds to pay for school fees, medicine, insurance, clothes, and even food made life stressful. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated stay-at-home requirements shuttered options for income even further.

The project’s concept, while simple, has had a meaningful impact. The project leaders identified people and families in need of assistance, and trained those beneficiaries in modern cultivation techniques. They provided them with banana tree seedlings to plant at home, and instructions related to fertilization, watering, timing of planting and harvesting, and how to achieve high crop yields in small plots of land, among other related topics. More bananas are planted on land provided by local churches. When the connected farmers sell their crop, they can then provide for their needs and the needs of their family members.

The local churches and church members involved in this project provided essential support like land, project management skills, follow up with participating growers to ensure their needs are being met, and help coordinating with required government reporting. This year, the project had 150 families participating, impacting around 600 beneficiaries directly.

One of the coordinators explains that the structure of the project can be broken down into three steps.

“There are three main activities which we are carrying out to make this project happen—The identification of beneficiaries (in collaboration with local authorities and the local church), the training of beneficiaries so the knowledge they gain can be implemented in their respective communities, and the home visits so that we may make sure that the knowledge is being implemented at the local level.”

The farmers who attended the trainings take their education home to improve their own skills. Mukamna is a beneficiary who received training in fertilizer use and how to best plant her seeds for optimal growth, not mixing varieties together. When the team leaders visited to check on her crops’ progress, they found them to be well-organized. Mukamna shared that this education was very helpful.

Other farmers go a step further, using their training to help others. Migabo, another beneficiary, also learned about fertilizer use, single crop cultivation, good seed selection, and monitoring activities. Migabo has now started educating other farming groups and is working to form a rice-growing organization.

“This project has been of great benefit because we’ve gained a knowledge of how the bananas are planted,” says another beneficiary. “We bring this knowledge to our local communities where we try to implement the same knowledge at the local levels.”

Over time, the project aims to help reduce the overall cost of bananas in the area so as to better support the community and the nutritional needs of children and those with poor health. In the coming years, the project will expand to more areas in Rwanda.

One farmer shared how participation in the project helped insure her children could attend school. “This project helped me a lot because I gained funds from this project and I bought animals to keep at home,” she says. “I have chickens, and I sell the eggs. After selling the eggs I pay the school fees for my children.”

From initial concept to now changing the lives of 600 people, this banana-growing effort is breaking the cycle of poverty and providing new options for income generation for farmers, while solidifying local churches as hubs of compassion and care. As a farmer states simply, “If we have problems, we ask this organization to help, and they help. For real, this project helps us prepare for the future.”