Hope for the hopeless

In that year Susan Gurajena (40), a widow from Buhera, migrated to the UK, leaving her employment as a nurse at Murambinda Hospital because of her meagre salary was meaningless because of hyperinflation.

She worked at a hospital in London, specialising in community health and developmental matters. Her sojourn was an eye opener, as it widened her perspective regarding community work and inspired her to return home to her own kith and kin.

She came home in March this year and formed the Zimbabwe Rural Development Trust, a non-governmental organisation, in partnership with the International Fellowship Trust.

Her mission is to bring back lost hope to women in her community by launching various projects to uplift their livelihoods through self-sustaining income-generating projects. The NGO is sustaining the lives of scores of villagers in Dorowa and Nyazura.

“We want to thank the organization (ZRDT) for this project. We are now able to sustain ourselves on the organisation’s initiative. Our lives have been transformed,” said a leader of Kunzwana Produce Cooperative that was formed with Gurajena’s help.

“Under the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger programme, we do nutritional gardening projects where the members are supplied with different kinds of seeds for the farming of vegetables for domestic consumption while the surplus is sold to get extra income,” Gurajena told The Zimbabwean.

“We are educating members on how to grow and preserve traditional vegetables. We are also into livestock production,” she said.

Spencer Bamusi, who is benefiting from the livestock project, said: “I have been doing very well on this project and I am selling goats and chickens to various organizations and individuals. The project has been a turning point in my life. I am paying school fees for my three children and I am looking forward to extend my house.”