Help Rural Women Start Income Generating Projects

Dear friends,

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to you for your continued support of this project. Empowering disadvantaged rural women by introducing income generating projects is at the heart of our organization and is our strategy for alleviating hunger and poverty and promoting self-sufficiency. The goal of this project is to provide a way for women to earn an income so that they can feed their families, provide better health care for themselves and their children and to be in a position to send their children to school.

The biggest challenge we are faced with is water. The area where we operate is located along the Sabi valley in the southern part of Zimbabwe. This area is very hot and is characterized by prolonged droughts.  This poses a big problem since mushrooms require a lot of water.

In phase 2 of this project our focus is to raise funds to dig  a borehole.  We firmly believe that this project will benefit this area greatly. Mushrooms provide more than just taste and texture to food, they provide high nutirional value as well. This area has been hardly hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The majority of the women who will benefit from this project are living with HIV/AIDS. They will benefit greatly by including mushrooms in their diet.

Why this project is important

Tendai Purasi is one of the women who will benefit from this project. She currently receives food and clothing from the Tekeshe Foundation through our Food and Clothing program.  She is a widow and she is living with HIV/AIDS.  When I arrived for my annual visit in December of 2005, Tendai was very frail.  Her health had deteriorated noticeably from the time I last saw her during my 2004 visit.  She informed me that her condition had affected the strength of her legs and it was very difficult and painful for her to walk.  In spite of this obstacle it was still necessary for Tendai to spend hard days in the hot sun tending crops.  Through the foundation, we were able to give her some food and cooking oil.  We also gave her some of the vitamins.  Within two weeks after the food had been provided, Tendai’s condition had noticeably improved.  It was obvious that, in spite of her desperate efforts, she was unable to provide for herself the nutrition needed to survive.

Through our partneship with New England Pentecostal ministries, missionaries and friends of the foundation in the United States we have sent 6  40-foot containers of clothing, food, medical supplies and many other much needed items to Zimbabwe. Tendai and numerous other people in the same predicament as she is have benefited tremendously from these shipments. In the attached pictures you can see Tendai and some of the beneficiaries receiving food and clothing from tthe foundation.

Even though we provide food and clothing to poor women, our long term goal is to lift them out of poverty and to build a culture of economic indepence. We are guided by the old the old saying, "When you give a man a fish he will eat for a day. When you give him a fishing rod and teach him how to fish he wil eat for a life time." This holistic approach ensures that people like Tendai have enough food to eat and looks out for their long term economic propspects.

Though we are making progress  we still have a long way to go reach our goal for this project.

We thank you so much for your support as we help Tendai and many other women who are in the same predicament.

Best wishes for 2014

Yours sincerely,

Thelma Sithole

The majority of women in the rural areas are disadvantaged educationally and economically. They rely on agriculture as their only source of income. They work very hard spending long hours in the hot sun tending their crops. Unfortunately, for the past six years this area has experienced prolonged droughts. Despite working hard these women end up with no crops. Since agriculture is their only source of income, they have no food to eat and they have no way of meeting their basic day to day needs. Without any income they cannot afford to send their kids to school. It is very sad to see most of the families who were once self sufficient but are now drifting into poverty. This situation has been exacerbated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic which has rapidly become a woman's disease. Women living with AIDS are struggling to support their children and they cant even afford the cost of receiving treatment. These women do not want to rely on outside help in pepertuity - they are willing to work hard to lift themselves out of poverty. All they need is help to get back on their feet.

Our goal in introducing this project is to alleviate hunger and poverty by promoting self-sufficiency and to improve womens health as well. We strongly believe that improving the socio-economic status of women in the developing world is key to ending global poverty and to improve womens health. Restoring dignity and hope to disadvantaged women not only empowers them to live up to their full potential but it also strengthens the entire community. Families are healthier and more children attend school.

An Individual Story
Tendai is one of the women who will benefit from the Mushroom Project. She lives with her daughter and two grand daughters. Tendai is struggling to make ends meet. Without outside help Tendai and her family can easily drift into poverty. Fortunately, Tendai is one of the benefeciaries of the shipments of much needed items we send to Zimbabwe every year. Tendai has been receiving food and clothing from the foundation for the past 6 years.  She spends hard days in the hot sun tending crops that she is growing to provide a meager amount of food for herself and her children.  After the long day of tending crops, her day is not done.  Instead of resting to recover from the hard work in the sun, she spends her evening hours making clay pots to earn the money to buy the necessities for her family.  Sadly, despite working hard she usually ends up with hardly any crops due to drought.

Tendai represents what life is like for the majority of women in these rural areas. 

Though we help people with food and clothing during times of crisis, the Tekeshe Foundation firmly believes in lifting people out of poverty and building a culture of economic indepence. We are guided by the old the old saying, "When you give a man a fish he will eat for a day. When you give him a fishing rod and teach him how to fish he wil eat for a life time."

Our goal in introducing this project is to empower women like Tendai to become self-sufficient.   Sadly we had to put this project on hold until we raise enough funds to dig a borehole and to purchase a refrigerator.

We kindly ask you to help Tendai and many other women who are in the same predicament.