Chronicle Editor
Vusumuzi Dube , Online News Editor
A total of eleven children from Lupane District in Matabeleland North Province have vowed not to allow poverty to prevent them from attaining education qualification as they have embarked on an ambitious goat breeding project.
The group aged between nine and 17 from Holomoka area, Gomoza took a decision not to allow poverty to bar them from getting some form of education deciding to save US$1 each weekly, which has seen them able to buy a female goat each which they hope to breed into a considerable herd and thereby being able to fund their education.
According to their patron, Mr Mthandazo Gumbo, the eleven started with chickens but after breeding for some period they were forced to sell them after some of the chickens started dying due to a disease.
“They did not immediately share the money they had raised from the chicken breeding project but opted to invest it further by purchasing goats. They then realised that the money they had was not enough to purchase eleven goats, which is when from August they started to save US$1 each every week until now.
“Recently, they held a small function where they were distributing the eleven goats among themselves and since all are female goats, the expectation is that they will soon have kids and the cycle continues until each of the members will have a considerable herd which they will use to fund their education,” said Mr Gumbo.
The eleven attend Makhekhe Primary, Gomoza Primary and Sibambene Secondary schools with the youngest being in Grade 2.
“This is a good initiative that can teach our children to be hands-on and move forward with the Government’s mantra of ‘ilizwe lakhiwa ngabaninilo’. My call to everyone is that let us catch them young, so that we build our nation from there.
“What is inspirational about this project is that we are already teaching them, from a young age how to turn livestock breeding into a commercial entity. My wish is that if they could get professionals who can come through and assist them on commercial goat breeding because for now we are using indigenous knowledge to further the project,” said Mr Gumbo.
Sunday News also spoke to their mentor, Mrs Fungai Nyoni who revealed that when she started the project with the children, her aim was to show them that they could make a living in Zimbabwe without necessary crossing the borders to seek opportunities.
“When we started with the chickens, we were selling the chicks at US$2,50 each, at the same time the group was continuing in making their US$1 a week contribution since January. People would also come to borrow the money from our ‘bank’ where we would charge them a 10 percent interest.
“Now with the eleven female goats, which we have, we are looking at getting a male goat which will assist in the mating process.
“We are confident that in the next few months the eleven goats will have grown into a considerable herd,” said Mrs Nyoni.
“In our area, we noted that a lot of our children drop out of school, go to South Africa, partake in a life of crime and mostly come back in a coffin, which is what then inspired us to start with these children, we want to show everyone that one can make money in their own home country, at the same time aiding its development.”
Online Reporter