Making Zimbabweans Fit for Life

Desire Ncube
“The Fit for Life programme, which empowered about 31 000 rural young farmers, is a timely programme that has already capacitated the next generation of farmers and has produced relevant people for our present society.
THE Primary and Secondary Education Ministry, Zimbabwe Farmers Union and other stakeholders last week officially launched the Fit for Life programme which has enrolled over 31 000 rural youths over two years and is set to end next month.
Vulnerable children, mainly academic school drop-outs, were enrolled in agricultural technical skills, bridging courses and employability prospects over a two-year period with the first class set to graduate next month.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora said the programme had capacity to restore the nation’s pride as the breadbasket of, not only Sadc, but the entire Comesa region.
“Realising this, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education launched the curriculum review process early this year to explore means of mainstreaming key activities such as agriculture into the formal school structure.
“This underlines the importance of agriculture in the eyes of Government. This programme brought a unique angle of an inclination to agriculture.”
He said agriculture remained the mainstay of Zimbabwe’s economy and was key to socio-economic transformation.
Dr Dokora added that the Fit for Life programme was central to generating knowledge.
“The Fit for Life programme, which empowered about 31 000 rural young farmers, is a timely programme that has already capacitated the next generation of farmers and has produced relevant people for our present society.
“Roughly 70 percent of African farmers are 50 years and above, and this is worrying as the United Nations has predicted that the world population will grow with approximately 2,5 billion by 2050.
“This would mean, greater population density, and more demand for food,” said Minister Dokora.
He said in a bid to demonstrate their seriousness, his ministry will assist young farmers nurtured by the programme, conquer various challenges which include difficulties in accessing credit, means to productive assets, equipment, machinery, low productivity, information about markets and strategies to penetrate markets.
“The programme has allowed my ministry to interact with disadvantaged youths and the ministry was prompted to probe further the level of drop-outs from the education system to-date.
“The Fit for Life programme brought back hope firstly to the children who had probably thought ‘education is for a select few’, the parents who carried the emotional torture of not being able to provide for their children and the community which has benefitted immensely from this project,” he said.
Dr Dokora said there was urgent need to create a revolving fund for graduates from the programme to turn their ideas and knowledge into action. “Skills from this programme should be equally rated as any other qualification, but concerted efforts to build this brand will be required,” he said.
ZFU executive director Mr Paul Zakariya said of the 31 000 registered students, 23 000 successfully completed all courses.
“We shall encourage more partners to fund the programme because if nothing is done, the lives of the children who have dropped out of school will be doomed. We are saying those children can be fit for life again,” said Mr Zakaria.
ZFU president Mr Abdul Nyati added: “I am particularly inspired by the words of Jim Collins, which say ‘we succeed at our very best only when we help others succeed’.
Indeed the Fit for Life programme set a platform for our young people to succeed.”