Chronicle Editor
Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
THE Midlands Black Rhino Conservancy (MBRC) has handed over small grain inputs to families located within and around the conservancy as a way of mitigating hunger through farming.
The donation by the conservancy, located along Mvuma Road in Kwekwe, saw over 2 000 families receiving cow peas and sorghum seed as the conservancy promotes the farming of climate change resistant crops.
Last Friday’s donation of the seed is part of a bigger initiative where every household will receive a hunger mitigation package for the next three months as well as a school feeding pogramme that will see every learner being fed at school.
Speaking during the official handover MBRC chairperson, Mr Garry Killilea said the donation valued at about US$190 000 was made possible by their Australian based partners, Charitable Fund of Australia, who pledged support to the community after visiting the conservancy last year.
Mr Killilea said in their quest to protect the black rhino and the environment, the MBRC was not ignoring the plight of the people near the conservancy as they try to minimise situations that may result in poaching of the wildlife and destruction of the environment.
Besides the rhino, the conservancy is also home to wild animals like kudu, zebra, giraffe, elephants and a variety of snakes amongst others.
“We want to continue working together with our community hence we have lined up a number of projects for the benefit of the community.
This is why we also developed the Community Development Centre within the conservancy which will, amongst other things, offer environment and wildlife conservancy courses to the community and learners.
We have also come up with hunger mitigation measures so that we empower our community,” said Mr Killilea.
He said besides the food handouts and seed donation, the MBRC was also embarking on other projects like making and donation of reusable pads and reafforestation projects.
The MBRC through the Community Development Centre is making reusable pads which are being distributed to girls within schools.
“We have started distribution of the pads and we will intensify it when schools reopen. We have also started a reafforestation project where every household is expected to collect trees from our nursery for planting at their homes.
“We have fruit, exotic and indigenous trees that will be made available at our nursery so that we protect our vegetation,” he said.
Mr Fred Zinhanga of Community Technology Development Program which was contracted to distribute the donation said the initiative was meant to improve livelihoods through farming.
“We are handing over small grains like cowpeas and sorghum which are expected to be ripe within three months.
During that time when they are waiting for their crops to mature, we will support about 2 000 families with cooking oil, mealie meal and sugar beans as a hunger mitigation method,” said Mr Zinhanga.
He said they were also embarking on Covid-19 prevention through water and sanitisation within schools and the community.
“Through the water and sanitation programme we are drilling boreholes within the community and schools to ensure that they have clean water. We are also providing sanitizers as well as soaps to encourage cleanliness,” he said.
Formed in the 1980s, MBRC is the only conservancy which has black rhinos in the Midlands Province.
It started off with about 50 rhinos but as more families settled within the conservancy, the rhinos’ numbers were reduced to about 3 due to poaching and fighting amongst themselves for territory.
Online Reporter