Stoves transform women’s lives

freely speaks out her mind whenever she has the opportunity.
“Gone are the days when women from the rural areas were viewed as ignorant and lacking style. Just like the woman in the city, the rural woman has come up with ways to ensure that homesteads look good,” Bula recently said on the sidelines of a workshop held for stakeholders from various Government departments, journalists and the Gwanda community on climate change a few weeks ago.
She said unlike their urban female counterparts who have the resources to purchase lavish furniture, the rural woman is poor and cannot afford such.
“The urban woman has the advantage of magazines, home décor companies and the Internet at their disposal to emulate from,” said Bula.
She is one of the beneficiaries of the Homestead Development Programme (HDP), which has enabled their community to improve their living standards.
Initiated in March 1998, the Homestead Development Programme sought to improve poor living conditions that most rural people live in.
These conditions vary from colonial historical injustices, poverty, gender imbalances and poor land systems that resulted in low yields and consequently low income for those residing in the rural areas.
The HDP programme is funded by the Zimbabwe Women Bureau (ZWB).
ZWB director Mrs Ronika Matimba said they were receiving assistance from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and want to uplift the living standards of the rural populace through improved farming, to enable women like Bula to realise her wish of living in a comfortable home
“The programme focuses on improving family needs through already existing structures. Household food security has a positive impact on a family’s standard of living,” said Mumbire.
She added that capacity building for a community is crucial if any meaningful development is to be achieved.
“The organisation conducted several training workshops as a way of strengthening the position of women in society. The response was overwhelming as shown by the impact of the trainings on the overall lifestyle in most homes,” she added.
Thirty-four-year-old Dorcas Nyathi from Chief Mzimuni Masuku from Matabeleland South, a graduate of the HDP training workshops, boasts an improved homestead through the sale of tsotso stoves.
“ZWB through an organisation called Probec held workshops for women in our community on how to mould tsotso stoves. They taught us that we do not need a lot of money to engage in income-generating projects to sustain our livelihoods,” said Nyathi.
She revealed that she makes four or five tsotso stoves daily and it takes two days to complete the job .
“Tsotso stoves save firewood since they are built in a way that diverts heat direction,” said Nyathi.
“It takes two days for me to finish shaping up the stoves and about a week for them to dry. When they are dry, the stoves are placed in a pit and burnt to make them strong,” she pointed out.
Nyathi said she has since lost track of how many tsotso stoves she has made so far but she is proud that the project has improved her livelihood.
“My family has benefited from the sale of the stoves. This area is hard hit by drought as we receive very poor rain. I am happy that despite this dry environment, my children never go to bed on empty stomachs,” said Nyathi.
She said each stove costs US$10 and she sometimes travels to neighbouring South Africa and Botswana to sell her wares.
“The beauty of the tsotso stove is such that I can travel to South Africa and Botswana with just a handbag and make the stoves when I get there, I evade export duty because I cross the borders empty-handed,” said Nyathi.
Nornia Vela, who lives in the same area near Samloti Primary School, says the programme enabled her to make a set of sofas for her family.
She said it takes two days to complete one sofa, and unlike the tsotso stoves that are burnt after completion, the sofas are left to dry and polished with the desired colour matching one’s taste.
“The sofas are made in such a way that makes them stronger and take much longer than the tsotso stove to dry. There is no need to heat them but one can then polish them according to their taste,” said Vela.
Vela added that to liven up one’s homestead, cushions are placed on the sofas to enhance comfort.
Nornia’s husband, Isaac Vela, said most men in the area appreciate the positive impact of the programme on their community and their households.
“The HDP taught my wife effective water harvesting techniques. There has been reduced run-off that causes soil and sheet erosion at our homestead. Our home is neat and we are able to capture and save the little water that we receive in this area,” he said.
The HDP targeted an average of 50 families in Chinhamora, Gwanda, Harare, Inyathi, Masvingo, Mutoko, Sanyati and Zhombe and focused on three thematic areas, namely capacity building through training, information dissemination, advocacy, lobbying and networking, agriculture and nutrition and promoting women’s access to land in the land reform programme.
Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe Mrs Virginia Muwanigwa  said:  “Information relayed to the relevant communities is a guide to mitigate challenges while coming up with solutions at a community level.”
She said credit facilities in most furniture shops are such that someone with a payslip can access goods after paying a certain percentage of the cash price.
“This has seen most urbanites improving their standard of life as they are now able to purchase state-of-the- art furniture for their homes.
“Although one can argue that the facility is being utilised by a minority number of the working class,                  this seems like a fair deal since for someone who tills                      the land in Gwanda, improving one’s livelihood through credit facilities is nothing but a pipe dream,” she                  added.