Community gardens help in conflict resolution, unifying communities in Chikukwa

Thandiwe Mushingi (36), a mother of five and a farmer from Chitekete village in ward 10 of Chimanimani district under Chief Chikukwa. Thandiwe is the Chairperson of the Chitekete Village community garden working with PELUM Zimbabwe Member, CELUCT. Through including conflict resolution, community gardens in Chimanimani are now becoming sources of community cohesion and enabling communities to provide for their families. Photo: CELUCT

Community garden initiatives have become more and more popular in agricultural communities throughout Zimbabwe. One such initiative is led by Thandiwe Mushingi (36), a mother of five and a farmer from Chitekete village in ward 10 of Chimanimani district under Chief Chikukwa.

Thandiwe says the community garden has transformed her family and community’s livelihoods and helped alleviate tensions and solve disagreements in the community.

“Our group has 11 people; seven females and four males and l am the chairperson. I started doing community gardening in 2021 and since then I have been able to cater for my family. I used to struggle to send my children to school, since my husband lives with a disability, I have assumed the role of providing for my family,” says Thandiwe.

Samuel Chimbarara (39) is the field officer at CELUCT and says community gardening initiatives by farmers in Chikukwa are threatened by conflicts and his organisation is implementing conflict resolution techniques to promote sustainability of these programmes.

Samuel adds that the community garden in Chitekete village and others where CELUCT is working have been successful because of the inclusion of conflict resolution training.

“The main reason why community gardens fail is conflicts. We engaged Ward Peace Teams (WaPeTe’s) to help in resolving local conflicts, after that, we are seeing that the community gardens are flourishing and people’s livelihoods are changing,” says Samuel.

Thandiwe adds that whereas gardens were a source of division and conflict, with the introduction of conflict resolution, the community gardens are now enabling community cohesion.

“We sell our produce to CELUCT and the surrounding community and this has helped because every member is active in the upkeep of the garden. Community members are seeing the benefits from this garden and this has helped create a sense of togetherness,” says Thandiwe.

Chikukwa Chief, Percy Chikukwa (64) said community gardens are a good initiative that is benefiting the community.

“Most of the villagers are relying on community gardens. From my own point of view whoever doing community gardening is benefiting,” says Chief Percy Chikukwa.