The Power of Effective Partnership

Emmanuel Chiimba, Director of the Home of Hope Orphanage in Nyadire, Zimbabwe, visited the Pittsburgh area in late November and early December 2019. Dutilh Church had the opportunity to welcome and talk with Emmanuel several times during his stay.

Emmanuel shared with us some wonderful stories about and recent successes of Home of Hope.

One of Emmanuel’s stories is a perfect example of the value of our Nyadire Connection partnership and of how effectively the partnership works.

The story begins with Emmanuel identifying a need. Many people in Zimbabwe live with food insecurity. The Home of Hope faces similar challenges on an annual basis: How will we feed the children who are residents in the Orphanage?

The Home of Hope does have a large area of land, suitable for farming. In the Nyadire region of Zimbabwe, it is possible to raise two crops per year—one in summer and one in winter. If the land could be farmed, it would be possible to raise enough food each year to feed the children.

There is one obstacle: water. Winter is Zimbabwe’s dry season. The average rainfall in the five months of May through September: one inch. That’s it, one inch. Additionally, Zimbabwe is in the midst of an extended drought. Our mission team was in Nyadire in late June, 2019. It had not rained since Easter, in mid-April.

Keep in mind that Zimbabwe’s seasons are the reverse of ours. Our summer is their winter, and vice versa.

A problem was identified: inadequate food for the children in the Home of Hope. A resource was identified: good, arable land, and a nearby water source. An obstacle was in the way: insufficient rain, with no method for bringing ground or river water to the crops.

TNC leaders on the Zimbabwe-side and leaders on the U.S.-side began working together on possible solutions. One solution was quickly identified: some sort of irrigation system.

One of Dutilh Church’s mission team members was Scott Sanford. Scott is an agricultural engineer at the University of Wisconsin. He put together a design for a simple drip irrigation system and found suppliers in Zimbabwe for all the needed materials.

Thanks to the generosity of Dutilh Church givers, the budget for the mission trip had sufficient funds to purchase the needed supplies.

Once we arrived in Zimbabwe, Scott and the Nyadire staff purchased the needed supplies. Our team worked with Christopher, the head of maintenance for Nyadire, to install the system.

Christopher’s team of workers fabricated a steel stand and installed the water tank on the top of it. Scott showed Christopher and his team how to lay out the irrigation tubing in the fields and connect it to the water tank.

Our mission trip team left long before we were able to see any results. But Emmanuel has kept us informed, and the story has a successful ending.

The drip irrigation system worked as planned. Some crops were lost due to an unusual cold spell and frost, but the crop of potatoes thrived with the irrigation. At the end of the season Emmanuel reported a bumper crop of potatoes.

Emmanuel kept enough potatoes for the Home of Hope Orphanage’s needs, and was able to sell the remainder on the market. Enough cash was raised for Emmanuel to purchase seed and fertilizer for the coming summer planting season.

The economic conditions in Zimbabwe are deteriorating. Consequently, many areas are experiencing food insecurity. Prices for seed, fertilizer, and other needed inputs are rising rapidly as inflation gets out of hand. Due to that bumper potato crop, Emmanuel was able to purchase seed and fertilizer at a reasonable cost.

And that means that the Home of Hope Orphanage land will be ready to plant and harvest during their summer season. They do not have to worry about losing this crop to the current drought, since the drip irrigation system is in place and continues to function as planned.

This story is a textbook example of how The Nyadire Connection works to make a difference. A need and a problem are identified. Local resources are identified. Coordinators on the Zimbabwe-side and the U.S.-side work together to craft a solution.

We put our resources into play: knowledge and skill-sets, plus financial resources need to purchase equipment and supplies. Leaders and staff in Nyadire bring their local knowledge and the human power to put the solution into place.

Result: food enough to feed the Home of Hope residents for this year and many years to come.