1 000 Matabeleland South women train in poultry rearing

MORE than 1 000 women in Matabeleland South Province have been trained on how to rear chickens in a programme that the First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe is spearheading.

A total of 390 women from Beitbridge District were trained on Tuesday, 298 women from Insiza, Umzingwane and Gwanda Districts were trained on Wednesday while about 250 women from Matobo, Bulilima and Mangwe Districts were trained yesterday.

Dr Mugabe embarked on the programme this year

On one sluggish Tuesday afternoon in Hwange, Matabeleland North province, Mrs Nothando Ndlovu could hear distinct flickering sounds from her bathroom window. She thought little of the sounds until she could smell some smoke. “I decided to peep through the window, just to find out if I was hearing things and got the shock of my life,” said Mrs Ndlovu.

Directly behind her house was grassland being consumed by raging flames.

“There’s significantly large grassland behind our house and it was burning. There was no way of telling who had started the fire but I noticed it was quickly spreading towards our house and my mind raced as I tried to figure out what to do next,” she said.

Worried that the fire would eventually raze her home and cars while she lounged in the bathroom, Mrs Ndlovu abandoned the bath and headed outside to investigate.

“The fire was spreading but I for some reason thought it would stop when it got to the perimeter fence behind our house so I kept watching it burn,” she said.

The fire had consumed much of the grassland and was thirsty for more vegetation.

“It started burning the trees and grass at our back yard. That’s when I realised I had a serious problem on my hands. At this point, I had told my husband who was at work about the fire but he thought I was being dramatic and didn’t take me seriously,” said Mrs Ndlovu.

She said she decided to take matters into her own hands and called the Fire Brigade before attempting to douse the flames herself.

Mrs Ndlovu was fighting a losing battle but fortunately, the Fire Brigade was at the scene just in time to save the day. and 3 000 chicks were set aside for each province to kick-start small-scale poultry businesses.

The programme is being run under the theme: “Empowering women for increased participation in the economy.”

Matabeleland South provincial Zanu-PF Women’s League chairlady, Cde Sister Moyo, said the province was happy with progress that has been made so far.

“The First Lady donated chickens to women in all provinces but she realised that there was a need for beneficiaries to be trained on poultry production. Women from Matabeleland South Province underwent their training this week which was being conducted by Irvine’s Chickens.

“We were anticipating that attendance at each training point will be around 200 but women turned up in large numbers from all seven districts in Matabeleland South Province as we trained about 1 000 women. We grouped our districts into three classes and training was done in Beitbridge, Gwanda and Plumtree,” she said.

Cde Moyo said Dr Mugabe realised that poultry production was a very lucrative business that could alleviate poverty among women mostly in rural areas.

She said the training programme is meant to equip women with skills on rearing chickens before they were distributed to them. She said Dr Mugabe through this programme sought to empower women economically so that they would not be dependent on men.

“Thanks to the First Lady, women have now acquired crucial skills on poultry production. Women that have undergone this training will become self sufficient and they will manage to put food on the table for their families. By next year June we want these women to have established lucrative poultry production businesses because of this programme.

“Women were being trained on the preparation process when venturing into poultry production, proper structuring and positioning of a chicken house, how chickens are maintained, how to protect them from diseases among other things,” Cde Moyo said. — @DubeMatutu