39: Supporting Small Businesses
Zimbabwe
A Climate Pollinator story by Sierra Ross Richer
Like many in Zimbabwe, Sukoluhle Ncube splits her time between the city where her family lives and works, and the rural community where they farm, 40 minutes away.
“Most of the people have two homes,” Sukoluhle said. “In the town, you come and work and all that, but in the village that’s where we practice our agriculture.”
Sukoluhle has a degree in business management and information technology and is currently in the United States, volunteering at the Ten Thousand Villages store in Goshen, Indiana, through the International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP) of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). But when she’s home in Zimbabwe, Sukoluhle said, she spends most of her weekends and holidays working on her family’s plot of land in the village of Irisville.
Sukoluhle explained that instability in the Zimbabwean economy makes it hard for many to make enough money to live off of. Many families supplement their incomes by growing their own corn, finger-millet and sorghum, and raising livestock. But recently, changes in seasonal patterns due to climate change are making farming less reliable.
The World Bank reported that in 2020, almost 50 percent of Zimbabweans faced food poverty. The number has gone down slightly since the pandemic, but many, especially those who practice subsistence agriculture, still struggle to meet their needs. One of the main culprits identified in the report is drought.
“Climate change has altered the rain patterns,” Sukoluhle said. The rainy season used to start at the end of October and last until March. Now the rain often doesn’t come until mid-December and is over in a month.
“(The crops) dry out and die,” Sukoluhle said. “All this climate change, it affects a lot of people, even people in the big cities.”
Sukoluhle’s church, Brethren in Christ Church Lobengula, has started programs to help its members solve these challenges.
Ongoing projects are working with farmers to switch to more drought-resistant crops, like sorghum. Meanwhile, the “Empowered Worldview” initiative is helping members diversify their income.
For a year, the church held workshops teaching congregants skills for starting their own businesses. Then last May, the participants were invited to present their businesses at an exposition held after church.
On the afternoon of the Expo, 37 small business owners set up tables displaying their goods and services. The stalls offered everything from handmade purses to organic produce to welding services to cotton candy made on the spot.
“Usually we separate business from our everyday worship,” said Ntando Ndlovu, chairperson of the committee that organized the event, in a video on the church’s YouTube channel. She explained that the purpose of the Empowered Worldview project is to build resiliency by giving church members the skills, connections and markets they need to generate income.
The expo, Sukoluhle said “was set up as an effort to create an active business ecosystem, which will enable trade amongst congregants.”
“I think it turned out really well,” she said. “A lot of people came in; a lot of people felt so supported.”
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