Mwenezi Development Training Centre (MDTC) has said it is implementing food assistance for assets project to address immediate food needs of 2,000 households in Zimbabwe‘s drought-prone areas.

Development Diaries reports that MDTC is implementing the project with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the World Food Programme (WFP).

Data from WFP shows that during the 2022–2023 lean season, more than 3.8 million people in rural areas faced food insecurity at peak.

SDG Two: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

‘We are currently implementing the food assistance for assets project which is addressing immediate food needs of 2,000 households in four wards of Mwenezi while constructing productive assets that will enable the communities to be resilient to shocks and stressors in the future’, NewsDay quoted the Executive Director of MDTC, Promise Makoni, as saying.

‘We are drilling three boreholes and installing four solar-powered pumping systems’.

It is understood that the project is designed to also provide clean and safe water to 524 schoolchildren at Matande Primary School.

‘We are going to establish 2,000 handwashing facilities at household level’, Makoni added.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), the availability of water is vital in food-insecure districts as the lean season starts.

The lean season comes after food stocks dwindle sometime after harvesting, a situation which normally becomes more severe before and during the summer cropping season when vulnerable families often skip meals.

Photo source: Swathi Sridharan (ICRISAT)