Nutrition

The Malilangwe Trust, through its Nutrition Scheme, augments the basic nutritional and energy requirements for over 20 000 children, every school-going day. This is achieved by distributing mahewu (a nutritious drink) to 32 schools and 4 orphanages. The results are much-needed nutrition for impoverished children, as well as improved attendance at schools.

The programme runs in tandem with the Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health and Child Welfare to ensure that all the centres have potable water and appropriately trained personnel administering the project.

Each location has water samples tested to ensure a significant amount of potable water, required to mix the drink. Water hygiene standards are addressed through infrastructural changes carried out by the Trust and are re-tested every quarter for quality control.

Thirty-one custodians of the programme make and serve 300 ml of mahewu to every child, each school day. The custodians all attend training in food handling, health and safety. The Trust refurbished rooms at each school for storage and make-up of the mahewu, as well as supplied mixing buckets and plastic cups for all children.

Post distribution monitoring visits are conducted every month to supervise food preparation, observe patterns of mahewu consumption, capture nutrition records and cleanliness of utensils and storage facilities etc. In addition, The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare also conducts visits to each of the Nutrition Scheme’s sites.

Khomonani Women’s Garden was set up by The Malilangwe Trust to provide funding and support of a market garden, which is managed by a group of 21 women. The garden has a borehole, pump, solar power system, 30 000 litre water storage tank, gravity-fed canals and storage sheds.

In collaboration with AGRITEX (Agricultural Technical and Extension Services) the gardens have been further improved with development of crop plans, moisture and fertility retention methods, cropping rotations, and output market linkages. The Trust helps the women purchase seeds and necessities for the crops via a monthly subscription fee.

It is through their hard work, determination and management of this garden that the women of Khomonani can support their families with fresh produce throughout the year, as well as sell the excess to local villages.