Arise and Shine
We mentored Arise and Shine, helping young women in Zimbabwe grow a garden — and with it an income, new skills and independence.
GTT was a mentor for Arise and Shine, a project for young female school leavers in Zimbabwe led by Annele Sibbs. Its objectives are to create a supportive environment for girls to grow, to develop entrepreneurship skills, and to help each girl flourish socially, physically, emotionally and economically.
The project put those aims into practice through something GTT knows and loves: growing things. Using tools sponsored by GTT, the girls in the group started their own garden. They sold some of their produce in the local community and kept some for their families — earning an income, learning practical skills and putting food on the table, all from the same patch of earth.
Arise and Shine was approved by the village elders in November 2018, and the local forestry donated fruit trees to the group for their garden — a wonderful vote of confidence, and a gift that would keep giving for years to come.
Sadly, like several of our projects around the world, Arise and Shine was stopped by the Covid-19 pandemic. But it stands as a lovely example of what conservation-minded projects can do beyond wildlife alone: a garden can grow confidence, independence and opportunity just as surely as it grows vegetables.