Twelve adolescent girls are about to become farmers. These twelve girls will learn that hard work, patience, care and love for the earth, and a good green thumb will produce food to feed the home where they live and will provide them with skills that will help them in their near and far futures.

At the Sandra Jones Center (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe), where these girls live, they believe in teaching responsibility and skills that help the girls provide for themselves.  No girl will ever leave the home without being prepared for the future, able to hold a job.  AFCA is part of this work by providing tools needed for such training.

In this case, AFCA has purchased a brand-new greenhouse and water tank, both of which have been erected and are now ready for use.  The girls will be planting cherry tomatoes as well as green, red and yellow peppers.  The young ladies in this vocational program will be growing the veggies from start to finish –

  • marking out beds,
  • planting seeds in seedling trays,
  • planting seedlings in ground,
  • fertilizing and caring for plants,
  • harvesting,
  • packaging,
  • selling,
  • eating

The girls will learn how to properly care for the plants, how to fertilize and irrigate them, how to spot disease and how to control it, when plants are ready for harvest, storage of fruits and vegetables, marketing and selling of veggies and seedlings, how to cook the veggies, and so much more.  They will learn patience and they will learn that with care, beautiful things will grow.  Above all of this, though, is the fact that these girls will know, once again, that they are loved.  They will know that people from far away know they are valuable and special and that we want them to succeed in life.  They will know that folks close to them care enough to put hours and hours of example and teaching into their lives.

They will feel dignity at having a skill that will serve them well for their rest of their lives.

Twelve girls are about to embark in the exciting adventure of learning how to grow produce in a greenhouse and we are proud to be on this journey with them.  If you’d like to support sustainable projects like this one, please donate today atwww.AFCAids.org. Now, more than ever, we need to stand beside children like these girls, letting them know we do care for them and we want them to become responsible adults who can take care of themselves.  AFCA stands in the gap for these kids many times – providing training, funding and help so that they can move forward, especially when their parents have passed away and the children have no one to help them.  We need your help to continue this good work!