Kufunda Learning Village

October 2004 Update

Dear Friends, Included is an invitation to join us at Kufunda for an event next year, stories of our community outreach and follow up journeys; our compost toilet programme, Friends of Kufunda support; HIV/AIDS at Kufunda; Kufunda Open Days; the new Kufundees and more good stuff.

It has been an exciting and full two months since we last sent you an update.

Kufunda African treasures Learning Journey March 2006

It feels like the time has come for us to open our doors to friends of Kufunda from around the world. It is therefore our immense pleasure to invite you to join us for an African Treasures Learning Journey based out of Kufunda in March 2006 (exact dates to be announced). The event will be an opportunity to experience the richness of African community, culture and wisdom as well as the mundane, but somewhat special, every day life in the village. We will be spending time living and working at Kufunda, we will visit and engage with some of our partner communities, exploring with them the learning that they are going through as they are pursuing sustainability, working off traditional knowledge and wisdom, and we will take a few days visiting a game reserve to also connect with the beauty and magic of the African land and wildlife. The journey will seek to explore what Kufunda and more importantly Zimbabwe and Africa have to offer the world - what can we learn as we venture into Africa? We are just in the early stages of planning this journey, so more information will be forthcoming. Please do let us know already now if you might be interested in joining us for around 10-14 days in March of 2006.

Community Outreach and follow up journeys

Driving the pick-up along a small dirt road in rural Zvimba. 10-12 community organisers are sitting at the back of the truck, singing loudly and cheerfully. It is hot. The colours of the red dirt, the blue sky, the green trees are clear and strong. I feel happy to be here. We are driving to see the 8th compost toilet on our tour of new toilets being built in the community by the community. They too are happy, and proud for their results.

Driving the pick-up some weeks later in Tandi, this time going from garden to garden. The community organisers are sharing the new organic garden initiatives that they have started - some individually, some in groups. There are some lovely organic gardens emerging. All we (at Kufunda) have done is plant the seeds - much of what they are doing is integrating traditional farming methods that were left behind in the last decades through the encouragement of both the Rhodesian and Zimbabwean government to practice mono-farming with chemical pesticides and fertiliser.

We have done trips to each of our five partner communities to see what is happening now 4-6 months after their work at Kufunda. There are stories of progress, and of challenge, of partnership and of strife. For us it have been an incredibly rich set of journeys - teaching us more about the challenges and possibilities of supporting community led change work. (we will shortly be sharing our learnings in more detail for those interested). We have decided that one Kufundee will visit each community one a month to keep the relationship alive and to be able to continuously respond to needs in the work as it progresses. Tsisti, Fidelis, and Ticha are our three community contact persons from Kufunda. Our first bigger collaboration with the community organisers is a compost toilet competition and event.

Going further with the arborloos - the toilet that becomes a tree

Each of the communities that we are working with is excited by the affordability, the simplicity and the additional benefit of the compost toilets - once the toilet is full, the entire structure can be moved to a new site, and a tree can be planted in the full pit. However due to the current situation in Zimbabwe it is still difficult to get people to go out and buy the expensive cement for something that they are still not entirely sure about. Our idea is to support the communities in spreading the knowledge and belief in these toilets, by investing in a number of compost toilets (100) such that they can become known, and seen to work, and then our hope is that more people will begin to make them on their own.

The initial programme to spread the knowledge and hopefully excitement around the toilets is a compost starter kit competition. The community organisers that we work with are organising the competition where 15 winners will win a compost toilet starter kit. We have worked with Peter Morgan to improve our technique and we have reached the point were for just 10 USD we can provide a starter kit, which enables a family to build their own toilet.

The competition is based on collecting seeds from indigenous trees as this is the best time of the year to do so, and Kufunda is also working with communities on afforestation. Thus the people who collect the most good seeds, with the greatest diversity will win a compost toilet starter kit. They get to keep the seeds, and the winners will be announced during a one day event where there are both compost toilet building demonstrations and mini nursery technique training.

We look forward to reporting the outcomes. The first such event has just taken place in Mhondoro, but I am typing this update from South Africa, so I don't have the very latest news.

Kufunda Open Day

Sitting down to eat yet another Kufunda meal. This time not with our typical guests of community organisers, but with friends from Harare. It is our first open day at Kufunda, and It was a lovely day. Gita and team cooked Sikhethiwe's delight, bean fritters, pea samoosas, and spinach gado gado - all using ingredients grown at Kufunda or our partner communities. Visitors from town joined us for a day of local music, Kufunda food, and each others company for what we hope to be the first such event of many more to come. It is a great way to share our work with Friends, other NGO's, and others who may be curious at to what we are up to at the Village.

Follow Up Workshops

Walking through the village, 35 people from our partner communities and Kufunda itself - divided into three groups, tasked with improving the design of the village, working off permaculture principles, encouraging waterharvesting, and planting close to sources of grey water, growing fruit trees for shade and food, and so on. We are in the middle of a five day workshop on sustainable agriculture. Tayero Kamero, an old permaculture fundi is our teacher for the week. Alongside the community organisers, Kufunda took important steps forward in our understanding of integrated land use and design. The week before Barnabas from Environment Africa introduced us to the world of bee keeping, and before that a tree nursery techniques workshop (each one week), again with our partner communities. Lots of good learning going on.

New Kufundees

Gita is back at work. Claudia from Germany has joined the permaculture team and is already stepping with big bold footsteps in peoples heart. She is a sunny being. Gary and Heather are joining us in October for a year. Justin from the US is coming for a few months, and there are several others who have expressed interest in coming. The Kufunda team is growing, and thus far everyone who has come has brought much to the village with their skills and person.

HIV/AIDS work at Kufunda

Lorraine, HIV positive, has just joined our team. It is important to mention that fact because people are not talking about HIV and AIDS. It appears to be easier to pretend that it is not happening. To pretend that it is not killing thousands of people each week. Lorraine and Sophia, both a part of the nearby Ruwa/Seke community, decided to get tested during the Kufunda programme, with four others. They were positive, and they had the courage to share it openly. Initially people thought they were joking. We decided to support them as best we can. They have started an HIV/AIDS support group run out of Kufunda. Lorraine has joined the Kufunda team, and Sophia is joining the Kufunda veggie basket project (producing and selling organic produce). Both of them are committed to making HIV and AIDs something that we are not afraid to face - as this is the first step to really dealing with the pandemic.

Friends of Kufunda stepping forward

Finally many words of thanks from friends who came through with additional support in our time of need. Our financial situation was improved with the contributions from Friends of Kufunda. In total the response to our request brought us almost 9000 USD. We are still short of our full budget to take us to the end of the year, but we have a pledge for an additional 8500 from a partner (to be announced once it is confirmed), and we are running a learning journey with the Berkana Exchange, which will bring us an additional income. This will leave us just breaking even, though without being able to buy the school bus. If you would like to contribute to the Bus project, please email me for more details on the easiest way for you to contribute.

Thank you to:

Whit Jones and partner, Florian and Barbara Rahman, Toke Moeller, Berit Svendsen and Kenneth Boeggild, Steve Ardlard, Chris Marsden, Zoe Nicholson. Roy and Amy King, Janice Digirolamo, and once again thank you to Andy Neale, Satu Kreula and James Shaw for their fundraising hike, which raised almost 1000 GBP. Feel free to contact me if you would like to do a fun fundraiser with friends dedicated to Kufunda.

Good News:

I finally received news from Ashoka, and I have been accepted as an Ashoka fellow, as a social entrepreneur (www.ashoka.org ). This means connected with a network of fellow social entrepreneurs in southern Africa, as well as the rest of the world, receiving a stipend for 3 years, and having the honour of officially being seen and recognised as being a social entrepreneur.

And with that, it is time for me to pen off, to send out the newsletter (from the speedier Johannesburg internet connection) and to head back to Kufunda where this week we are hosting a 'Living Positively with HIV/AIDS' workshop, and soon thereafter are welcoming Berkana Exchange (US) for a week of engaging with the community organisers and Kufundees,

Much love to all of you,

Marianne