CHAPTER 6: ISSUES IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND GENDER MAINSTREAMING
6.3 Biographical profile of project participants
Table 6 and 7 below provide a detailed biographical profile of respondents who participate in gardening projects and their reasons for involvement in these projects. A brief biographical profile of this sample was given in Table 2 of Chapter 4. The respondents were comprised of mainly women and ten men (helpmates).
Table 6 and 7 below show the reasons given by women for joining gardening projects. These reasons were individual commitment, voluntary work, unemployment, vulnerability context, means of subsistence through income generation and consumption, availability of funding, religious motivation and availability of water supply. 50% of the respondents asserted that they joined gardening projects as a means of survival and it is sustaining their livelihoods. 24% of respondents joined projects because they are voluntary and open to all women in these wards and the availability of funds from donors and government. Some women reported that they joined projects because they were not employed.
Table 6: Basic information about women in gardening projects in ward A
Name Age Gender Years in
project
Reasons for involvement.
1 Admire 30 M 2 His wife joined gardening because it is a voluntary government project and open to all women but mostly unemployed.
2 Agnes 23 F 3 She joined the project because it is meant for all women in the community.
3 Berita 50 F 3 It is a project that introduced by church and the priest encouraged church members to join.
4 Caroline 38 F 2 She joined because her husband is the leader of agriculture and gardening projects.
5 Dexter 36 M 2 Gardening is a means of survival and there are free inputs and protected gardens which they cannot afford
72 6 Francisca 45 F 3 She has the ability and time to do gardening
and to provide vegetables for family and community.
7 Lucia 22 F 2 Motivated to gardening as survival activity and means of income generating
8 Ottilia 42 F 3 Joined gardening project because they are voluntary projects with free gardening inputs.
9 Tambudzai 28 F 2,5 It is an easy project to her and less labour required.
10 Telekai 36 M 2,5 His wife joined gardening project as she is not employed and this is her workplace.
11 Slavie 27 M 3 It is a project for all women, especially the poor, widowed and single mothers. So since they are poor the wife has to join.
Table 7: Basic information about women in gardening projects in ward B Name Age Gender Years in
Project
Reasons for involvement
1 Beauty 50 F 3 She was unemployed and wants something to do in her life. As woman she cannot just stay at home but she needs something to do and provide for the family.
2 Bridget 34 F 3 It is means of survival for her through income generation and family consumption.
3 Cephas 50 M 3 The wife is committed to work in any project that comes into the community thus why she is involved.
4 Constance 26 F 2 She reported that she has skills and experience in gardening.
73 5 Fadzai 20 F 2 The projects are voluntary and supported by
government and donors so she has to get involved.
6 Grace 38 F 2, 5 She gets involved without consent because the village headman submitted her name to the donors.
7 Make 47 F 3 Gardening is an extension of farming projects by Caritas to include gardening projects. So as a beneficiary of farming project, she gets involved in gardening as well.
8 Mercy 41 F 3 Involved in gardening for income generation as the products belongs to the producer.
9 Moses 23 M 2,5 The wife joined these gardens due to the availability of water supply and protected gardens unlike her home garden.
10 Muchaneta 29 F 2 In order for her to get free vegetables as they are expensive at the markets, she joined gardening.
11 Olivia 33 F 2 She joined the project to get vegetables for family as well as free gardening inputs.
12 Phone 25 M 2 Helping his wife who joined the project because of she does not have any source of income.
13 Tavonga 30 M 3 The church priest encouraged all women to join every project comes to community especially Caritas or CADEC.
14 Yeukai 45 F 3 Joined the project because it is voluntary women’s project.
Different responses were given by these women, for example Fadzai (ward A) reported that involvement is voluntary and open to all women. Cephas (ward B) said only commitment and time availability are essential for membership in gardening. Some said that involvement is politicised since they are government funded and most of its beneficiaries are supporters of the
74 ruling ZANUPF party. Berita (ward A) mentioned religious influence since the core founder of projects is CADEC10 which surrendered to another Catholic organisation, Caritas. Caritas and government are working hand in hand, funding, monitoring and evaluating nutritional gardening projects in these wards (National Gender Policy, 2013). The reason for studying women’s involvement in these projects is to examine if motivation and goals are being achieved and hindrances towards goal achievement. Sustainable gender mainstreaming projects must be built upon open membership to all despite vulnerability context, religious orientation and personal skills. The reasons given concerning involvement helped me to understand that these women are facing different challenges (structural, environmental and individual issues).
Figure 3 below shows the overarching issues that arose from the respondents who are participating in gardening projects and these issues informed themes of my research report.
These issues were reported as main challenges or barriers faced by women in nutritional gardening projects. The information provided by respondents is used to verify field notes taken during participant observation. Categorising the responses into themes and subthemes is done for organisation and readability of my research report. All themes and subthemes are presented in Figure: 3 below.
10CADEC means Catholic Development Committee and it is a committee that focuses on development and helping of Catholics who are vulnerable, thus orphans, poor, widows and elderly. This committee worked closely with Rushinga District for so many years and its programs included relief, food aid and development projects such as agriculture, piggery, poultry and bakery. CADEC has phased out and it is now working under Caritas which is also an international Catholic organisation.
75 Figure 3: Themes and subthemes that emerge from data collected from project participants