Gardening Initiative at Catholic Mission in Zimbabwe Facilitating Pastoral Activities

Hwange, 26 June, 2023 / 2:29 AM

The gardening initiative at St. Mark’s Nagangala Catholic Mission of Zimbabwe’s Hwange Diocese is facilitating pastoral activities, the Parish Priest has said in a Monday, June 19 report. 

“We are in rural communities where it is difficult to get money. The best thing was to start working towards getting food and other necessities,” Fr. Brilie Tshuma is quoted as saying.

Fr. Tshuma explains that after identifying the need of vegetables in the locality, and being aware of the call for care of the environment presented in the May 2015 Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis “on care for our common home”, Laudato Si’,  the gardening project was undertaken in September 2022.

“When I came here, this place was bare, with no grass growing. The land itself was not favorable for gardening”, he says, adding that he took advantage of the underground water source and the water storage tank that his predecessor, Fr. Kolwani Nyoni, had facilitated in August 2019.

In the June 19 report, Fr. Nyoni is quoted as saying, “The first thing we needed to do was to drill a borehole to have access to water. We were happy that we found water.”

Fr. Tshuma shares the success story of the months-old gardening initiative that had community members’ participation, specifically in “digging the trench for laying pipes to draw water into the mission premise, as well as in getting “manure to fertilize the land”, the report indicates. 

“The proceeds from vegetable sales are used to buy fuel for the Priest to visit outstations, do minor repairs, buy food, and pay the mission helper,” he is quoted as saying about the garden project that started off with two beds that have since been expanded.

Tusimpe Pastoral Centre and local restaurants are among the regular customers of the Zimbabwean Catholic Mission garden project.

In the report about the gardening initiative, some “flowers and exotic trees” have planted in the garden “to revegetate the area”.

Apart from the vegetable initiative, St. Mark’s Nagangala Catholic Mission has also ventured into other projects, including poultry with broiler chicken, and the rearing of goats and pigs.

The report cites Fr. Tshuma encouraging members of Catholic Missions and Parishes of Hwange Diocese to initiate projects that can facilitate the pastoral ministry of the members of the Clergy, adding that communities in the peripheries have potential for productivity.