Sizinda Garden is My Pension – Phiri

Bulawayo – Agnes Phiri, one of the women farmers at Sizinda Community Garden, an initiative of the Zimbabwe Development Democracy Trust (ZDDT) with partners GDG, Sally Foundation and DAP of Australia, has said the garden is now her pension from which she derives a living as an elderly person.

Phiri, pictured above in Sizinda, who is over 60, and other members of the community with beds at the garden, are growing chomoulier, cabbage, spinach, beetroot and other vegetables for a living.

“We sell all these vegetables to people in the community and, from this garden, I can pay for my electricity and buy bread,” she said.

“This garden is very important to me because this is where I earn my leaving; this is now my pension.”

She said her food also comes from the garden adding, as the Sizinda community, they remain grateful to ZDDT and Sally Foundation for the support the two organisations are rendering.

“Some of us are widows. My two daughters are married and have their own families and my son is in Johannesburg. I cannot rely on them because they also have their own plans about their lives. I am by myself; my husband passed away long back.”