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Greenline Africa Trust: a better life in Victoria Falls

3/10/2018

6 Comments

 
Preschoolers at Dibutibu, Victoria Falls Zimbabwe
​By Roxanne Reid
The town of Victoria Falls Zimbabwe is a flourishing tourism hotspot, thanks to the Victoria Falls UNESCO World Heritage Site and a slew of adrenalin, safari and cultural activities that draw visitors to the area. But behind the scenes are many marginalised people, especially women and children. It’s for them that Greenline Africa Trust is working to create a better life through sustainable projects. 

​Charlene Hewat of the Greenline Africa Trust in Victoria Falls is a force of nature. In her younger days, she cycled from the UK to Zimbabwe to increase awareness about rhino poaching – and raised funds to do something positive about it too. This was back in the late 1980s, before rhino poaching was even the shocking scourge that it is today.

Later she started Environment Africa, a non-profit organisation that protects natural resources and promotes sustainable development. Once that grew from toddler to healthy adult, she decided to start over with something new. And so the Greenline Africa Trust was born in 2015, with the goal of better lives for marginalised women and children through sustainable projects.

Shelley Cox of Africa Conservation Travel, which tries to bridge the gap between tourism, communities and conservation, introduced us and we spent a morning with Charlene in and around Victoria Falls. We came away gobsmacked by the scope of Greenline Africa’s projects and its vision for a brighter future.
Greenline Africa Trust's community gardens at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Community gardens are supplying vegetables to Victoria Falls lodges
Community gardens
Our first stop, down a long and dusty road about half-an-hour’s drive from Vic Falls, was a community centre and garden project at Dibutibu. Along the way, Charlene explained that the aim was to create projects that link communities with business, especially lodges. For instance, the drip-irrigated gardens here produce fancy lettuce, beans, spinach, peppers, English cucumbers and other vegetables that are picked early in the morning and delivered to hotels and lodges in Victoria Falls.
Sustainable community projects, Victoria Falls Zimbabwe
Greenline Africa Trust's Charlene Hewat (left) with two of the gardeners at the community centre
The centre employs two permanent staff and pays a daily rate to other gardeners from the surrounding community. Greenline Africa also helps other farmers in the community to grow crops on their own land, bringing in seeds and helping with advice.

‘We still need a cold room but we’ve recently got funds to put in another borehole, which will double our capacity to a hectare under crops,’ she said. ​
Sustainable community projects, Victoria Falls Zimbabwe
The community gardens' Mike January prepares for a delivery to lodges in Victoria Falls
They were busily planting moringa trees when we visited. The leaves and stems will be ground and dried to powder that is very nutritious. ‘A case study gave a teaspoon of the powder in their porridge to children under five years old and noticed a significant increase in their weight. It also boosts the system to fight HIV,’ said Charlene. So there’s definitely a market for it in Zimbabwe and possibly other parts of Africa too.

Building preschools
Our next stop was a preschool at Dibutibu that the Greenline Africa team helped to refurbish. As we pulled up in a puff of dust, local women were weighing chubby babies on a tree outside. In the playground, preschoolers played on brightly painted old tyres. Some looked at us shyly, others grinned or giggled, clearly enjoying their new toys.
Dibutibu preschool, Victoria Falls Zimbabwe
A bright new playground for the preschoolers at Dibutibu
​Another short, bumpy ride took us to a prefab preschool at Chisuma, one of two that Greenline Africa has built from scratch with the help of Australian Embassy funds. It’s also decorated with bright figures, this time of wild animals like elephants instead of Dibitubu’s Pooh and Piglet. The preschool is right next to the local primary school, where Greenline Africa provided a borehole and two tanks so they could start a vegetable garden project.

Charlene pointed to the tiny clinic over the road. ‘We’re hoping to revamp that one day when we have enough funding, but in the meantime we donate birthing kits to expectant mothers.’
Victoria Falls preschool, another one of Greenline Africa Trust's sustainable community projects
This preschool was refurbished and made a fun place by Greenline Africa Trust volunteers
Sponsor a gogo
The community of Jembwe a short drive further into the bush from Chisuma is notably poorer. Here, Greenline Africa has started a project to support women in the community who have taken in orphans to raise with their own children. They have few resources but their big hearts. ‘We’ve worked with the communities to identify 20 women who need support but lack of funds means we’re only working with three so far,’ said Charlene. She calls this project ‘sponsor a gogo’.
Sponsor a gogo, a sustainable community project
Matilda's kids outside their hut at Jembwe
​She introduced us to Matilda, one of the gogos, who stood at the entrance to her hut surrounded by seven children, only three of them hers. Her living and cooking quarters were simple, her few possessions neatly piled against the mud walls. Pride of place in the sleeping hut was a double bed Greenline Africa donated. Still, many of the children have to sleep on the mud floor.

​
Charlene had brought food and some donated secondhand clothes. ‘We take visitors around to see these community projects, for which we ask them to donate a minimum of US$40 per person to pay for food packs. Sometimes, they also decide to give a few items of clothing when they leave,’ she explained.

I noticed that not every child got something. Not one complained – such a stark contrast with far more privileged children who would whinge loud and long at such ‘unfair’ treatment. It’s sad to see how these children already know that life isn’t fair.
Jembwe community, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Matilda inside the sleeping hut, showing off her new bed
Beekeeping
At boma overlooking a river gorge we stopped for coffee and biscuits while Charlene told us about Greenline’s beekeeping project. Bee fences have recently been erected to help keep elephants out of rural farmers’ crops, and beekeepers are being trained both to help with bee removal and to produce honey to sell to lodges and provide a sustainable living.
River gorge you can see when you visit sustainable community projects in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
The beautiful gorge view from the boma where we had coffee and talked about bees
Victoria Falls Recycling
Back in town, Charlene introduced us to the latest project, just two months old when we visited – recycling. It’s currently funded by Victoria Falls Safari Lodge and has three staff members. Hotels and lodges separate their waste into cardboard and plastics and drop it off at the centre. Youngsters from Greenline’s Youth Project help to further separate the plastics into six types. Then it’s passed through a baling machine ready to be carted away. A South African recycler pays for some of the baled materials, and some thin plastics are sold to Harare where a machine extrudes it into spaghetti and chips it into pellets to make new plastic bags. 
Victoria Falls Recycling, another of Greenline Africa Trust's sustainable community projects
Victoria Falls Recycling's staff (from left): Pasca Nyoni, Naomi Zimba and Moreblessing Ndhlovu
‘We also pay on the spot for people who bring in waste from the town bins or the dump, and we hope to expand to recycling cans and glass in the near future,’ she said. ‘Once we have more space, we’d also like to process some of the recyclables and make things like art pieces to sell to tourists.’ As with everything Greenline Africa touches, it’s all about sustainability. A percentage of the profits will go towards boosting environmental awareness.

The future
Future plans trip off Charlene’s tongue – growing limes for local lodges, a goat’s milk project to make cheeses, sewing and soap-making schemes. ‘We have a couple coming to the community centre to teach the locals to sew so they can earn a living. And we’re currently collecting used cooking oil from hotels and will also extract oils from the seeds of the Jatropha tree for soap-making. Initially, we’ll make soap bars to sell to the community so the business can be sustainable.’

She sees opportunities to uplift local communities at every turn. Greenline Africa has already done so much in its three short years of existence that I don’t doubt these schemes will all come to fruition once funds become available.

How can you help?
Follow Greenline Africa Trust's Facebook page to keep up with their current projects and see where you might be able to help, either as a volunteer giving your time if you plan to visit Victoria Falls, or with monetary donations for specific projects.

Like it? Pin this image! 
After you’ve done all the activities in the tourist town of Victoria Falls, put something back by visiting some sustainable community projects with Greenline Africa Trust, which is working to create a better life for marginalised women and children in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, through sustainable projects. You’ll visit a preschool, community gardens and participate in the sponsor a gogo programme. #VictoriaFalls #Zimbabwe #sustainability #betterlife #thingstodoinVictoriaFalls
You may also enjoy
Top 20 Victoria Falls activities
Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust: behind the scenes of your Victoria Falls safari 
Community guardians and mobile bomas cut human-wildlife conflict

Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
6 Comments
Corina link
6/10/2018 11:24:37 am

this is so up my street. Definitely pinning this for future reference when my kids are older and have more understanding. A trip everyone should add to their bucket list... great blog post!!!

Reply
Roxanne
6/10/2018 01:12:20 pm

I agree, Corina, that children from more privileged backgrounds should be able to experience what life is like for other kids, to help them grow in understanding and empathy.

Reply
Karen Rose link
6/10/2018 12:59:36 pm

What a wonderful idea and a great written piece. It's always wonderful to have inspiring travel ideas that sit outside the commercial tourism traps. Thank you for sharing!

Reply
Roxanne
6/10/2018 01:14:54 pm

I've enjoyed many of the conventional activities at Vic Falls, Karen, but also loved getting out into the rural areas to see what life is like for the locals. And a great way to give back is through registered organisations like Greenline Africa Trust. I'm NOT a fan of people who just pass out sweets without making projects sustainable for the long term..

Reply
Karelle Maya
4/7/2023 09:48:46 pm

I have a degree in Environmental Science and Health…..I would like to work for your organization

Reply
Roxanne Reid
6/7/2023 07:35:56 pm

I just wrote about them. If you want to apply for a job you need to contact them directly by using the website link in the second paragraph of this post.

Reply

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