EACH Primary and Secondary Schools in Kilwa District, Lindi Region is now required to establish a school garden for organic vegetable and sorghum farming.

The initiative aims to provide school pupils with nutrition meals while at school to improve their academic performance, earn cash for school’s development, increase attendance, enhance concentration, and help school pupils meet their dreams.

Mwanaid Bilali, Chairperson of the Dira Yetu Initiative said this yesterday when speaking with journalist about what have been done since was received training on organic farming so that they can impart this knowledge to others.

Establishing an organic garden will help school pupils to actively learn about organic farming from an early age and grow up with a vision of a greener planet.

Additionally, the schools will produce better leaders, businesspersons,   and experts who are more intelligent in organic farming.

This will contribute to transforming farmer’s mindset, promoting healthier eating in the community, protecting the environment, and improving soil fertility.

“To start with, we have visited ten primary schools and one secondary school to educate them about organic farming, its benefits for school pupils and the environment we live in,  and how  it can help them to grow food and vegetables, boost academic performance, and generate income for school’s development,” she says

Through the knowledge and skills gained from the experts, some schools in North Lihimalyao have successfully established school gardens for organic sorghum farming and managed to produce 250kg of sorghum. The yield was very low due to flood damage that occurred during the last farming season,” she says.

‘We encourage them to plant a sorghum seed,, that takes three months to mature and  be ready for harvest,” she says.

This has been possible through Kilwa Local Rights Programme (LRP) project, under this project,  youth from different villages received training in organic farming and shared their knowledge with school pupils and farmers.

Apart from that, sorghum is commonly known for its drought-tolerance, ability to cope with climate change, and it can be used for nutrition, animal feed, industrial purposes and is adaptable to challenging conditions.

“For schools willing to get involved in this farming, we help them access sorghum seeds,” she says

“We have decided to introduce this initiative after discovering that, many parents in Kilwa district do not want to contribute food to the school, saying it is due to poverty,” she says

Makame Juma, the executive Secretary of Dira Yetu Initiative says, this year, we have also organized ActionAid-Kilwa Cup - District - Wide Sports and  Advocacy Bonanza to bring together young people and the community at large to encourage youth  to use social media to share information, seek development-related content, and uplift themselves economically.

Also use the social media to search for development opportunities that can help  them achieve what they need and fight poverty in their community, 

He says,  that many young people use social media, but they do not use it for developmental purposes.

"We also taught them about issues related to Gender Based Violence (GBV)," he says. 

He expressed thanks to Actionaid - Kilwa for their financial support that has helped them to provides education to youth and organize a Bonanza. 

Recently, they  also organized a Zoom meeting to discuss issues concerning youth using social media to report and share information about the challenges they face in their areas, and to find solutions to those challenges. 

The discussion was good and brought positive results, Many youth participated, a total of 37 youth from Njinjo, Miguruwe and Mandawa took part, and 16 youth from  Njianne, Singano and Matandu villages  joined using their phones. 

Juma says that the purpose of the Bonanza  event was to bring young people together because through football, it becomes easier to reach many youths and provide them with education. It also becomes easier to achieve the intended goals, such as offering education related to gender-based violence (GBV), the proper use of social media, and other issues.

“We decided to provide this education because young people are the main victims of GBV incidents, such as domestic violence, rape, violence against children committed by youths, teenage pregnancies, and incidents of sodomy and sexual assault,” he says