The Power of a Girl

When Forget was only seven years old, her mother passed away. She moved to her 86-year-old grandmother's house along with her cousin. Forget’s grandmother was very important to her and, in her eyes, was a superhero. She was the mother, father, and grandmother of the whole house! She wanted to ensure that Forget and her cousin had enough food to eat and that they had a good education. Her grandmother worked hard all day farming, and Forget and her cousin would join her in the fields so that they could afford school. 

 

A government school bursary and charity helped to contribute to Forget’s primary school education. When she was finished with primary school, she wasn't able to afford to attend secondary school because the costs were too high. So Forget talked to the school head and secretary about the problem. They told her about CAMFED and helped her get a spot in a boarding school.

 

Throughout Forget's secondary education, CAMFED provided her with a school uniform, stationery, school fees, and sanitary wear. On school breaks, Forget would live with the secretary, who felt like a mother to her. The secretary would make sure that Forget didn’t miss any days of class and provided her with personal items.

 

Forget was doing very well in school, but she still had a few family problems. Her older brother suddenly became ill, and Forget was the only one who could help her sister-in-law care for him. She stayed with them for a little while and missed her first semester of school. Even though she had to stop attending school, CAMFED didn’t give up on her. The District Officer helped Forget return to school. She passed her end-of-school exams and joined the CAMFED Association (a web of women leaders who have received from CAMFED for their education). 

 

Her new friends helped her through a confusing time after she had finished school and was looking for opportunities. Since Forget and her friends had similar backgrounds, they all understood each other's small challenges, like not having enough money to buy food. The sisters in the Association helped Forget with transportation to the CAMFED office, they shared their lunch with her, and helped her finish her university application. She eventually became a Mastercard Foundation Scholar studying Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources Management.

 

Forget was then accepted into EARTH University, where she decided to create her own business based on the climate-smart techniques she was learning. She realized there was a great demand for food security and waste prevention. Many rural African communities lose a large amount of their harvests due to an absence of cold-storage buildings. This hurts farmers, families, and communities as well as the environment due to the methane gas emissions of the decomposing produce.

 

Forget started Chashi Foods with some coworkers. Chashi Foods is an environmentally-responsible undertaking that creates natural, dried foods such as apples, tomatoes, bananas, pineapples, paw-paw, and herbs/spices. They create fair trade arrangements with rural farmers. Forget buys the produce directly from the farmers to make sure the food they are selling is healthy and helps create a good standard of living. Chashi Foods also provides food storage solutions to reduce emissions and waste.

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The CAMFED Association has helped Forget both learn and teach other people through a cascade system. Forget has studied with many other young women and knowledgeable farmers at EARTH University. She has also helped grow CAMFED’s climate-smart Agriculture Guide program, which she hopes to extend to 50,000 farmers.

 

Forget and her coworkers also created something called the Patsari stove. The Patsari stove is much more fuel-efficient and doesn’t need as much firewood; it also doesn’t release CO2 into the atmosphere. Team members work together to find different, effective methods of running an agricultural business. 

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Forget's business has been highly successful, and one of her EARTH University classmates, Esnath Divasoni, accepted an award as a representative of the CAMFED Association.

 

Most of the food in Africa is sold by women, and many factors can affect the supply. Climate change and weather can be a big problem, as it can adversely affect the amount of food grown. Also, at a young age, girls are given many other tasks needed to help the family. They are expected to collect water and firewood, watch the animals and crops, and take care of siblings. Many of these chores mean girls must drop out of school. But when a girl can’t get an education at a young age, it is much hard for her to get a job later in life. However, CAMFED is working to change that.

 

After a cyclone hit the Manicaland province in 2019, Forget joined the CAMFED Association efforts to make sure girls could stay in school. The flooding destroyed many crops, and there wasn’t enough food for the girls to eat. Forget and the CAMFED Association partnered with CAMFED Champions in the Mother Support groups to help families in need. They also helped provide and store food through climate-smart ways so people could adapt to the changes brought about by Cyclone Idai.
 

COVID-19 unfortunately hit Forget and her business hard. She tried her hardest to make sure that she supported farmers when choosing where to buy food. She and her company created a WhatsApp group to find people who could sell her food locally. They found new suppliers and stopped drying food because fresh food was highly desired. Forget and her business created a booklet on how to dry vegetables so that locals could dry their own food. This way, people could save and store their food for the future instead of having to eat it right away. 

 

Forget is a girl with a dream. She wants all women to share in the vision that all girls will become role models. She continues to collaborate with her sisters to make sure that every girl in Zimbabwe can live up to their full potential.