Stanley Mushaninga

Lazarus Zenda is a forty-four-year-old man with a spinal cord injury living in a rural area of Mhondoro in Mashonaland West province of Zimbabwe. He is married and has three children. He had a life-changing accident that resulted in him using a walker. The injury left him with some residual movement in his lower limbs, and this has greatly improved his independence in daily living skills and mobility. However, Lazarus has beaten all odds and has set up a thriving micro-agricultural project that has helped him to be self-sufficient and also be a role model of people with disabilities in his community.

The accident and first contact with rehabilitation personnel
In October 2010, Lazarus fell down a well he was digging and hurt his back. He later spent more than three months in the hospital seeing various specialists. He was discharged in January the following year. He benefited from physical therapy at home from the local rehabilitation department and has since regained some movement in his legs. He currently uses a walker, and it also supports him as he works in his garden. At home, things did not go well for him as he struggled to move from being a sole provider of the family to being a person dependent on others for daily support. His wife and children struggled a lot to provide for the family. The local rehabilitation department then introduced him to a local developmental partner known as Ruvarashe Trust, which pledged to support his wishes of farming. The organization bought him a small generator, pump, and seeds to help him commence a micro-income-generating project of horticulture and animal rearing.

Results of assistance
Lazarus is now running a very successful horticultural project that is providing fresh produce for his community. He has since increased the size of his garden from a mere quarter of an acre to almost four fifths of an acre. Proceeds from the project have also enabled him to fence the entire plot and enhance the security of his produce. Lazarus has achieved his lifelong passion of utilizing his farming skills to provide for his family. His gardening project provided income for his children’s fees and for other monetary needs of his family. The farm uses mostly organic fertilizer generated from poultry and goats. Organic fertilizer has also been cheaper for him and facilitates project sustainability.
Lazarus mainly uses s manual method to fetch water from the well, as access to fuel is difficult and the generator is no longer functioning fully. His family members assist with fetching water, irrigating the plants, and taking care of domestic animals. He is making use of the experience he gained from working in commercial farms to make the farming venture more productive. Currently he has over fifteen chickens, thirteen guinea fowls, twenty turkeys, and fifteen goats. He is expecting three tonnes of maize and over forty buckets of sweet potatoes and three buckets of beans.

Impact of assistance
Lazarus is now a role model in his community because of his endurance and hunger for success. He has changed the status quo of people with disabilities in the area through challenging negative stereotypical behaviors that have been apparent in the community for so long. The project has moved him from being dependent on handouts from well-wishers to a well-respected member of the community who is contributing to his family and community development. Many people now realize the critical role of communities in the rehabilitation of people with disabilities. The local rehabilitation department now engages him in advocacy and awareness-raising activities in the community.

Challenges faced
Lazarus depends on a manual system to irrigate his crops from a well which is about fifteen meters deep. The system is very tiresome for him and his family. The well occasionally dries up, and this impacts negatively on his crop and animal output. He also faces challenges in transportation of his produce to the preferred markets as his ox-drawn cart has limited capacity to transport huge quantities over long distances.

Ambitions/ Aspirations
Lazarus aspires to be a leading supplier of fresh agricultural inputs in the area and the country at large. He hopes to get a borehole drilled and have irrigation systems installed so as to have a sustainable water supply and an opportunity to increase the size of his land under irrigation. He hopes that his business continues to grow so that he can afford a vehicle to help him transport his produce to markets in larger cities where his produce can fetch more money. Lazarus also hopes to employ youths in his area and empower them with farming skills he has gained.