A recently installed borehole has transformed the lives of villagers in Tshavhalovhedzi, outside Thohoyandou in Limpopo.

Tshavhalovhedzi is one of many villages within the Vhembe district which has not had access to clean drinking water and so efforts by the Mutshidzi Community Centre to uplift the community through farming and other initiatives has been severely hampered.

The Mutshidzi Community Centre consists of 14 members, offers skills development and home-based care as part of their goal to help uplift and end poverty for more than 300 needy villagers in the Tshavhalovhedzi area. Projects include chicken farming to produce meat and eggs and a food garden which provides vegetables for the local soup kitchen.

Centre manager Nicholas Ramunenyiwa said their efforts to uplift and end hunger in the community were hampered due to a lack of water but thanks to a recent donation by the Shoprite Group they now have boreholes offering a sustainable source of running water which is also available to local residents.

“We are grateful for these boreholes. We will now be able to plough our vegetables with ease, without having to worry about how we will be able to irrigate them. Ploughing our own vegetables is the only way we eradicate poverty for good,” said Ramunenyiwa.

Ramunenyiwa said the Mutshidzi Community Centre management had selected some poor families as beneficiaries of the programme.

“We have selected a group of the families that are living in poverty in this area, and as the community centre we are now able to assist them with the little that we are producing. We are currently working to ensure a consistent production rate so that we may soon be able to sell some of our fresh produce to retail stores,” added Ramunenyiwa.

Food insecurity is still a major challenge for most families in rural Vhembe due to high poverty and unemployment rates.