Jackson had been unemployed since 2005. Buying food for the 5 people in his household was not as simple as going to the grocery store down the street. With the little money that he did have from a few odd jobs, he was having to pay to travel all the way to town ( 1.5 hours each way). In order to make these trips less frequent, he would buy vegetables to last for a month which meant he paying even more and the hassle of transporting large quantities. After doing all this, the money he did have, was never enough.

In 2013, Jackson joined the Thanda Agriculture program. Since then, he has attended 13 training modules and received 82 hours of mentoring.

“Thanda has taught me to jump at opportunity and work hard. They have taught me to farm organically.”

Jackson now has his own home garden, as well as a full hectare garden at the Thanda community garden, Gardenzima. He is producing much more than he can consume, allowing him the opportunity to sell most of his produce. He sells mostly to the community but Thanda guarantees to buy any excess produce that farmers are unable to sell or do not want to keep for their own households. Jackson is now able to not only feed his family, but earn a living as well.

“Thanda has instilled the love of agriculture back that was slowly dying in me” 

Jackson looks forward to expanding his home garden and agriculture training. He plans to get broilers (chickens) soon and buy chicken feed at the Thanda Agri Hub.

“Thanda is helping us young farmers to earn a living through farming. Thank you Thanda.” – Jackson

Want to help fund our Agriculture program for 2016? Make a contribution here