BORESHA LISHE: REINSTATED HOPE, NO MORE STUNTING: Sakina, 33

Access to dietary diversified and nutritious food is a longtime dream for villagers in Singida district. Sakina, 33 was born and raised in Sekotoure village in Singida district before she got married as a second wife and moved to Magu district in another region.

“…I had no choice but to accept the marriage. I had stayed at home after finishing standard seven for several years and getting marriage was the only solution my parent could think of…” Sakina stated

As days pass by, life became harder for Sakina as she had already gave birth to four children. She experienced different kinds of violence from both the husband and the first wife. She was determined to leave but she was scared and felt appalling until one day when she decided to run back to her mother. She took her last two children and left the first two.

“…When I arrived back home, my mother accepted me. I started my life as a single mother who strived to look after her two daughters. I started a small retail business of selling tomatoes, onions as well as vegetable with the small amount of money I had. These items are very scarce here but with high need especially during summertime” Sakina said.

One day Sakina meet up with Boresha Lishe team including the promoters who were on a mission to parenting groups around her village. The team informed her about the project and how she can benefit with the knowledge offered especially on addressing climate change by establishing home gardening through demonstration plots lessons. She was informed that by following the practice she can access safe, nutritious and diversified food as well as increase her income through selling fresh vegetables from her home garden despite the dry weather and she could also join the VICOBA group and start accessing financial services including a loan to expand her business.

“I felt so good hearing all that information. I felt like it was a dream coming true”. Sakina happily says.  She carries on saying, “I received a number of training on modern home gardening facilitated by Boresha Lishe promoters. All this motivated me to establish my home garden. I also accessed a loan from our VICOBA and used the money to expand my business. It costed me about 10,000 Tsh as labour cost to start my garden. I planted different vegetables from seeds I received from the programme and as you can see, now I have a very green garden and it is summer. My children can get fresh vegetables every day and their health have improved significantly only that they still have some skin hitches resulting from water scarcity but it is getting better as we have a constructed borehole brought by the programme. I am happy that at some point when things are tough I can sell some vegetables from my garden to earn an income. This project restored my hope and that of our whole community. The promoters including Care Group Volunteers (CGVs) have been really educative and supportive. I really appreciate”.

Sakina with her two daughters